"A new Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra composed by Danny Elfman for acclaimed British percussionist Colin Currie, premiering with the Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Carl St. Clair conducting.
Danny Elfman brings to Aliso Viejo the United States premiere of a brand new percussion concerto, co-commissioned by Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University and the London Philharmonic, performed by Colin Currie – as one critic put it, ‘surely the world’s finest and most daring percussionist’. The concerto will be performed with Pacific Symphony, under the baton of maestro Carl St. Clair."
"A new Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra composed by Danny Elfman for acclaimed British percussionist Colin Currie, premiering with the Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Carl St. Clair conducting.
Danny Elfman brings to Aliso Viejo the United States premiere of a brand new percussion concerto, co-commissioned by Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University and the London Philharmonic, performed by Colin Currie – as one critic put it, ‘surely the world’s finest and most daring percussionist’. The concerto will be performed with Pacific Symphony, under the baton of maestro Carl St. Clair."
*This is not the same as his Percussion Quartet (2019)
Excellent, glad to see that it's getting a US premiere (the UK premiere the other week was amazing). Can't wait for the recording... there will be a recording... right?! ;-)
If someone was born to write a percussion concerto, it's Danny Elfman. I love all the percussion in his PLANET OF THE APES score. Very much am I going to listen to this. :-)
I'm all on board for this as well. His independent orchestral works are always intriguing.
I also wish I could find it somewhere, but he had a wonderful percussion piece for the Tim Burton art exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011 - a section where there was a carousel had this incredible percussion and organ / synth sound. Always wished I could find a recording of that.
Definitely looking forward to this. Glass' "Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra" is one of my favorite pieces in the orchestral repertoire. Elfman's Violin Concerto is also on frequent play (a mix of his quirky writing with some stunning, serious moments as well). I say this to say that I think Elfman has the capacity to blend these and do something really special here.
I also wish I could find it somewhere, but he had a wonderful percussion piece for the Tim Burton art exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011 - a section where there was a carousel had this incredible percussion and organ / synth sound. Always wished I could find a recording of that.
I could be wrong but I think this may have been included somewhere on that mammoth Burton/Elfman box set, years ago...
I also wish I could find it somewhere, but he had a wonderful percussion piece for the Tim Burton art exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011 - a section where there was a carousel had this incredible percussion and organ / synth sound. Always wished I could find a recording of that.
I could be wrong but I think this may have been included somewhere on that mammoth Burton/Elfman box set, years ago...
Yavar
Ah, thanks Yavar! I think I found them then. Way less percussion than I remembered, but I think it was this:
Possibly mixed with this:
My imagination expanded it to be much grander, but it was also in-person with a cool carousel spinning.
Well you said LACMA and this is MOMA, so maybe not...unless you mixed up the two.
Yavar
It seems like it was a traveling exhibit that went to all the major art museums across the US, so I'm assuming it's the same. Parts of it sound familiar!
Does anyone know if any recording of this exists on YouTube? I've looked, but only found brief snippets (must not be confused with the percussion quartet!). Same for the cello concerto. "Wunderkammer" is there. Hopefully, these -- and other unreleased Elfman concert works -- will find their way to a proper album recording soon.
Does anyone know if any recording of this exists on YouTube? I've looked, but only found brief snippets (must not be confused with the percussion quartet!). Same for the cello concerto. "Wunderkammer" is there. Hopefully, these -- and other unreleased Elfman concert works -- will find their way to a proper album recording soon.
[Post deleted - sorry, I thought I'd found a link - turned out to be the Percussion Quartet.]
The violin concerto was released the week after Dumbo. The percussion quartet was released the week after Doctor Strange 2. I think they plan these so that Elfman can do promo for both/capitialise on the hype from a big score release.
Hopefully a recording of it by my home town orchestra will be forthcoming...
Outside the Reich realm, Currie’s forthcoming projects include an US tour with the Danny Elfman Percussion Concerto (2022). Written for Currie, the concerto project originated in a chance meeting with the percussionist and the composer during a film scoring session in London.
“This concerto came out of the blue for me. I was very honored that I was approached by Danny and his team. This is a very rewarding project, first of all because Danny is the most kind-hearted, adventurous and humble person. Working with him is a different process because although all the music is his, there’s a whole entourage of orchestrators and publishers involved. It’s a large operation; the kind of which you don’t find in “normal” contemporary classical music.
The piece is brilliant and very striking. Amazing harmonies! I really feel reminded of Schoenberg and actually, if you analyze it, you can see twelve-tone systems happening. However, the interesting thing is that there’s no way that the music was written using that system. But yet it worked! There’s a Venn diagram with Schonberg and Danny Elfman sharing ultimately the same notes but different system. It’s amazing!
Of course, he credits Shostakovich and Bartok as his favorite composers, so the piece has great depth and great quality. The music is definitely his own and it’s very catchy and brilliant. It’s a very satisfying piece. Ans a very challenging one, also. I really enjoy playing it, and I hope to hope to be able to release the recording soon. We made a recording with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in August. I don’t have more news on that, but it should be a nice recording.”
The opening movement of Elfman's percussion concerto was uploaded to Youtube 9 hours ago, but it's not available yet. This is presumably following the release pattern for his violin concerto which uploaded the third movement as a 'promo' track of sorts.
Sony Classical will be releasing the album, which also features Wunderkammer.
1 Wunderkammer: I 2 Wunderkammer: II 3 Wunderkammer: III 4 Percussion Concerto: I. Triangle 5 Percussion Concerto: II: D.S.C.H. 6 Percussion Concerto: III. Down 7 Percussion Concerto: IV. Syncopate 8 Are You Lost?
Fingers crossed for a CD release. We got one right away for the violin concerto, but the CD for Rabbit & Rogue came a few months after its digital release.
