SONG of the REDWOOD-TREE:
The Music of Sunny Knable
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, NYC
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 7:30 pm
Sunny Knable, composer
Scott Pool, bassoonist
Natsuki Fukasawa, piano
MSR Classics presents a concert of music by award-winning composer Sunny Knable in celebration of his album “Song of the Redwood-Tree”. Featured performers include bassoonist Scott Pool and pianist Natsuki Fukasawa who commissioned Song of the Redwood-Tree, a song-cycle on poems by Walt Whitman (sung by Stefanie Izzo), and The Busking Bassoonist. Also including new works for Parhelion Trio, Trio Cabrini, and Elizabeth Pitcairn, violinist of the “Red Mendelssohn” Stradivarius, with pianist Barbara Podgurski.
As Knable writes about his upcoming album: "If you had asked me 10 years ago what my second composition album would consist of, I would probably give you a lofty answer, like an opera or a symphony. I didn't know that this decade would define me as the composer of multiple successful pieces for bassoon. I had written for the often-underused bass instrument in woodwind quintets and large ensembles, but had never fully explored its soloistic capabilities until I had the good fortune of meeting the rollicking performer that is Scott Pool. What emerged from our friendship was the commissioning of two of my most proud and personal achievements: Song of the Redwood-Tree and The Busking Bassoonist which have been performed multiple times by Scott of his long-term collaborator Natsuki Fukasawa. Since then, I have gone on to write for bassoon in odd combinations including for the singing-bassoonist Gina Cuffari and for the sax/bassoon group, Xelana Duo. It's safe to say that this is only the beginning of a long relationship I will have with this instrument." Other works on this program will include Knable's chamber works which represent his versatile and high-caliber output.
PROGRAM
The Green Violin (2019)
a fantasy on an Irish theme
Elizabeth Pitcairn, violin; Barbara Podgurski, piano
…the Place of Longing (2019)
on the subject of immigration: loss, memory and the city
Trio Cabrini: Nuno Antunes, clarinet/bass clarinet;
Gina Cuffari, bassoon/voice; Vlada Yaneva, piano/accordion
The Busking Bassoonist (2013)
I. Underground Blues
II. Park Bench Ballad
III. Street Changes
a bassoon sonata on the New York experience
Scott Pool, bassoon; Natsuki Fukasawa, piano
INTERMISSION
Sundog (2014)
on the parhelion phenomenon
Parhelion Trio: Sarah Carrier, flute;
Ashleé Miller, clarinet; Andrea Christe, piano
Song of the Redwood-Tree (2013)
a song-cycle on poetry by Walt Whitman
I. A California Song
II. Death-Chant
III. Golden Pageant
Stefanie Izzo, soprano;
Scott Pool, bassoon; Natsuki Fukasawa, piano
