BMOP Celebrates The Jazz Age Of The 1920s With The Theremin

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the nation's premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music, begins its 24th season with a nod to the Jazz Age of the 1920s. The program's first half spotlights the preternatural theremin (invented in the 1920s) with the instrument's first concerto, written by Joseph Schillinger, juxtaposed with the world premiere of Dalit Warshaw's Sirens: A Concerto for Theremin and Orchestra, both performed by world renowned thereminist Carolina Eyck. The concert continues with three works representing the Roaring Twenties and its fascination with American pop culture: John Alden Carpenter's Krazy Kat and Skyscrapers, and Kurt Weill's Little Threepenny Music.

Led by Artistic Director and Conductor Gil Rose, BMOP continues to modernize orchestral music within the classical tradition as evidenced by this season-opening concert dedicated to one of the most forward-thinking instruments of the 20th century, the theremin. "The theremin, now almost 100 years old, still inspires a sense of awe," says Gil Rose. "This marvelous instrument is so versatile and visually compelling. Audiences love it!"

BMOP is joined by the world's leading theremin virtuoso Carolina Eyck. "BMOP is thrilled to be sharing the stage with this pioneer of the theremin." According to Textura, she "has done much to rid the theremin of its gimmick status and legitimize it as an instrument that can credibly take its place in any number of serious music contexts."

The theremin was invented in the 1920s by a Russian physicist named Lev Termen (better known as Leon Theremin). Notable for its eerie, otherworldly sound, this limitless instrument is one of the great figures in the history of music, influencing later developments in electronic and computer-generated sound. Russian composer Joseph Schillinger (1895-1943) collaborated with Theremin on a few original pieces for the theremin. Among those is the First Airphonic Suite that premiered in 1929 by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Written in a traditional romantic language, the piece is shaped into seven short, uninterrupted movements. 90 years later BMOP premieres the latest work for theremin and orchestra, Sirens, by internationally acclaimed composer, pianist, and thereminist Dalit Warshaw (b. 1974). Her music has been widely praised for its lyricism, unique orchestral palette, distinctive harmonic vocabulary, sense of drama, emotional intensity, and vivid portrayal of character. Having studied theremin with the renowned Clara Rockmore, she has appeared as theremin soloist with several orchestras, including BMOP.

Capturing the spirit of the Jazz Age are three more pieces written in the 1920s: Krazy Kat and Skyscrapers, two jazz ballets from John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951), and Kurt Weill's Little Threepenny Music. Based on the George Herriman comic strip of the same name, Krazy Kat (1922) abounds in Carpenter's lyric warmth, harmonic charm, and rhythmic vitality. Carpenter's Skyscrapers (1923-24) was composed as a portrait of "the many rhythmic movements and sounds of modern American life." A large, exuberant rhapsody, it moves from the frenetic sounds of Americans at work in the streets using machines, to the tawdry music of vaudeville. As Elliott Carter wrote, "In spirit close to the Reginald Marsh and Dos Passos pictures of the American 1920s, [Skyscrapers] evokes just as keenly as they do that boisterous brutal era of the mechanical heart."

Throughout the 1920s, German composer Kurt Weill (1900-1950) tapped into idioms from popular music, including jazz and cabaret. Little Threepenny Music (1929) for wind band collects eight songs from Weill's The Threepenny Opera, a collaboration between Weill and German playwright and theater director Bertolt Brecht. The opera, first performed in Berlin in 1928, presents a dark, tangled plot of beggars and thieves. Weill's score draws from jazz influences of the time and features the macabre "Mack the Knife."