Nashua Symphony - Orchestra & Chorus

Lior Navok (b. 1971): Selections from The Old Photo Box

"Imagine finding an old photo box up in the dusty attic: each photo tells of a story, frozen in time. Suddenly, images start moving, coming to live, thus sending you into daydreams, flashbacks and recollections. I have tried to portray a story, a drama, condensed with visual details that may sometimes resemble a short movie. Some of these portraits are based on real experiences of mine, while the others are completely imaginary.I had the honor writing The Old Photo Box with dedication to some of my best friends and colleagues who I deeply admire. It is them who gave me the inspiration and ideas for this cycle." - Lior Navok

Lior Navok has earned his place as one of the most innovative, fresh and communicative composers of the younger generation. His music, emerging from reflections on nature and humankind, bridges between the realistic and the mysterious, the conscious and unconscious. Described by the Boston Globe as "colorful, haunting, accomplished and exciting", Navok's music takes listeners into revealing journeys through sound. For more information, visit his webpage, www.liornavok.com.

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Kaija Saariaho: Sept Papillons for solo cello

"Sept papillons" was the first piece Kaija Saariaho wrote after her opera "L'Amour de loin." It was written during the rehearsal period of the opera in Salzburg. One can sense the desire to find a world which has nothing to to do with the opera neither in style nor in language. From the metaphors of the opera which all have an eternal quality - love, yearning and death - she moved now to a metaphor of the ephemeral: butterfly. Still, the opera is present in one or two melodic passages of the piece.

Also, from the long time-spans of the opera she moved to these seven miniatures, which each seem to be studies on a different aspect of fragile and ephemeral movement that has no beginning nor end.

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Bjarne Brustad: Eventyrsuite (Fairytale Suite)

Bjarne Brustad, composer, violinist and teacher, was born in Oslo and studied composition and violin at the Music Conservatory in Oslo as well as in Berlin. He made his debut as a violinist in Oslo in 1914, played the violin and viola with the Philharmonic Society Orchestra in the Norwegian capital for many years and, from 1928 to 1943, he was solo-viola player with this orchestra. He taught composition and violin at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, and in 1951 he was granted "kunstnerlonn" (the annuity awarded by the State).

Brustad was always alert to trends and happenings in the musical world at large, and he was one of the first Norwegians to embrace impressionism... In the 1930s he was...taken up with Norwegian folklore and Neo-classicism, and around the 1950s, radicalized his tone language, stopping short, however, of becoming an atonalist. As of the mid-1960s, he tended to forsake such tone-language, and his later compositions are all endowed with a simple musicality. They are, he said, "music for ordinary people".

Jacob Grimm -- of Grimm brothers' fame -- considered the folk tales of Norway to "surpass nearly all others." Brustad was inspired by his native Norway's rich folklore to write Eventyrsuite (Fairytale Suite). Each of the four movements is based on a scene or story from Norwegian legends. Brustad draws from Norway's rich folk music heritage, which includes a traditional fiddle called the Hardanger, in creating this fantastical work.

-excertped from Music Information Center Norway

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Alice Spatz: Grandmother Spider

Alice Spatz is a composer, double bassist, and educator based in Massachusetts. For her original works, she has received numerous awards from organizations such as the Massachusetts Arts Lottery Grant, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the International League of Women Composers. Her compositions range in scope from educational pieces to concertos, opera and musical theater. Her works have been commissioned by the Karr-Lewis duo, the Atlantic Sinfonietta, and the Sage City Symphony.

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