Robert Beaser's Guitar Concerto In World Premiere By Eliot Fisk and Albany Symphony Orchestra

David Alan Miller leads the Albany Symphony Orchestra and guitarist Eliot Fisk through the world premiere of Robert Beaser's Guitar Concerto on Thursday, February 26. Written especially for Eliot Fisk, the work is a joint commission between the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra and the Brucknerhaus Orchester of Linz, Austria. The composer comments:

My Guitar Concerto is written for my dear friend Eliot Fisk whom I first met in 1972 when we were both freshmen at Yale College. The Guitar Concerto is cast in a traditional three movement form, and I have kept the orchestra lean for a host of practical reasons (balance, portability). The first movement uses a rich string of minor thirds and weaves them through a series of edgy variants. The guitar literally bursts out of the box and the orchestra provides the foil. The second movement turns inward-I call it a tombeau of sorts, and it has baroque references-stately and elegiac. The middle of this movement turns nightmarish and strange when an incessant modal inflection takes hold and throws the order off balance. It is meant to pay homage to early lute music, and to Ravel-who himself paid homage to Couperin-evoking an earlier style and synthesizing it into a new expressive language. I am grateful to all the commissioning parties: The Albany Symphony, David Alan Miller, The American Composers Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies, and the Brucknerhaus Orchester in Linz for providing the support for the creation of this new concerto.

The first two movements of the Guitar Concerto will be presented at the Albany Symphony Orchestra's performances. The complete work sees its premiere with the American Composers Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies this May, with further performances planned with Maestro Davies and the Brucknerhaus Orchester.

For precise ticketing information to the performances by the Albany Symphony Orchestra and American Composers Orchestra, go to www.albanysymphony.com and www.americancomposers.org.

Robert Beaser
Guitar Concerto (2008)
for guitar and orchestra
2.1.ca.2.2-2.2.1.0-timp.perc-gtr-str