John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...

's Symphony No. 2 for Orchestra was commissioned by the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Symphony Hall.Symphony No. 2 (2000)
, ''JohnCorigliano.com''. The symphony’s first performance was by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by

Seiji Ozawa Seiji (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese ski jumper *, Japanese racing driver *, Japanese politician *, Japanese film directo ...

on November 30, 2000.

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

(minimum 6 first

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

s, 5 second violins, 4

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

s, 4

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

s, and 2

basses Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass ...

Form

The piece consists of five movements: *I. Prelude *II. Scherzo *III. Nocturne *IV. Fugue *V. Postlude

Composition

Based on his ''

String Quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

'' (1995), as Corigliano explains: "My quartet is in five movements, three of which are notated in spatial notation. This means that the players do not count beats, but play more freely rhythmically, coordinating at various points but totally independent in others," requiring rewriting of this and other issues for larger ensemble.

Reception

The piece was awarded the 2001

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted i ...

Notable recordings

Yuli Turovsky Yuli Turovsky OC CQ (7 June 193915 January 2013) was a Soviet-born Canadian cellist, conductor and music educator. His name is mostly associated with the I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra, which he founded in 1983 and led until his dea ...

conducting the

I Musici de Montreal I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

* John Storgards conducting the

Helsinki Philharmonic The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (in Finnish: ; in Swedish: ; literal English translation: Helsinki City Orchestra; commonly abbreviated as HPO) is an orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1882 by Robert Kajanus, the Philharmonic Orc ...

Sources

External links

John Corigliano: Symphony No. 2; Suite from 'The Red Violin'
, ''AllMusic.com''. Yuli Turovsky. {{Authority control Compositions by John Corigliano Corigliano 2000 compositions Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning works Corigliano Music commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra