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Concerto for Trombone: "A Stroll" |
Composed: 2020; orchestrated by John Dickson Estimated length: |
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Born on June 23, 1941, in Chelsea, Massachusetts; Died on February 9, 2021, in Tampa Bay, Florida |
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First performance: August 5, 2021, with Joseph Alessi as the soloist and Giancarlo Guerrero conducting the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra |
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First Nashville Symphony performance: These are the Nashville Symphony's first performances of this work. |
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I’m putting my love of music together in one package to write this trombone concerto,” Chick Corea said in a video interview on the work-in-progress that would become his final masterpiece. A legendary and universally admired figure whose prolific legacy as a pianist, composer, and bandleader has left an indelible impact on music, Corea died before he could experience his Trombone Concerto in performance. The piece has already proved remarkable staying power in the two years since Joseph Alessi, for whom Corea wrote it, gave the world premiere in Brazil.
It was Nashville Symphony’s Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero who conducted that premiere. His admiration for the Trombone Concerto has only deepened through the subsequent performances he has led, including with Alessi’s home orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. He describes Corea as “one of the great musicians” who naturally but innovatively bridged the worlds of jazz, Latin, and classical. Indeed, Corea’s trailblazing fusions made the limitations of such labels glaringly obvious. Already at the age of eight, Corea was taking piano lessons from a teacher whose own mentor had been taught by a student of Chopin. Corea bonded with Alessi during the creation of the Trombone Concerto through such discoveries as their shared love of Mozart and Stravinsky.
Alessi’s chance encounter with a performance of Corea’s “Brasilia” while visiting the famous Birdland Jazz Club in New York provided the spark that later resulted in the Trombone Concerto. The veteran trombonist recalls going to hear a show by jazz pianist Makoto Ozona, whose performances of Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic had earned raves, and being particularly moved by “Brasilia.” He determined on the spot to ask Corea—via texts sent by Ozona—to consider writing a work for trombone and orchestra.
One of the most celebrated orchestral musicians at work today, Alessi’s own stellar reputation likely made this proposition hard to refuse, as the trombonist recounts, Corea initially expressed some hesitation. He was soon persuaded, however. “Timing is everything in life,” Alessi remarks in one of the numerous interviews about the project available on YouTube. “The timing of me asking Chick Corea was the right time for him.”
A good deal of communication took place via text exchanges as both musicians exchanged ideas about how the concerto should unfold, a rousing virtuoso flourish. (Corea’s initial plan was for a quiet ending, akin to that of the previous three movements.) Alessi continued to bond with Corea over shared aspects of their backgrounds (their Italian heritage and love of New York City) and came to visit him a couple times at his home in Clearwater, Florida.
Corea completed the composition in late 2020 and was looking forward to the premiere the following year. He then told Alessi he needed to be “out of touch for a while” during treatment of his cancer. “It was devastating for me to learn on February 9, 2021 that he had died,” Alessi wrote in a Facebook post. “We had expected that he would be with us in Brazil to hear and enjoy this music, as well as playing the piano part of this concerto onstage.”
The composer, pianist, and French horn player John Dickson, a close musical ally who first worked with Corea in 1994 and had been his longtime arranger, prepared the orchestration. Guerrero notes that they have been continuing to make “a few tweaks here and there” in subsequent performances. “John Dickson was Chick’s right-hand man as this piece was being composed, so he’s a great source of information who brings another degree of historical importance to this recording,” says the conductor.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Cast in four movements, each given a title, the Concerto begins with a lengthy trombone soliloquy that serves as the prelude to “A Stroll” as the first movement (and the Concerto as a whole) is titled. “A Stroll” draws on Corea’s memories of living in New York City and imagines the things he would hear and see while walking the length of Manhattan, from north to south.
Alessi asked Corea to spend some time with the trombone’s lyrical side, which comes to the fore in “Waltse for Joe.” “He described it to me as a ‘leisured waltz,’ not a typical waltz,” Alessi explains, “taking time and enjoying the easy groove and feel. A bit like Erik Satie.” The third movement, “Hysteria,” reflects Corea’s response to the chaotic reactions he observed while composing during the beginning of the Covid pandemic. “Tango for Joe,” the finale, originally was to have “a quiet, somber ending,” according to Alessi, “like the other movements. I summoned the courage to ask him to rewrite the coda in a big way.” The result is a thrilling final summons of virtuosity, with the trombone landing on exuberantly repeated high F-sharps in the final measure.
In addition to solo trombone, scored for piccolo and 3 flutes (3rd doubling alto flute), 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
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