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JOHN CORIGLIANO
Composer
www.schirmer.com/composers/corigliano_bio.html
www.culturefinder.com/cgi-bin/culturefinder/cf/content/music/baldwinartist/index?record=6348&type=profile

Photo by Julian Kreeger courtesy G. Schirmer

The best premiere I can remember is that of my CLARINET CONCERTO with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic and Stanley Drucker as the soloist. My father, who died in 1975 -- two years before the premiere -- was the concertmaster of the Philharmonic, and they had never played a piece of mine, so the concert had a very special meaning to me. It was a blazing performance -- one a composer usually only dreams about.

My worst premiere was in the 1960's when a mezzo-soprano, who had won the prestigious JOY OF SINGING award, gave the first performance of THE CLOISTERS, a cycle of four songs with text by William M. Hoffman.

The problem was that the singer didn't want to use the music (which was admirable), but also didn't know the songs (which wasn't). The result was a Gertrude Stein text set to a John Cage score. The New York Times loved it. I've always wondered what they would have thought of the piece we actually wrote."


TIM PAGE
Former Classical Music Critic of the Washington Post
Recently Appointed Artistic Advisor/Creative Chair to the St. Louis Symphony
www.slso.org/new_site/pr/page.htm

Photo courtesy St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

I'll have to choose the world premiere of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians -- April 3, 1976 at Town Hall in New York -- as the most influential concert I ever attended. It opened new sonic worlds to me and literally pushed me into criticism: I HAD to react to this music somehow and I wrote about it all night, never expecting anything would be published. And I'd choose the first performance of the orchestral version of Reich's Tehillim in 1981 as the "worst" premiere. The score was terrific -- I already knew it in the original chamber version -- but Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic were not at all used to this sort of music and everything fell apart. (P.S. It was much better the second night.)


LAUREL ANN MAURER
Flutist
members.aol.com/UtahArts/lam/index.htm

Photo courtesy Laurel Ann Maurer

I have to admit that the quality of "open-mindedness" that I believe that I possess serves me well in terms of finding the value in a new piece, but does not serve me as well when thinking of a least favorite experience. I truly work to find the message in each piece. If I believe it is not there, is weak or I am not suited to play it-then I don't play it. Hence, I have really been fortunate in that each premiere has been special in it's own right. There are, however, a couple that stand out as exceptional. Two were major works by composer Meyer Kupferman. I have worked with him on many of his works. I commissioned him in 1993 to compose a Sonata for flute and piano. I premiered this work "Chaconne Sonata" in April 1994 at Weill Recital Hall and we received rave reviews. That was a successful premiere because I have a rapor with Kupferman's style and he coached us extensively. The other was the premiere of his "Concerto Brevis" for flute and orchestra, premiered at the National Flute Convention in 1998. Part of the joy of the premiere (at least for me) is the entire creative process. The "hands on" work with the composer is exciting and meaningful for a successful outcome.


DAVID DEL TREDICI
Composer
www.fineartsmgmt.com/artists/tredici.htm
www.ny.boosey.com/composerpages/deltredici.html

Photo by Robin Holland courtesy Boosey & Hawkes

Best:
1976 premiere of FINAL ALICE in Chicago with Solti conducting and Barbara Hendricks, soprano soloist. Because the piece was so tonal -- long stretches in the purest D Major -- I was terrified the piece would be ridiculed by the public, press and players. As well, the performance apparatus was huge and unorthodox: winds/brass in 4, a siren, a theremin, complex soprano amplification, orchestral players asked to whisper.

What happened? The audience cheered and stood up, the reviews were ecstatic. I was on my way.

Worst:
Premiere of POP-POURRI for soprano solo, rock group, chorus and orchestra at La Jolla, California in 1968. This was the first piece I'd written with orchestra. The orchestration was a mess and the small orchestra unequal to the task. The conservative audience hearing electric guitars and saxes in a concert hall at this time (1968) were horrified. I felt as though I had just farted in church and then had to bow in recognition.

  

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