"Capriccio" began as a response to the work of Hans Hofmann, the influential German-American artist and teacher. Hofmann’s best-known work is abstract, with great slabs of paint of simple shapes and lines that seldom represent anything directly, and the finest of these paintings are charged with intense emotion that is difficult to describe. Hofmann was clearly aware of the expressivity in his abstract art, giving his paintings evocative titles that demonstrate a poetic sensibility I found as irresistible as the images themselves. As much as I responded to Hofmann’s visual art when composing "Capriccio," I also responded to these titles; I began to think of them as verbal frames to my musical canvas.
"Capriccio" is in three movements, borrowing their titles from Hofmann’s paintings. The first movement, "Lonely Journey," begins as a ponderous funeral march and is transformed as it traverses an imagined musical landscape. The second movement, "Pénombres du Soir (Evening Twilight)," is, like Hofmann’s painting, all about transitions between states. It begins with a shimmering, fragile texture and a sort of grotesque aria before transitioning into a scherzo - a flight of fancy that could have arisen in the space between waking and sleeping. The final movement, "Bacchanale-Phantasmagoria," takes its title from two paintings. The "Bacchanale" is a scene of wild revelry, loosely drawn from Balkan dance music. The music gets wilder and wilder leading to the brief "Phantasmagoria" that concludes the piece; in the final moments the music becomes a fever dream of all the images in the piece, finally collapsing into ecstatic exhaustion.
Capriccio was commissioned by Hub New Music and Peabody Essex Museum in celebration of the museum's Han Hofmann Exhibition “The Nature of Abstraction.” Premiere December 2019 at PEM (Salem, MA).
credits
released November 19, 2021
Composer
Michael Ippolito
Musicians
Hub New Music
Michael Avitabile, Flute
Nicholas Brown, Clarinet
Alyssa Wang, Violin
Jesse Christeson, Cello
Credits
Producer: Shauna Barravecchio
Recording Engineer: Christopher Moretti
Assistant Engineer: John Weston
Editing: Shauna Barravecchio
Mixing: Christopher Moretti
Mastering: Jesse Lewis
Design
Laura Grey
Recorded at Futura Productions, Roslindale, MA on June 28-29, 2021
This recording was made possible through funding from the Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University
Called “contemporary chamber trailblazers” by the Boston Globe, Hub New Music is a “prime mover of piping hot 21st century
repertoire” (Washington Post). Founded in 2013, Hub has commissioned dozens of new works for its distinctive ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello. Hub’s “nimble quartet of winds and strings” (NPR) actively collaborates with today’s most celebrated composers....more
Wonderful recording! Inspired writing by 6 composers in a wide variety of styles. The playing is superb as well and beautifully recorded. Love it! Cordâme
Another part of this project's extensive dedication to the works of the truly great Julius Eastman, whose legend and status as one of America's major composers grows expidentially with the passing of each and every year. Gavin Hellyer
This elegantly composed chamber album from Ellen Tsai has a playful feel, almost like the soundtrack to a storybook. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 23, 2022
Argentine composer and guitarist Francisco del Pino achieves a stunning art-song hybrid on the first album to be released under his own name. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 19, 2021
When the Yule season rolls around, I am hopeful that some thoughtful souls will silence the all-too-commonplace holiday jingle-jangle in the room and allow sufficient space and stillness to play — and •listen• to — this most etherial take on a classic German carol. Philip David Morgan