This weekend comes Classical 4, which features an interesting program: Too Hot Toccata by Aaron Jay Kernis, Concerto in F by George Gershwin, and Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony.

It’s interesting because each work on the program is a standard form with an individual “take” on the form in the eyes of its composer.

The Too Hot Toccata is a riff on the old Italian form (from the Italian word toccare “to touch”) which features busy passage-work in a rapid tempo.  It is indeed fast, has lots of notes, and is a virtuoso showpiece for the orchestra - especially the horns and trumpets.

The Concerto in F is a more earnest attempt by Gershwin to produce a “serious” piece of concert music as opposed to something that might be more at home on the bandstand.  I don’t know if it succeeds, but it is a wonderful piece which shows off the skills of the pianist and is a much more lengthy and substantial piece than the more famous Rhapsody in Blue.  It’s a perfect combination of early jazz/blues styles in a classical format.

Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony shows how stubborn Rachmaninoff was in regards to being out of step with the music of his time.  You’d be hard pressed to find anything significantly different in this piece than in his much for well-known Second Symphony, the piano concerti, Symphonic Dances, or tone poems.  But by his very stubborness, his music stands out in the crowd.  Take a look at what was also written during the years this work was composed (1935-1936):

• Berg Violin Concerto
• Schoenberg Violin Concerto
• Walton First Symphony
• Stravinsky Dumbarton Oaks
• Prokofiev Second Violin Concerto

Definitely not conventional works in the arch-Romantic style that Rachmaninoff favors!

The Gathering Note reports that composer Aaron Jay Kernis will be in residence with the Seattle Symphony for two weeks in an upcoming season (not yet specified).

This enthusiasm was on full display Sunday. In a surprise for the audience and I am sure a surprise for the orchestra, Aaron Jay Kernis, whose Too Hot Toccata [written in 1996] started the program, took the podium to conduct his own work. Kernis reveled to the audience that he was in town hammering out the specifics of a two week residency with the Seattle Symphony and sat in on the Sunday’s rehearsal. According to Radcliffe, while the band went through the piece, Kernis gradually began inserting himself until Radcliffe suggested he conduct the piece. Kernis did just that.

He was in Seattle this past weekend conducting his own piece Too Hot Toccata with the Seattle Youth Symphony.

The Oregon Symphony will perform the Toccata on its 2008-2009 classical series.