I. \u201cIl Sambatore\u201d<\/p>\n
II. \u201cUn Bossa in Maschera\u201d<\/p>\n
III. \u201cDon Tangoletto\u201d <\/p>\n
Shor unquestionably does not fit the stereotype of contemporary composers. Holder of a PhD in mathematics and a native of Kiev, Ukraine, he immigrated to Israel, and later to the United States. His compositions have enjoyed an international reception, and he is especially active on the island of Malta. He composes for a variety of musical media, most especially orchestral and chamber works. He came to a career as a composer relatively late (he is completely self taught), and, it must be said, his musical style is an intoxicating antidote for music lovers who are not sympathetic with much of the repertoire of \u201cserious\u201d composers of the last century or so. For, if anything, he is an unabashed master of what might be called \u201cneo-romantic\u201d style. His music is tuneful, set to traditional tonal harmonies, and often scored for the lush sonorities of romantic orchestration. His feet are unabashedly set in the most attractive aspects of music from the past, and audiences everywhere have responded enthusiastically to his compositions.<\/p>\n
Verdiana<\/em> is a whimsical m\u00e9lange of allusions to Giuseppi Verdi\u2019s most well known melodies from his many operas, set for clarinet and orchestra in three movements. The respective titles to the three movements obviously are rather like puns that combine titles of Verdi operas with the names of traditional South American dances\u2014the samba, the bossa nova, and the tango. The three movements are not literally completely faithful to those dance rhythms, but cleverly, and in a nuanced fashion, infused with the spirit of them. We won\u2019t list every Verdi aria that is woven into the three movements\u2014there are too many. But, not to worry, you\u2019ll spot them right off, and it\u2019s simply great fun. If ever there was \u201cnew wine in old bottles,\u201d this is surely it\u2014a totally innocent pleasure. Arnold Schoenberg putatively said, \u201cthere is still plenty of good music to be written in C major”, and so there is.<\/p>\n –Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n \u00a92019 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[115],"class_list":["post-294","program_note","type-program_note","status-publish","hentry","program_note_tax-alexeyshor"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}