As Director of Music at London’s St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Julian Grant was the successor of some rather estimable composers. “I had an office which had a big plaque right in from of my desk, saying, ‘In this room Gustav Holst wrote ‘The Planets’’ — which was not helpful,” he says with a laugh.
Grant, who is probably most notable for his 20 operas, has since settled in Princeton. His harpsichord concerto, “Vaudeville in Teal,” will receive its world premiere this weekend, on two concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 4:00, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium. Mahan Esfahani, one of the foremost proponents of the instrument, will be the soloist.
Also on the program will be two works indebted to music of the 18th century: a genuinely fun concerto for two oboes and orchestra, “Extra(ordinarily) Fancy),” by Princeton alumnus Viet Cuong (who also studied at Curtis), and the pseudo-Pergolesi ballet “Pulcinella,” by Igor Stravinsky. The latter will be played complete, as opposed to in its more familiar guise as a concert suite. The work is sunny, tuneful, and memorable, Stravinsky for people who think they don’t like Stravinsky. Rossen Milanov will conduct.
On a related note, Grant and Esfahani will discuss Grant’s harpsichord concerto, their creative partnership, and the process of shepherding a new work from written score to actual performance, at Princeton Public Library tomorrow evening at 6:30. The event is free. Attendees will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for tickets to the weekend concerts.
To learn more, visit princetonsymphony.org.
Oh, yeah! I also hope you’ll read my article in the Princeton weekly newspaper U.S. 1, out today.
https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/grant-goes-for-baroque-in-new-harpsichord-concerto/article_94cf66e3-ae6b-4c7f-b193-2dc7fcdc2592.html
