“Circus Maximus” brings to mind an ancient hippodrome first used for public games and entertainment by the Etruscan kings of Rome.
For Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano, who will be awarded the Aaron Copland Award by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers — ASCAP — in New York next month, the term aptly titles his monumental Symphony No. 3.
“Carnegie Hall was Corigliano’s inspiration for this work,” said Allan McMurray, director of bands at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who will conduct the CU Wind Symphony and Colorado Wind Ensemble in a collaborative performance of the wind-band work at Boettcher Concert Hall on Tuesday. “Laid out like that Roman arena — an oval that’s flat on one end — the hall seemed to him the ideal venue for a piece that surrounds the audience,” McMurray said.
The program of American music also includes Academy Award winner (and CU grad) Dave Grusin playing his arrangement of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” with the CU Jazz Ensemble I.
Premiered at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2005 and performed at the Aspen Music Festival last summer, “Circus Maximus” showcases brass, wind and percussion players arrayed around the audience for a thrilling, intimate effect.
“It’s like being in the middle of a piece of art, or like you’re sitting in the middle of the orchestra.” McMurray said.
Beyond the unusual physical configuration of musicians, McMurray also points out the deeper connections drawn in Corigliano’s score, linking past and present entertainment cultures.
“Corigliano felt a real similarity between what was going on in Roman arenas and what’s going on today,” McMurray said. “He felt that we are a society consumed not only by entertainment, but also by violence, and that we share the same entertainment value in which violence is somehow glamorous.
“Corigliano also captures the modern-day activity of channel-surfing in this piece. Every time you click the remote, the character of the piece is entirely different.”
Additional movements include a prayer and two night pieces — one reminiscent of nature, the other a siren-infused city soundscape — as well as the climactic, cacophonous “Circus” movement and a closing shotgun blast.
“Rehearsing this piece is a lot like preparing a quilt,” said McMurray. “You prepare each of the elements and set a metric structure that indicates when the piece begins and when it ends. But the musicians play mostly independent of the conductor, which means that, like chamber music musicians, they all have to share a strong sense of rhythm.”
McMurray also admires Corigliano’s skill in enabling several musical events to happen simultaneously as part of the same overall construct.
“In general, audiences tend to either look back at old music or forward to new music,” he said. “For this piece, the listener needs to see through both lenses to appreciate the inspiration of the past in a direct, contemporary language that really gets at the emotions.
“For the same reason, the medium that I conduct is closely aligned with the sensibilities of many contemporary composers. Since 1975, there have been more wind pieces composed by big-name composers like Corigliano, John Adams and John Harbison than any other instrumental group.
“Part of that also has to do with the large number of fantastic university and professional wind ensembles that, unlike most professional orchestras, actually have time to rehearse new compositions and deliver multiple performances.”
Performed by CU-Boulder College of Music students and faculty, the program further features John Davis directing the CU Jazz Ensemble I and Akira Endo conducting the University Symphony Orchestra for the last time. Endo retires next month, concluding his seven-year tenure as CU-Boulder’s director of Orchestral Studies.
“A Celebration of American Music.”
CU Wind Symphony, Colorado Wind Ensemble, University Symphony Orchestra, CU Jazz Ensemble I, Dave Grusin. Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; $15-$25. 303-492-8008 or
