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James Yannatos' Concerto was written all during 2011, with the third movement being the most recently completed movement. I was given manuscript facsimiles to study as they were completed in concert pitch, and received the saxophone parts just a few week's before the composer's death. What is it like to know that the composition you are writing may be your last work? Well, James Yannatos certainly had come to grips with it. The saxophone concerto is an honest and unpretentious work, an outflowing of emotion, but presented in a rational way, unified as autobiographical if not programmatic, as well as a chronicle of the heartfelt feelings of the last year of the composer's life. The work, literally, begins with the 'Dies Irae,' heard with an ominous tympani. And, although beginning with this Last Judgment, the composer told me in a quiet and serene moment on the Sunday we visited, that although this was his 'Cancer Concerto,' it was meant to heal. 'Praise God from whom all things flow,' is given a setting in the first movement, along with a beginning cry in the saxophone, soaring lyricism, glorious melodies, both wistful, jubilant, and all at the same time, portraying the American melting pot, from which he was born. In fact, there is a sixteenth note motive presented in both orchestra and saxophone, which to me, is vaguely reminiscent of Bernstein's 'New York, New York.' Yannatos was born in NYC, and shares his American/New York and New England frames of mind with both Bernstein, who gave Yannatos early encouragement in high school and at Tanglewood, and Copland, as the second movement contains the tender lyricism attributed to Copland's works, but surrounded on both sides by a kind of Gregorian Chant. The third movement represents a chronicle of emotions of Yannatos' last months, presented in heroic fashion with some similarities to Richard Strauss' use of thematic material, as:allegro giusto, cantabile, piu maestoso, cantabile, a tempo, piu vivo, largamente, allargando, broad and, for one final beat, 'a tempo'. This little exclamation, presented after a first, but final lullaby marked broad in the piece, is an unapologetic, quick chromatic run, which is Jimmy's final musical salute, to life. My notes are personal ones. I hope they are of some use to the audience and offer a glimpse into an amazing and unforgettable man, who made everyone else's life better.

I am also grateful to Leon Botstein, a former assistant conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and President of Bard College, where we will perform the piece later this Spring, who suggested presenting the work first at Sanders Theatre with the Longy Conservatory Orchestra, scene of so many of Jimmy's many fabulous concerts at Harvard, and to Julian Pellicano, who embraced the idea immediately and programmed the work as a world premiere with his committed young people of the Longy Orchestra.

-Ken Radnofsky January 16, 2012

© 2012 by Kenneth Radnofsky. All Rights Reserved

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