Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (“Vickers”)

A note from composer David L. McIntyre:
“My first essay in the concerto genre was inspired by the incredibly gifted pianist, Catherine Vickers. We first met in Hannover, Germany in 1973 and remained in touch on and off for years. It was during my time as composer-in-residence with the Regina Symphony Orchestra that I planned to write this piece. Catherine’s enthusiasm for new music gave me the courage to ask her to consider returning to Canada, to her hometown, to premiere this piece with the orchestra. What a memorable experience, thrilling for me! The music is by turn joyful, sweet, wistful, energetic and triumphant. And Catherine captured every nuance with such elegance.”

David L. McIntyre, composer

Playful and witty, passionate and tuneful, rhythmic, tender and moving – all describe the music of David Leroy McIntyre. Since the 1970s he has created an impressive body of concert, pedagogical, and church music that continues to be received enthusiastically by performers and audiences alike. Whether music for solo piano or organ, voice or chorus, chamber ensemble or full orchestra, it is a music that stirs deep emotion, hope and zest for life. Performers appreciate McIntyre’s music for its sensitivity to the nature of their instruments. He is a professional pianist; his keyboard works are meticulously crafted, sophisticated, and nuanced. His Second Piano Sonata was commissioned by MusiCanada 2000 for Angela Hewitt. His Piano Concerto, premiered in 2003, was written for Catherine Vickers of Germany. Butterflies & Bobcats for solo piano, commissioned by the 2004 Eckhardt-Grammaté National Music Competition and Slam Dunk Dancing for American pianist Jo Boatright have delighted audiences across North America. A Wild Innocence was the imposed piece for the 2011 Piano Edition of Montreal International Musical Competition. David has also written a large quantity of music suitable for younger pianists. For three years McIntyre served as Composer-in-Residence with the Regina Symphony Orchestra. This position (funded by the Saskatchewan Arts Board) enabled him to create several exciting new orchestral works, all premiered by the RSO. His Symphony No. 1 (2000), the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2003)and Concerto for Violin & Orchestra (2008) were broadcast nationally on the CBC. Perhaps his favourite genre is chamber music with piano. He has written striking concert sonatas for most orchestral instruments with piano, from a Tuba Sonata for John Griffiths to the Second Violin Sonata for Erika Raum. As a member of the trio Contrasts, with violinist Eduard Minevich and clarinetist Pauline Minevich, David has composed several works for the ensemble including Hybrids, Chocolates, and Winter Gardens which the trio toured in Russia in 2007 and in Latin America in 2010. His love of literature is evident in his vibrant vocal and choral settings. He has created works based on Shakespearean and Biblical texts, and the poems of fine Canadian writers such as John Hicks, Tom Moore, Lois Simmie, and Anne Szumigalski. His 1998 opera Sea Change was written in collaboration with librettist Joanne Gerber. He has written two large scale choral/orchestral works: a setting of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was commissioned by Calgary’s Festival Chorus (2008) and a setting of Walt Whitman’s poem Proud Music of the Storm for the Regina Philharmonic Chorus. His work as vocal accompanist/collaborator has inspired him to write many songs for singers such as Lynn Channing, William Clark, Floyd Gadd, Ben Heppner, Catherine May, and Kathryn Whitney. He has recorded CDs with Lynn Channing, William Clark and Sophie Bouffard. McIntyre has received commissions for choral music from the Saskatchewan Choral Federation, the Ottawa Cantata Singers, the Elizabethan Singers of Regina, the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors and several churches throughout North America. Watershed Stories – astirring work that chronicles the experiences of gay and lesbian people – was commissioned by Regina’s Prairie Pride Chorus and continues to electrify audiences across North America. A visceral, kinetic quality in David’s music has moved him to collaborate with a number of dancers and choreographers including Peggy Baker, Connie Moker-Wernikowski, Elaine Hanson, and Robin Poitras to produce dramatic new performance works. McIntyre’s catalogue of published works continues to grow: Most of his music is available through his own company, Roy Street Music. He has been on both the National Board and the Regional Council of the Canadian Music Centre. In July 2011 he was a featured composer and pianist at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers National Convention in Regina. David is a prairie boy. Born in Edmonton in 1950, McIntyre began piano studies with Roy Morden, his uncle, at four years of age in Saskatoon. After completing his ARCT in 1969 he studied piano and composition at the University of Calgary (B.Mus.), The Banff Centre, and the University of Southern Mississippi (M.Mus.). He counts pianist Boris Roubakine and composer Luigi Zaninelli among his most influential mentors. Since 1976 McIntyre has lived and worked in Regina, teaching at the Canadian Bible College until 1995, as well as at the University of Regina and the Univeristy of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Primarily a freelance composer and pianist, he is also organist at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Regina and an occasional conductor, harpsichordist and adjudicator. His love of gardening, cooking, languages, birding, and architecture complement his creative work.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Fun Fact: 
The first 20 seconds of Michael Jackson‘s 1995 song “HIStory” relies on an orchestrated version of “The Bogatyr Gates (In the Capital in Kiev)” fragment of The Pictures at an Exhibition.

Program Notes: 

Pictures at an Exhibition is originally a suite of ten piano pieces, along with a recurring, varied Promenade theme, composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. It is supposed to encapsulates the idea of the viewer walking through an art exhibition, with each movement representing an artwork by the composer’s friend Viktor Hartmann. 

In 1862, Mussorgsky met architect and artist Viktor Hartmann and they became close friends through sharing their commitment to Russian nationalism. 11 years later, Hartmann died suddenly at the age of 39 in the summer of 1873. With profound grief, Mussorgsky attended a posthumous exhibition of Hartmann’s drawings, paintings, and architectural sketches in St. Petersburg in the following spring. After exploring the galleries, Mussorgsky was inspired to create a musical composition that reflected his experience in sound. He quickly wrote Pictures at an Exhibition, having it completed on June 22 in 1874, in remembrance of Viktor Hartmann. 

Mussorgsky wrote for solo piano because he was not a skilled orchestrator. Although it was composed that way, the work is best known today through various symphonic versions, particularly the one by Maurice Ravel, completed in 1922. The orchestra version plays an important role in the repertoire collection, highlighting Ravel’s use of orchestral colour and timbre.