Alfred Fisher
La Rosa Enflorece
Alfred Fisher’s new cello concerto La Rosa Enflorece was premiered on 7 March 2004 in the Grand Theatre in Kingston, Ontario. A highly moving and intensely poetic work, it is a most welcome addition to the repertoire. It is also a fitting tribute to mark this important season in the orchestra’s history and one that will help carry its legacy into the future.
Alfred Fisher has lived in Kingston since 1992, when he was lured from the University of Alberta to become the director of the School of Music at Queen’s University. He continues to teach at Queen’s as a professor of theory and composition. Fisher has written over fifty works for a wide variety of genres, and his music has been widely performed, broadcast and recorded. He is a composer with the rare ability to speak directly to the listener, albeit on a complex and challenging level. He values coherence, communication, and craft. He is aware of history and accepts its burden. While he has no desire to mystify, he is also unwilling to make his music easy or overly accessible. "Music should challenge," he notes, "it should reward. It should speak directly but not patronize listeners." 1
All of these qualities are in ample evidence in La Rosa Enflorece. The work’s title (The Rose Blooms) refers to an ancient love song of the Sephardic Jews of Spain. This reference provides the piece with an epic quality by situating it historically in a distant and mysterious but not necessarily alien past. The work’s musical vocabulary, according to Fisher, is "a multi-hued web spun of thread old and new." 2 At the same time, the reference has personal significance. "My mother," writes Fisher, "was a Rosa and a Sephardite." 3 While Fisher does not explicitly reveal the work’s program, its essence is apparent from the titles of the two movements. The first is ‘el mundo de esfuenyos’ (‘the world of dreams’); the second is ‘la rosa se muere’ (‘death of the rose’). The piece itself follows this basic pattern: La rosa constructs and reconstructs, fragments and regenerates, until finally it rises to the surface unabstracted and lyric. But the moment of realization is short-lived. It recedes to a half-light, a whisper over which a new ‘voice’ is heard. Resistance follows, but ultimately the course is marked. The work ends in mystery and serenity.
More than just a soloist, the solo cello takes on the role of narrator and reciter, with the orchestra providing its choral commentary. This persona, for the Kingston premiere, was undertaken brilliantly by the cellist Tanya Prochazka, for whom the part was written.
When first presented with the score of Fisher’s work, Prochazka, a professor of cello, strings, and chamber music at the University of Alberta as well as the conductor of the university’s orchestra, had been working intensely on Bloch’s Schelomo. She saw a number of parallels between the two compositions: the prayers, the songs, and especially the musical depiction of personal anguish and longing. Significantly, both the composer and the soloist describe the piece in terms of its communicative gestures: "The cello’s narrative is self-decoding," 4 writes Fisher; "The sounds required in performance are full, deeply resonant, and ultimately vocal," 5 adds Prochazka. "The verse is spoken," she continues, "the cello is no longer its own instrument but the vehicle for this poetry." 6 This aspect was clearly evident in Prochazka’s performance. The work is laden with a sense of intimacy and emotional depth which she conveyed with integrity and elegance. Part of her approach in preparing the work was to "transcend cello," 7 that is, to go beyond the communicative limitations of instrumental music. In doing so, she conveyed deeper truths of the music that lie beyond the boundaries of language. Her intensity and sincerity of expression were not lost on the audience. The response was overwhelmingly warm, supportive, and enthusiastic.
La Rosa Enflorece is a difficult work, emotionally and technically. Special acknowledgement must be given to the Kingston Symphony Association and its Music Director Glen Fast for their outstanding performance of the work. The orchestration is challenging, complex, and intricate, with several principal players called upon to make important contributions. All of these were diligently prepared and thoughtfully executed. Fast, when asked to comment on the piece, was particularly impressed with the orchestration and the variety of harmonic languages, both of which contributed to the broad scope of expression. Fisher’s sound palate was enhanced considerably by his innovative use of an expanded percussion section that provided a powerful means of reinforcing the most dramatic points in the narrative.
Although obviously a deeply personal work for the composer, La Rosa Enflorece has an appeal that is wide reaching. There is an understandable reticence on Fisher’s part to reveal some of the work’s inner meanings, yet despite this, the music speaks powerfully for itself, affecting both listeners and players alike. The Kingston Symphony’s performance of and support for this piece is not an isolated event, but part of a larger commitment to serious new music that surely bodes well for the coming fifty years.
Institute for Canadian Music Newsletter: May
2004
—Drew Stephen
1 Alfred Fisher, ‘Biography,’
Kingston Symphony Program: 2003-2004 Season, 21.
2 Alfred Fisher, ‘Program note,’ Kingston Symphony
Program: 2003-2004 Season, 25.
3 Fisher, ‘Program note.’
4 Fisher, ‘Program note.’
5 Tanya Prochazka, e-mail to the author, 29 April 2004.
6 Prochazka, e-mail.
7 Prochazka, e-mail.