Description

I have a vision of a chaotic and buzzing metropolis, where the rusted-out ruins of today’s skyscrapers sit below the floating cityscape of a future space age. From this strange and raucous world a hero emerges, a magnetic and dynamic musician, whose vast range of passions and powers seem to rule the easily-swayed crowds that inhabit the city. Once midnight passes and he is left alone, the hero unexpectedly makes a discovery amid the ruins, something precious and infinitely valuable. This encounter changes him, as well as the world around him; he sees the stars for the first time. But somehow, this treasure is lost. Though he dreams of its recovery, he is cursed with its memory, and he finds himself furiously at war with the civilization over which he previously held so much power.”

Duration

26 min.

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, 2 percussion, harp, solo clarinet, strings (minimum 6 first violins, 6 second violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 1 contrabass)

Commission

Co-commissioned for Ricardo Morales by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the U.S. Marine Band Chamber Orchestra, and the Quad City Symphony.

World Premiere

November 11, 12 & 13, 2021; Ricardo Morales, soloist; The Philadelphia Orchestra, Rafael Payare, conductor; Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA

Notable Performances

January 2022 with Ricardo Morales as soloist with the US Marine Band Chamber Orchestra, Jason Fettig, conductor. February 2024 with Ricardo Morales as soloist with the Olympia Symphony, Alexandra Arrieche, conductor. April 2024 with Ricardo Morales as soloist with the Quad City Symphony, Mark Russell Smith, conductor.

World Premiere Recording

Aspire: The President’s Own at 225. Ricardo Morales, soloist; US Marine Band Chamber Orchestra, Jason Fettig, conductor.

Reviews

It’s an amiable work — frisky, colorful, voluble, and written in a direct musical style that sometimes suggests the hand of a Francophile… It’s high-energy stuff, and that aspect of the piece gave soloist Ricardo Morales plenty of ways to highlight his superior technical firepower.

But it was the more lyrical sections that caught my ear, and Morales carried these moments beautifully. There was a lovely back-and-forth between the solo clarinetist and flutist Patrick Williams, a dreamy aspect to the second movement, and a third movement that suggested, in the best sense, a movie score. In a concerto, the soloist may be the hero, but this is a concerto that knows that when it comes to visiting magical places, it’s only the orchestra that can bring you along.

Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 16, 2021

The Bancks piece, a world premiere, was written for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s superb principal clarinetist, Ricardo Morales. It is an engaging vehicle for his talents. About 25 minutes in length, the Clarinet Concerto is divided into three movements played without interruption: ‘Unruly,’ ‘Tender’ and ‘Defiant.’ The orchestration is colorful, with an array of percussion that includes bongos, vibraphone, high-hat and brake drum (yes, the car part, struck with mallets).

The character of the solo clarinet part, which contains a number of extended trills and ad lib passages, changes frequently, with instructions in the score running the gamut from ‘with swagger’ and ‘lonely’ to ‘stealthy.’ But unlike traditional concertos, where soloist and orchestra often alternate time in the spotlight, Mr. Bancks’s work requires Mr. Morales to play almost nonstop with the orchestra or in smaller chamber-music groupings of colleagues. His breaks are usually short, his unaccompanied passages mostly brief. The clarinetist met this physical challenge with his customary fluidity and admirable expressivity.

The fidgety first section, ‘Unruly,’ has a retro feel, at times evoking Gershwin, Hollywood film scores and the Big Band era in an otherwise conservatively atonal framework. The ‘Tender’ section is more memorable, summoning a sense of regret at the outset in quiet, plaintive writing for solo clarinet, strings and woodwinds. Gradually, the music grows more dissonant, mysterious and anguished. Mr. Payare was not only attentive to the soloist here, as in the rest of the piece, but delved deeply with him into its expressive essence. Then he led a well-paced account of the ‘Defiant’ section, with its catchy rhythms and percussive effects.

Barbara Jepson, The Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2021

Full Performance Video

Ricardo Morales, soloist, and the US Marine Band Chamber Orchestra, Col. Jason Fettig, conductor

Photo Gallery