Bryce Dessner
Born: 1976, Cincinnati, Ohio
Piano Concerto
- Composed: 2023, for Alice Sara Ott; co-commissioned by Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich AG, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Southbank Centre and Philharmonia Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Philzuid Netherlands, Bozar, Brussels Philharmonic, Ars Musica and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Premiere: January 18 & 19, 2024, Kent Nagano conducting the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich; Alice Sara Ott, piano. These CSO performances are the work’s U.S. premiere.
- Instrumentation: solo piano, 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), oboe, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoon, 4 horns, trumpet, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, tom-tom, vibraphone, snare drum, bass drum, marimba, xylophone, gong, crotale, tam-tam, orchestra bells, harp, strings
- CSO notable performances: These are the work’s first CSO performances.
- Duration: approx. 25 minutes
Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger and co-principal songwriter. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with credits including The Revenant, for which he was Grammy- and Golden Globe-nominated, Fernando Meirelles’ The Two Popes, Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon and Bardo by Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Dessner collaborates with some of today’s most creative and respected artists, including Philip Glass, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Paul Simon, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sufjan Stevens, Fernando Meirelles, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Nico Muhly and Steve Reich, who named Dessner “a major voice of his generation.” Dessner’s orchestrations can be heard on the latest albums of Paul Simon, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift.
Bryce Dessner has had works commissioned and premiered by today’s leading conductors, including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Semyon Bychkov and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. One recent season saw performances of his works by, among others, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, HR Sinfonieorchester, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. His Violin Concerto, commissioned by partners including Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony, and Mari, commissioned and performed by Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, Czech Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, have been met with widespread public and critical success.
In addition to his role as one of eight San Francisco Symphony Collaborative Partners, Bryce Dessner has been Artist-in-Residence at London’s Southbank Centre and with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Major works include Concerto for Two Pianos, premiered by Katia & Marielle Labèque and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon; Violin Concerto, premiered and performed internationally by Pekka Kuusisto; Trombone Concerto for Jörgen van Rijen and commissioned by the Dallas Symphony and l’Orchestre National d’Île de France; Voy a dormir for mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Skrik Trio for Steve Reich and Carnegie Hall; the ballet No Tomorrow co-written with Ragnar Kjartansson; Wires for Ensemble intercontemporain; The Forest for large cello ensemble, Gautier Capuçon and Fondation Louis Vuitton; and Triptych (Eyes of One on Another), a major theatre piece integrating the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Dessner also scored the music—involving full orchestra and a 200-member choir—for the Louis Vuitton show at the Louvre in Paris as part of Paris Fashion Week 2020.
Dessner’s recordings include El Chan and St. Carolyn by the Sea (Deutsche Grammophon); Aheym, commissioned by Kronos Quartet; Tenebre, an album of his works for string orchestra recorded by Germany’s Ensemble Resonanz and which won a 2019 Opus Klassik award and a Diapason d’Or; When we are inhuman with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Eighth Blackbird (2019) and Impermanence (2021) with the Australian String Quartet. Dessner’s other film score credits include The Two Popes, which won Discovery of the Year at the World Soundtrack awards; C’mon C’mon (2021) directed by Mike Mills; and Cyrano (2021), the major musical by Joe Wright.
Also active as a curator, Dessner is regularly requested to program festivals and residencies around the world at venues such as at the Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. He co-founded and curates the festivals MusicNOW in Cincinnati, HAVEN in Copenhagen, Sounds from a Safe Harbour, and PEOPLE.
Bryce Dessner lives in France.
I spent most of 2023 composing my new piano concerto for Alice Sara Ott. The piece is very much inspired by her beautiful playing, and I wanted to write something that would both challenge her and draw out her unique qualities as an artist. I am truly grateful to her for working so closely with me on the concerto. As I wrote the music I was also thinking of the sound of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the other wonderful orchestras who have commissioned the piece.
I composed and dedicated this work to my sister, Jessica Reese Dessner. My sister, who is an exceptional artist, has been my greatest inspiration since I was very young, and she has been a huge artistic influence on me and my brother, Aaron. For several years, she has been courageously battling cancer and has continued to inspire me as she confronts this health crisis with courage and grace. As a kid, I learned so much about art and music from her, and we have collaborated on many projects together over the years. Each movement of my piano concerto takes direct inspiration from my sister, her life and her artistic practice.
The three movements of the concerto each had a working title during the months I was composing, which reflect specific sources of inspiration I learned from my sister. The first movement is called HOW TO DANCE. So many of my early memories of orchestral music are from watching my sister dance in the Cincinnati Ballet as a child. Much of the music that I love was originally written to be danced to (Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Cage, Reich). Later, through her I discovered contemporary music through the vibrant dance scene of New York City, where I saw works by Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, Pina Bausch and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. My sister, who had a long career as a choreographer and modern dancer, and I created several works together in the late 90s and early 2000s that would be fundamental to my development as a composer, and I believe that all of my written music is influenced by her choreographic sense.
The fluid motion and physicality of dance influences much of my music, and this first movement has a baroque dance feel throughout. The bass line that is the central melody of the first movement turns around like a baroque continuo, and the ostinato patterns in the right hand are light and floating, tracing the arc of a dancer’s motion.
The second movement is titled HOW TO BREATHE and it has a gentle quality and stillness in the music. In the relentless rush of life and career, my sister has always encouraged me to find calm and to breathe, and to take things slowly and re-connect to the fundamental beauty of making art. This music comes from a natural place, and gives a sensation of emerging from the sea or the forest. The notes are spare and then layered and fast, but always with a sense of breath. The orchestra provides various horizons, brass giving way to the winds and strings shifting perspectives. Moments of dissonance or interruption create a counterpoint to the soloist.
The third movement and finale, which I have called HOW TO FEEL, is the most varied of the three and also the most virtuosic. It returns to the dance-like motion of the first movement, but with more intensity. The material shifts between lyrical slower moments and then the intense joyful patterns of the faster sections. The music, as with the other movements, is deeply inspired by my sister, and the title says it all.
—Bryce Dessner