April 10, 2011: The Andrew Imbrie Festival

Andrew Imbrie was for many years professor of composition in the music department of the University of California at Berkeley. He was a friend and student of Roger Sessions, who also taught at Cal. Both composed violin concerti and invited Robert Gross to be the soloist for the respective premier performances. Now, Robert Gross was my composition prof at Occidental College. When I arrived there as a freshman, I saw a newspaper clipping on the bulletin board about Prof. Gross' premiering the Imbrie concerto: it was from the San Francisco Chronicle, and the reviewer (whose formidable surname was Frankenstein) spoke of Gross as "the Jascha Heifetz of modern music", This was in 1957. Prof. Gross referred to the Imbrie concerto, but I never heard it (it was recorded once). So on Wednesday April 6 I went to the campus and heard a performance of it -- a powerful piece of atonal but not twelve-tone music -- and afterwards I spoke to the conductor, Dr. David Milnes, and mentioned my connection with Robert Gross. And he said, "You know, that premier with Gross was recorded on tape, and today's soloist listened to it as she rehearsed the piece." The April 10 Festival included a number of Imbrie's works, some smaller, a couple quite large, all very impressive. A memorable event.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Andrew Imbrie
• atonal music
• Robert Gross
• Cal Berkeley
• David Milnes
• Hertz Hall

[2bsirius]

Andrew Imbrie died on December 5, 2007 on the same day that Karlheinz Stockhausen died. I'm not sure why I remember that bit of minutiae but I do.

[thomasmatus]

@2bsirius Thank you for the minutiae! Like Prokoviev died on the same day as Stalin, and Thomas Merton (monk-poet) on the same day as Karl Barth (Protestant theologian). But I can see the distance between Imbrie and Stockhausen: the former was certainly more "classical', albeit with his atonal idiom. I take pleasure in both.

[callmeBe]

Back in the late 1970's I went to school at Cal. State Hayward, which had both the recordings and the scores to Imbrie's Violin Concherto and Symphony #3, and to this day these two peices are some of my most favorite 20th century works. Both are beyond remarkable, and for those of us who score study, highly worth-while to get a hold of the scores and read through them. Throughout both you see a huge Roger Sessions influence, also. Thanks for your post!

[2bsirius]

@thomasmatus

Yes, I've enjoyed both too.

[LooksAeterna]

Thanks for the pointer, I had been ignorant of Andrew Imbrie, just listened into String Quartet No. 1, good stuff ! (in fact, it inspired me to re-listen to Pierre Boulez's - Piano Sonatas). Could you PM me about that mature work you mention, so I can perhaps find it online ?