Rorem: Double Concerto / After Reading Shakespeare

Featuring

Michael Stern
Jaime Laredo
Sharon Robinson
IRIS Orchestra
Ned Rorem

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Composer Biography

Rorem studied with notable figures such as Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute, worked as an assistant to critic and composer Virgil Thomson, and also studied with Aaron Copland.

Composition History

Rorem's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Orchestra was commissioned by Jane and Andrew Paine for Jaime Laredo (violinist), Sharon Robinson (cellist), and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Ned Rorem's music, despite his unconventional life as revealed in his diaries, is largely conceived within traditional, tonal norms, treated with originality and inventiveness.

Performer Biography

Jaime Laredo, the violinist on this recording, has excelled as a soloist, conductor, recitalist, and chamber musician for over forty years, and has been Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1999.

Composer Biography

Ned Rorem, an American composer and essayist, was born in 1923 into a Quaker family of Norwegian descent in Richmond, Indiana, and grew up in Chicago.

Compositional Technique

For his Double Concerto, Ned Rorem chose a plain scoring of only eight winds, four brass, and strings, deliberately excluding percussion, harps, keyboards, or mallets.

Performer Biography

Sharon Robinson, the cellist on this recording, is a winner of the Avery Fisher Recital Award and the Piatigorsky Memorial Award, and is a Grammy nominee.