for string quartet and piano
for Stephen Williamson, clarinet / Chicago Symphony, Gustavo Gimeno
Duration: 27 minutes
I. Hypnotic, easy
II. Vast, patient
Solo Cadenza
III. Brilliant
Indigo Heaven is a title taken (with permission) from author Mark Warren’s wonderful post-civil war era novel of the same name. In an affecting scene, the protagonist, a former soldier named Clayt, sees a work of art and finds a deep truth in the representation of nature in it, as if there is no barrier between the landscape’s depiction and reality he knows. In our case, the story’s setting of Colorado and Wyoming is personal here, as clarinetist Stephen Williamson spent most of his early life between those two states, and I spend time in both places each year myself. The description of the sky at dusk, an indigo heaven, is haunting and tied to the beauty of the end of the protaganist’s life. Each of the movements in my work take their affect from imagery from the novel.
The concerto is approximately 27 minutes, and is structured:
I. Hypnotic, easy
II. Vast, patient
Solo Cadenza
III. Brilliant
Steve and I met at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, in 1990, and it has been a dream long in the making for us to do a concerto together. I am grateful to the Chicago Symphony for the opportunity to bring this work to life, and for the Albany Symphony for making the recording of the work.
—Christopher Theofanidis
Biography