Composer Mason Bates returns to the CSO with his Piano Concerto

In creating his Piano Concerto, composer Mason Bates studied many other such works, past and present, by composers like Barber, Ligeti, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninov. But one had a particular impact on him — Beethoven’s famed Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 54.

Bates, who served as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence from 2010 to 2015, was particularly taken with the concerto’s slow second movement. He called it a “remarkable moment in music history,” in which the piano and orchestra are somewhat at odds, the orchestra performing loudly and assertively and the piano taking a softer, more songful approach. “They are in totally different spaces,” he said, “and it is a fascinating, dramatic ride, and it takes a while for them to agree on how they are going to play together.”

Bates, named Musical America’s Composer of the Year in 2018, took a similar approach in his slow movement, drawing on feelings of isolation from the COVID-19 shutdown. “I was exploring this idea,” he said, “of the soloist being depressed in a kind of minor mode, with the orchestra in this radiant brightness, a major mode, and they don’t play together for like five minutes, and the orchestra keeps trying to brighten the day of the soloist and finally wins, giving the soloist a big, bear-hug of a chord.”

Area audiences will have a chance to hear the results when guest conductor Lahav Shani and the CSO present the local premiere of the Piano Concerto, with renowned pianist Daniil Trifonov as the soloist, June 20-23.  

[Bates] wrote the opening section of the Piano Concerto with what he describes . . . as an “almost Renaissance transparency” to take advantage of this softer side of the [Trifonov’s] approach.

The piece, which the Philadelphia Orchestra debuted in December 2022, was written for Trinofov. He and Bates met during an earlier set of performances at the Philadelphia Orchestra that featured Bates’ Alternative Energy and another work with the pianist as soloist. They stayed in touch, and after what Bates called a “long courtship,” he was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony to write the concerto for Trifonov with the composer tailoring it to the pianist’s style and strengths.

This customization is particularly evident in the opening bars. While Trifonov can easily handle big and bold moments, Bates was taken with what he called the pianist’s “delicate touch” and “incredibly subtle and amazing, transcendental tone” in quieter moments. So, he wrote the opening section of the Piano Concerto with what he describes in his program notes as an “almost Renaissance transparency” to take advantage of this softer side of the pianist’s approach. “I probably wouldn’t have thought of that with a different player,” Bates said.

Since the first performances in Philadelphia and San Francisco, Bates has heard Trifonov perform the work with orchestras in other major cities, including recent concerts in Rome. The composer has found it rewarding and informative to watch the soloist settle into the work and adjust his interpretation.   

“You learn so much as a composer,” he said, “when you see passages interpreted in different ways from the first performance to a few years later. He’s always been a very mercurial performer where every night is a very different performance. You can say that about anybody, but it’s really true with Daniil. Tempos can be different. Dynamics can be different. I’m sure what we will hear in Chicago will be quite different than what I heard in Rome, so that’s been the revelation for me, seeing one of the great living pianists imbibe this piece and really own it.”

“He’s always been a very mercurial performer where every night is a very different performance. . . . I’m sure what we will hear in Chicago will be quite different than what I heard in Rome, so that’s been the revelation for me, seeing one of the great living pianists imbibe this piece and really own it.”

Although Bates is especially known for introducing electronic elements in many of his works, the Piano Concerto is strictly acoustic. So far in his output, he has followed a self-imposed rule of not using any electronics in his concertos because he doesn’t want them to disrupt balances or become a distraction. “It really needs to be about the soloist,” he said. “When you have a concerto, you have a focal point on the soloist both dramatically and acoustically.”

Like other recent composers who have written piano concertos, Bates hopes his take on the form will have staying power. It will be important, he said, that other major pianists choose to champion the work after Trifonov. He pointed, for example, to John Adams’ Violin Concerto (1993), which was premiered by Gidon Kremer and then got a big boost later from Leila Josefowicz, who has been a steadfast champion.

“We shall see what happens,” he said.

Postscript

Although nearly a decade has passed since Mason Bates served as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence, the experience’s impact on him and his career continues, and he still feels a closeness to the ensemble.

The orchestra has continued to perform works by Bates since he left his post, and it will present the area premiere of his Piano Concerto during a set of concerts June 20-23 with guest conductor Lahav Shani and pianist Daniil Trinofov. “I’ve been back several times,” the composer said, “and I just actually love the orchestra, and I love the talent. It’s one of my favorite cities of all time.”

Bates’ residency ran from 2010 through 2015, allowing him to burrow into what he called the “nitty-gritty” of collaborating with an orchestra. “I had never worked with a maestro on the level of [then music director] Riccardo Muti, and his belief in my music and his mentorship opened my eyes to so many things about how you write for orchestra and how you deal with musicians. Of course, all the players in the group are absolutely world-class, so individually, I would work with many of them on, say, percussion techniques or bowing techniques.”

At the same time, working with an orchestra with the international stature of the CSO gained him considerably more recognition than he had attained previously in his career. “So, even though I felt like, gee, I had been writing symphonic music for almost 20 years by the point,” he said, “all of the sudden people were like, ‘I heard you wrote Alternative Energy for Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony.’ Or ‘I heard he conducted The B-Sides. So, the visibility was really appreciated in addition to the musical education.”