Andrew Norman - Gran Turismo I Berlin Camerata

Berlin Camerata
Berlin Philharmonic Hall

»Higher! Louder! Faster!« With these words Andrew Norman described the trajectory of his Gran Turismo – a tour de force,
Andrew Norman which demands each and every skill from the interpreters, from the virtuosic mastery of the instrument through to a perfectly attuned ensemble performance. The virtuosity is, however, an inherent part of the work’s concept and the technical know-how is literally programmatic. Norman has congenially implemented his impressions in the work's genesis. He recognized the connection of Futurism, baroque music, and racing game in the rush for technologization, speed, and in the rhythmic-motoric element. Similar to the paintings of Giacomo Balla, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, founder of the Futurist movement, has previously proclaimed in the course of his Manifesto that »the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed… We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.«
In Norman’s piece, the kinetic motion of the futurist art, of racing cars, and virtuosic baroque music, such as the music of Vivaldi, is reflected right from the very first note. The thematic material is constantly modified and shifted from player to player, and, moreover, it is fugued or played tutti. The sound range incessantly oscillates between high and low, hard and soft. Despite all this powerful energy, Norman equally provides balance through moderate-lyrical passages, before the piece fulminantly ends after a run similar to a perpetuum mobile.
In Andrew Norman’s oeuvre orchestral and chamber music play the most prominent role. It is not unusual for him to derive inspiration from pop culture, movies, video games, or the visual world in general. In awareness of the traditions of art music and avant-garde achievements he is constantly in search of new forms of expression. The works of Andrew Norman, who is in many places already considered as a classic of America’s New Music scene, have been
Jordan Hadrill performed worldwide by outstanding ensembles with the collaboration of artists such as John Adams, Marin Alsop, Gustavo Dudamel, Simon Rattle, and David Robertson. In 2005 Andrew Norman’s Gran Turismo received the Leo Kaplan Prize of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). In 2012 he was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, and in 2016 he was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category. At the concert on November 1st 2016 in the Berlin Philharmonie, Gran Turismo will be performed alongside works by Bruch, Mendelssohn and Vivaldi.