Dreaming & Performing in Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto; and Piano Concerto by Ryan Suleiman

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Abstract:

Dream-like, surreal, impossible. These are the words that surface in my mind while listening to Unsuk Chin’s spellbinding Cello Concerto, composed for and dedicated to cellist Alban Gerhardt in 2008 (rev. 2013). It is also borderline impossible for the soloist to perform. Yet it has enjoyed passionate advocates in the three soloists and two conductors I interviewed for this dissertation as well as attracting the ears of a wide variety of listeners.

In my analysis, I investigate specific phenomenological features of the Cello Concerto through the lens of dreams and how they interact to form an ethos that is at once bizarre and tightly-woven. Borrowing some approaches from ethnomusicology, I integrate the unique perspectives of performers into my musical analysis, which I’ve obtained through interviews, a questionnaire answered by several members from the South Netherlands Philharmonic, and my own observations while attending rehearsals of that orchestra in 2019.

Along the way, a number of other aspects have come to light which I discuss: Chin’s dream-like approach to form, harmony, and orchestration combined with her strong grasp of and deep connection with the European classical tradition enables her to create a fresh piece in dialogue with the past; the work and skill required for a piece to successfully engage with tradition and successfully establish a feeling of dream logic within an original harmonic and timbral language is intense; Chin preferred to work independently rather than collaboratively on the composition; the soloists tended to engage directly with the musical score first and the composer occasionally, treating the score as a kind of sacred text; Chin’s score and orchestration are highly precise; the work is high accessibility to the listener and much less accessible for performers; for would-be soloists, the piece is inaccessible to the point of absurdity.

In sum, Chin is a kind of virtuoso-composer who pushes herself to achieve borderline impossible feats, demanding the same of her performers. In her words, she strives to go beyond her limit, creating a thrilling and mesmerizing piece in the process. Yet it doesn’t come cheaply: it takes a psychological, sometimes physical toll on all involved, bars many would-be performers from entry, and requires a great deal of financial resources.

The second part of this dissertation is an original composition, a Piano Concerto, my first concerto work. Written with my wife, pianist Sakurako Kanemitsu, in mind as the presumed soloist, it attempts to reconcile the simultaneity of beauty and apocalypse that is being alive in our times. We are forced to confront our mortality, but can find solace in the eternity and wonder of the universe.