Three years ago, an ebullient Robert Ulrich, CEO of the Target Corporation, convened a meeting of the Phoenix Symphony senior staff, his team and the symphony’s longtime and devoted patron, Jeanne Herberger. At that meeting we discussed the astounding plans for the Musical Instrument Museum.

Frankly, I marveled that it was going to be in Phoenix in the first place much less the remarkable scope of its holdings.

He wished to discuss a collaborative project with the Symphony that would celebrate MIM’s opening, a symphonic fanfare of sorts. Needless to say, my mind was instantly turning and my response was to use the Symphony as a performance vehicle to bring life to the displays that were envisioned.

From that point forward, Mr. Ulrich and the Target Corporation generously made possible two years of the Target World Music Festival. In so many ways, this was a dream come true for me. Collaborations with indigenous folk musicians allowed repertory that critics would dutifully remind listeners of their influence the chance to actually display what Bartók, Tan Dun, Piazzolla or Mozart, for that matter, were responding to with the orchestral palette. 

This type of illumination is essential for an orchestra to present. You don’t need it for Brahms' Violin Concerto, but for heaven’s sake, this world is now too small for us not to amplify the listeners’ dreams and sonic images evoked by some of the greatest music ever written. More in future posts on this subject.

In response to the idea of Ulrich’s fanfare, I immediately put forward the idea of commissioning the world’s most renowned and loved “artist of convergence and visceral reaction” (my quote), Osvaldo Golijov. 

As part of our Composer Spotlight series in Phoenix, Osvaldo’s music passionately communicated the intoxicating melding of Latin folk music with the symphony orchestra. Marian Buswell, Phoenix Symphony Principal Oboe, commented to me today that our performances of Golijov’s Ainadamar in May 2008 were the most memorable performances in her distinguished career with the PSO!

I called Osvaldo and I remember explaining the concept of MIM and the fact that anything with Robert Ulrich driving the ship was going to happen, period. He was on board and the date approached. It seemed so far away at the time, and yet here I write at 8:35 p.m., less than 48 hours before the audience will hear Osvaldo’s inspiration for the first time.

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The score arrived with quite a bluster. Osvaldo has had a turbulent year, and the pressure of rehearsals and performances set in stone as they are must be a horrible creative pressure for composers. Parts needed to be bowed and assigned. Percussionists had to find a few unusual instruments and great attention was cast toward this week.

The program for this week is typical me. I started with the banner piece, Osvaldo’s heretofore unknown work, and started dreaming. I anticipated some sort of Latin influence. Immediately, my mind went straight to the question of how other composers dealt with Latin influences. 

I thought it completely cliché to pair an actual Latin composer with Osvaldo’s work since he acts as a bridge with his own music. Maurice Ravel was an ideal choice. I remember bringing up the idea of Boléro at a programming meeting. Eyes rolled a little bit as they glanced my way. Boléro is one of the first fanatically populist “cross-over” works that displayed a composer of one nationality absorbing the flavor of another and “straddling the line.” Mostly, orchestras throw in Boléro to draw a crowd for whatever is on the program that might not be so appealing. Not here. Boléro has its place in the totality of the evening, and I hope people will hear it differently as a result.

The other composer I find so intoxicating (sorry, it’s the best word I can find to describe so much of this program) when it comes to a blending compositional experience is Claude Debussy. His Iberia has been a favorite of mine since the day I sat in the Todd-AO recording studio in Los Angeles and observed Esa-Pekka Salonen make one of my favorite recordings of Images, including Iberia.

In terms of a Latin groove, the slightly odd man out is the Corigliano Piano Concerto. John’s music is featured this season as our living composer “Spotlight.” Our audience will hear four other works of his this season. We had our first rehearsal of this incredible work this afternoon. Stephen Gosling, you are AMAZING! I know soloists often memorize their concerti, but come on, a work like this?! You are really something!

So hear I sit with Osvaldo’s score an arm’s length away. His music is a mere 15 hours from being breathed to life by our own musicians with the composer enlightening us and urging us to embody his conception.

Thursday night, four remarkable guests will join us as soloists for the work, and Osvaldo will field questions during our weekly Intermission Insights, moments after the audience has heard those precious notes.

I’m not sure how I can possibly thank Robert Ulrich, Jeanne Herberger, MIM and the Target Corporation enough for making it possible to have one of the rarest moments, the world premiere of the globe’s most sought after composer, happen here with our Phoenix Symphony.

I won’t say that such a thing won’t happen again here because I desperately want Phoenix to be a hub for creating the future of symphonic music. But the confluence that was required to get us to this moment will certainly be hard to replicate. 

This concert is the embodiment of what I’ve tried to accomplish here and what has brought the great crowds we’ve developed over the past five years. Let this be just the beginning……