DARK CITY—Cello Concerto No. 2
DARK CITY
DURATION
44 min.
INSTRUMENTATION
Concertino
Cimbalom, Prepared Piano, Orchestral Harp
Obbligato Soprano (offstage)
Orchestra
1/Pic.2/Pic, 2, 1.2/Ebcl, 1.2/Cbn; 4, 2, 3, 1; Timp+3; CELLO SOLO; ST (14,12,10,8,6)
SCORE AND PARTS
Available at Donemus
ABOUT
My second cello concerto Dark City sits in contrast in many ways to my first cello concerto Soar. My first concerto is in one long movement with rather conventional scoring and is about striving and our innate urge to overcome and grow. My second concerto, in contrast, is first of all, on a much larger scale or ‘bigger canvas’ than the first concerto being cast in five rather long movements, each with an internal intensity that links them and creates the narrative thread of the music. Much of this music is about degradation, erosion, and loss. As with most of my music I mean these somewhat geological ideas as metaphors for internal psychoemotional change that takes place within us. As we grow and change it is not always about gain and stability but can also be about loss, diminishment, and structural change. The metaphor of a rich internal city slowly eroding gave rise to the title of the work. I was extremely fortunate to come across the amazing poetry of the young American poet Dave Lucas, whose take on the decaying Midwestern cities of the United States (where I was both born and now live) had in them many internal and external metaphors that seemed so appropriate to my work. Each movement has an inscription taken from Mr. Lucas’s poems from the volume Weather, while each also has a different structure and character despite the narrative thread that links them.
The work is in five movements:
Movement 1—Letter to a Friend—(Expressive)
Let us go singing, friend, toward the distance
Where all is ruins. Do the broken not make music?
Sing ruin then. Sing ruin that it be sweet.
Movement 2—River on Fire—(Scherzo)
Stranger, the way of the world is crooked
And anything can burn.
Movement 3—It Will Be Rain Tonight—(Passacaglia)
I am no longer counting
phases of the insomniac moon.
I make no promises in the dark.
I have left that sad city blinking behind.
Movement 4—You Asked What the Heart Can Carry—(Cadenza)
I said stones. You asked how long.
I said until the sand they come to.
Movement 5—Midst of a Burning Fiery Furnace—(Finale)
I have heard of that alchemy of steel—
I am familiar with the dying arts. Let them burn
the dark night livid, my poor republic
of ingot and slag. I am seething
in my depths, I too have come to forge.
THE ARTISTS
CELLO SOLOIST
ZUILL BAILEY, widely considered one of the premiere cellists in the world, is a Grammy Award winning, internationally renowned soloist, recitalist, Artistic Director and teacher. His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry and engaging personality has made him one of the most sought after and active cellists today.
Mr. Bailey has been featured with symphony orchestras and music festivals worldwide. He won the Best Solo Performance Grammy Award in 2017, for his recording of Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway,” with the Nashville Symphony led by Giancarlo Guerrero. His extensive discography includes his newest release – the world premier recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. In 2021 he released his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites for PS Audio’s Octave Records label, recorded and mixed in stereo and multichannel sound.
He appeared in a recurring role on the HBO series “Oz,” and has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “Tiny Desk Concert,” “Performance Today,” “Saint Paul Sunday,” BBC’s “In Tune,” XM Radio’s “Live from Studio II,” Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Virtuoso Voices,” and his latest disc of Bach Suites was the disc of the week on Sirius’ Symphony Hall.
Mr. Bailey received his Bachelor’s Degree from the Peabody Conservatory where he was named the 2014 Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni, and received a Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School. He performs on the “rosette” 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet.
He is the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro-Musica (Texas), the Sitka Summer Music Festival/Series and Cello Seminar, (Alaska), Juneau Jazz and Classics, (Alaska), the Northwest Bach Festival (Washington), Classical Inside Out Series- Mesa Arts Center (Arizona) and is Director of the Center for Arts Entrepreneurship and Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.
COMPOSER
DOUGLAS KNEHANS is an American-Australian composer whose music has been performed, recorded, and broadcast worldwide by leading orchestras, opera companies, chamber ensembles, and distinguished soloists. Hailed by The New Yorker for its "primitive force and melodic insistence that recall Stravinsky," his music has earned international recognition through performances, recordings, broadcasts, and awards including The American Prize, ISCM World Music Days, the Kennedy Center, New Music USA, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Australia Council for the Arts. He is the founder and Artistic Director of ABLAZE Records, and his music is distinguished by dramatic intensity, architectural clarity, expressive immediacy, and exceptional orchestral craftsmanship.
Recent major orchestral recordings include his searing Cloud Ossuary: Symphony No. 4 the triptych Unfinished Earth: Symphony No. 3 and the flute concerto Tempest, recorded by London Symphony Orchestra Principal Flutist Gareth Davies with the Brno Philharmonic; Dark City: Cello Concerto No. 2, recorded by Grammy Award-winning cellist Zuill Bailey and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Ripple: Symphony No. 1 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine; and Drift for oboe and strings, performed by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Principal Oboist Dwight Parry under the baton of Awadagin Pratt.
Gramophone has described Knehans as "a composer of considerable fluency and instrumental imagination," while Fanfare hailed his music as "...radiant and multicolored. This is music of tremendous imagination. Knehans scores with a masterly hand, his sound paintbrush unerringly hitting the mark."
His artistic career has been recognized through prestigious residencies and fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Meet the Composer in New York, and the 1995 Boulez/IRCAM Carnegie Hall Residency devoted to Pierre Boulez's ...explosante-fixe.... In 2025 he was named Wachtmeister Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He has appeared as featured guest composer at international festivals in Ukraine, Poland, Australia, and the United States, and at leading universities throughout the world.