"within a cloudburst of echoing brightness" is one of a number of fanfares commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., Leonard Slatkin, Music Director Designate, through a grant from The John and June Hechinger Commissioning Fund. It is dedicated to Leonard Slatkin, Martin Verdrager, Richard Freed and Sandra Hyslop Duffy.
As it is a fanfare, the work is celebratory in both mood and its approach to the orchestra. The opening presents the material for the entire piece. While structurally, the work evolves timbrally from one section to another, there are also two layers of musical activity. One layer, comprised of the brass instruments, periodically emerges from the other layer, which is comprised of the rest of the orchestra. As the piece develops, both layers eventually combine to intermittently comment on a brief piano cadenza which itself emerges from a brass passage. Finally, the piano and harp are paired, reworking the opening material.
Regarding the title, I see the episodic appearances of the brass as analogous to the image of a reverberating chamber of bright air within an expanding and contracting cloud.
The work received its premiere performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., on November 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th [1995] by the national Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin conducting.
