Primous Fountain arrives in Moldova to oversee the performances of his music.
There has been quite a bit of interest in my earlier post on this composer. Since then I have had the pleasure of exchanging quite a few e-mails with Mr. Fountain in which he has generously shared more details about himself and his work. It turns out that he had been preparing for a tour of concerts of his music the first of which will occur in Chisinau, Moldova on May 19th.
Mr. Fountain has now completed 6 symphonies in addition to other orchestral and chamber works. His first orchestral work, Manifestation (1969) was premiered by the Chicago Symphony when the composer was just 19. He is a graduate of Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago and studied at De Paul University and the New England Conservatory with Gunther Schuller. His Second Symphony was commissioned by Quincy Jones and it was a performance of this work that caught the interest of Gheorghes Mustea, a composer, conductor and cultural icon in Moldova who later agreed to this all Primous Fountain concert.
Maestro Gheorghes Mustea with his Orchestra of Teleradio Moldova Corporation.
The 6th Symphony received its world première at this concert along with movements 7 and 8 of his composition, String Orchestra and an arrangement for trumpet and strings of a portion of his 2nd Symphony. The concert will be recorded on video for later broadcast. It was broadcast live on Radio Moldova and streamed on the internet.
Primous Fountain with Maestro Gheorghes Mustea in the Radio Moldova Studio for his interview.
This was apparently the first time this orchestra had done a world première by a living American composer and I spoke with the very helpful orchestra manager Vasile Oleinic who told me that the conductor and musicians are very excited about this opportunity. Mr. Oleinic has been sending me the photographs which illustrate this post.
This is the first of a planned series of concerts to be announced at a later date in what is billed as the Primous Fountain World Music Tour. Mr. Fountain kindly sent me a copy of a promotional flyer which you can access here: PrimousFountainTour
This is the first article in what I hope to be a series devoted to Mr. Fountain’s concert series. Stay tuned.
Primous Fountain working with the conductor at rehearsal.
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New Music Buff 
[…] Primous Fountain World Tour started from Moldova […]
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Love classical music, always amazed and overwhelmed at discovering African American history within.
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It is a fascinating history. Thanks for reading. I am working on an interview with Anthony Davis currently.
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[…] Primous Fountain World Tour Begins in Moldova This relatively little known living black American composer was a child prodigy whose second symphony was commissioned by Quincy Jones had his sixth symphony premiered in Moldova in 2014. […]
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Greatings !
I am 27 years old , an IT developer, citizen of Moldova, without particular music education, but I’ve always been an audiophile, and became in time a HiFi gear reviewer.
I’ve came to listen to Primous Fountain’s symphony 6 premiere last night in Moldova, Chisinau.
So, here is my review.
I’ve been lucky enough to get the best seats right behind the conductor, and I’ve heard it all, every single wave of sound, flowing thorough my soul, as I’ve been the conductor myself.
The performance was spectacular – brilliantly played, powerful, deep, overwhelming. The conductor and thy orchestra did a fantastic job, no kidding, bravo ! The symphony is extremely complex and a marvel by itself, together, they made it happen !
I find the symphony surprisingly various and dynamics, yet involving, musical – a very interesting combination, especially for a contemporary piece of music. The dominant violet coloration, was constantly changing in tones, from flashy bright to almost gray and dark. The romantic violet intonation was there all the time, from the beginning untill the end. The second movement has even dropped tears of joy and emotional overload. The last part was the most various in techniques, so unpredictable, so involving, ending up in a powerful crescendo culmination. That 4-th movement reminded me of Beethoven’s 9th symphony, movement one, performed upside down, without any harmony lose, impressive !
The symphony isn’t an entertaining, accessible material. It demands for a proper listener, able to perform analysis, with much love for classical music, good concentration and enouth dedication. If performed right, and the accoustics of the concert hall are good enough, the reward is generous – audio-nirvana garanteed. The quantity of acoustic detail, musicality and emotion are simply stunning.
Best regards
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Dear Roman,
Thank you so much for reading my blog and for taking the time to comment. It looks like we have some similarities in our backgrounds. I am not a professional musician or a professional journalist. I am largely self-taught in music and have great passion for music of all kinds. I am also an audiophile who loves a good sound system.
My interest in Primous Fountain goes back a long way and I was so happy to hear that he was getting a performance. You seem to have enjoyed the performance and I can tell you that Mr. Fountain was deeply impressed with the quality of both the orchestra and the conductor.
Mr. Vasile Oleinic of the Teleradio Moldova Corporation was kind to send me a link to an interview the day after the concert on Good Morning Moldova. Here is the link:
http://trm.md/ro/buna-diminea-a/buna-dimineata-din-20-mai-2014-partea-a-ii-a/
Mr. Fountain is interviewed along with maestro Gheorge Mustea at about 12:50 from the beginning of this segment. They also mention the fact that more than one orchestra has refused to even try to play the movements from his work String Orchestra but the Orchestra of Teleradio Moldova along with Mr. Mustea were able to do the work with no apparent difficulty.
It sounds like Mr. Fountain was treated with great kindness and respect. I have to say that I experienced great kindness from Mr. Oleinic who sent me e-mail updates and photographs almost every day. In fact he is trying to arrange for me to be able to speak with Mr. Mustea and another former cultural minister soon. If only world politics could be handled this way there would be no conflict.
Sincerely,
Allan J. Cronin
Alameda, CA
United States
newmusicbuff.wordpress.com
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