Update Title: B17B10EB-8914-4C82-860B-6CCD23359348

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I am indebted to conversations with the composer and to the program notes from the Grand Rapids Symphony by Leonard Burkat for much of the following information.  Ott's Second Symphony was written in memory of the Principal Cellist of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Robert Madura, who died suddenly of cancer at age 32.  Mr. Madura was greatly loved and respected, and the symphony takes its tone from his life of great faith and kindness.  Ott said that the whole spirit of the work was one of resurrection and triumph, ideas that are expressed most graphically in the last movement.  The music is focussed largely around the cello section and cello solo work to commemorate Mr. Madura. The writing for cello is idiomatic and traditional often employing the high registers of the instrument.

The first movement opens with a lyrical theme sung by a single cello, and proceeds to gradually add cellos, becoming a full chorus before the rest of the instruments join in.  The music builds to a peak using material from this opening, adding other themes, and then concludes with a return of the opening melody.  The second movement is fiery and fast.  This movement is "based in spirit around question and rejection," Ott mentioned.  The third movement is in five parts, first opening with a quiet chorale, rather like a hymn tune.  The second section is a fugue, the third repeats the chorale in a quartet format, the fourth is another fugue with the chorale tune inverted (turned upside down), and the final section restates the chorale in its original shape.  The last movement is brilliant and dramatic, opening with a fanfare for brass and percussion.  Striding throughout is ominous pounding from the timpani.  Ott commented that the music is "an odd march" with shifting meters, constant and incessant, which eventually concludes in a peaceful ending.  Modelling on the first movement's opening, the concluding section of the last movement features a single cello inviting the others to follow, building to a full string presentation, and then eventually engaging the whole orchestra.  This is the philosophical and musical climax of the symphony.  At this time, the resurrection of the spirit is evidenced in the music, as it was by the life of Robert Madura.  --Marianne W. McKinney

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