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Derek Bermel’s concerto Spring Cadenzas was composed for and performed by Midori. She is joined by Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra A Far Cry and young musicians from Boston’s Project STEP (String Training Education Program), led by conductor Earl Lee.
The work was commissioned by Midori during the Covid-19 pandemic for her Orchestra Residencies Program and was conceived to bring young musicians together despite the challenges of remote performance.
Making a virtue of necessity, Bermel incorporated latency as part of the work’s aesthetic and used cadenzas as the focal point, all with an eye to creating a work that could be rehearsed and performed through online platforms.
Bermel worked in close collaboration with Midori, taking inspiration from her ’extraordinary artistry, brilliant technique and inquisitive yet exacting nature’. The three-movement work is inspired by haiku by Matsuo Bashō, entitled ’fields, mountains’, ‘wake, butterfly’ and ‘unknown spring’.
The initial version of Spring Cadenzas was premiered by six youth orchestras across the US on the Zoom and Cleanfeed platforms in spring 2021. However, Midori had always envisioned continuing to perform the work once some ’normalcy’ returned, so with the receding of the pandemic, Bermel expanded the orchestration to the in-studio version heard on this recording.
Spring Cadenzas will be released digitally on 28 August 2026 on Orchid Classics
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