War, seduction, murder, betrayal: all in 15 minutes, and you can tap your toes to it. That’s “Uriah, the Man the King Wanted Dead,” a muscular new work for orchestra by Avner Dorman.
The piece receives its world premiere Jan. 26 with the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by David Robertson. It will be presented in three performances from Jan. 26 to 28.
Alternately stormy and sublime, “Uriah” is a retelling of the biblical tale of King David and Uriah, the Hittite general who served him.
As written in the Book of Samuel II, David seduces his wife, Bathsheba, and then orders his men to abandon the general on the field so that the king can marry Bathsheba.
No one ever said King David was a mensch.
“He’s the stand-up guy,” says Dorman of his unsung hero, Uriah. “He’s not even Jewish. David first sleeps with his wife, then sends his chief of staff to say ‘Make sure he dies in battle.’ I wanted to do something about him, the person who actually suffered from the corruption of leaders.”
Bible stories are familiar to Dorman, a native Israeli steeped in biblical lore. At 35, he is also an award-winning composer, with dozens of commissions to his name.
His works, which include concertos, chamber pieces and works for solo piano, have been performed by the Israel Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other world-class ensembles.
Adding the San Francisco Symphony to his résumé is more than a feather in his cap. It’s a dream come true.
“I’ve heard [them] several times, and they always blew me away,” Dorman says. “With an orchestra of this caliber, there’s no concern you would write something and it wouldn’t sound right.”
In some ways, the new piece is more conventional than many of his others. One of Dorman’s piano concerto scores includes instructions to dim the hall lights before the soloist appears. His saxophone concerto instructs the soloist to wander off the stage blowing jazz licks.
Though he cites such masters as Bach and Beethoven as fundamental influences, Dorman also credits his upbringing in Israel as an equally powerful influence on his music.
“I love Arab music,” he says. “I had a [Russian] girlfriend when I was in the army. She lived in a mixed Arab-Jewish city. When I visited her at her parents we would wake up to the sound of the muezzin. There I was in Israel, my own family from Germany, in this Russian household and hearing Arabic singing at 4 in the morning. It’s a real blessing for a composer.”
His training began long before. Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Dorman first studied the cello and later wanted to play drums. His father, professional bassoonist Zeev Dorman, suggested he study piano first.
The drum kit never arrived. By high school, Dorman was an accomplished pianist and budding composer.
His first commission came from the Haifa Symphony when he was 18. He had earlier written a wild concerto for violin, piano, strings and electric guitar. The symphony’s composer-in-residence heard the piece and facilitated the commission of a piano concerto.
That was only the beginning. During his three-year Israeli army stint, he served mostly as a composer/arranger. After that he studied composing at Tel Aviv University and, later, at Julliard under John Corigliano.
He went on to a fast rise as a composer, and by age 25 he’d already won every composition prize Israel had to offer. That meant it was time for greener pastures. He has been based in the U.S. for eight years — first in Los Angeles, and now near Washington, D.C.
Like many in contemporary classical music, Dorman laments shrinking audiences and worsening musical education. Yet he also believes the art form is undergoing a renaissance in some ways.
“Classical music needs new blood, new audiences,” he says. “New music has the potential of bringing in the young audiences, and I think orchestras understand that. There are more commissions today than 20 years ago, by far. It’s much more vibrant. Music is renewing itself.”
Dorman still hopes to write an opera and large-scale symphonies, though such commissions are harder to come by these days.
Though young by most measures, when stacked up against composers such as Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schubert (who all died tragically young), one would think Dorman would feel the clock ticking.
He doesn’t.
“I do sometimes look at what I’ve done so far, and it’s a lot,” he says. “I’ve had this philosophy of ‘Live life now.’ And with some of my pieces, I think, ‘OK, I can die. I’ve done something I really want to do.’ ”
“Uriah, the Man the King Wanted Dead” by Avner Dorman receives its world premiere by the S.F. Symphony at 8 p.m. Jan. 26, with subsequent performances Jan. 27 and 28, at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., S.F. Information: (415) 864-6000 or www.sfsymphony.org.