Henry Doktorski Pianist Organist Accordionist Composer Conductor Author Educator Final Alice with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Soprano Hila Plitmann, Composer David Del Tredici, Maestro Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra acknowledging audience applause. Photo by Craig Weiland.

March 1st & 3rd, 2012: Henry Doktorski performed on accordion with soprano Hila Plitmann and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Leonard Slatkin in Final Alice by the American composer David Del Tredici.

Maestro Slatkin explained:

Most of our concerts tend to fall into a traditional category: overture, concerto, symphony. This week we have a true event. Storytelling is a great part of musical tradition. One of the most famous, of course, is Peter and the Wolf, and we'll present that in its traditional way with [narrator] Craig Fahle and the orchestra showing us the way with instruments and animals.

More instruments and animals, though, dominate the second part of the program in a rare performance of David Del Tredici's Final Alice. I suppose the first question is: What's so final about it? Well, the work takes as its inspiration the last two chapters of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. This is an extravagant piece from 1976; one that literally changed the musical landscape in this country and all over the world.

I was at the premiere of this work in Chicago, and never had I seen an audience respond in quite this way to a new piece of music. Usually people were walking out, or just being polite. This one was cheering and carrying on like you wouldn't believe. Why? Because people could go out humming a melody. Over the course of sixty-five minutes you hear this melody quite a lot; you can't avoid humming it.

The work is scored for very large orchestra and a "folk group" of instruments including two soprano saxophones, a banjo, a mandolin and an accordion. There's also a theremin—that weird device which was used in a lot of 1950s science fiction films—and sirens, and all kinds of things go on. But the key element is the role of the soprano, who doubles as story-teller, narrator, singer, psychologist, commentator—everything you can imagine. It's the most virtuoso vehicle I know of for voice and orchestra.

The woman we have portraying Alice and all of her cohorts is Hila Plitmann, the young Israeli singer who's lived in Los Angeles for most of her life. This is a force of nature and something I really hope you come to hear and love as I have.

Doktorski said, "This is the second time I have played this magnificent and challenging work with Hila Plitmann as soprano soloist under the direction of Maestro Leonard Slatkin. It seems the more I play Final Alice by David Del Tredici, the more I appreciate its artistry and many subtleties. I hope I have the privilege and pleasure of performing it again."

All photos by Henry Doktorski, unless noted otherwise.

Maestro Slatkin conducts the DSO in rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO rehearsal

DSO concert. Photo by David Rogoff.

DSO concert. Photo by David Rogoff.

DSO concert. Photo by David Rogoff.

DSO concert. Photo by David Rogoff.

following DSO concert. Photo by Hart Hollman

following DSO concert. Photo by Hart Hollman

following DSO concert. Photo by Hart Hollman