Repertoire
EDGARD VARÈSE: Amériques (1918-21)
PIERRE BOULEZ: Notations 1, 2, 3 and 4 (1980)
KAIJA SAARIAHO: Orion (2002)
Artists
ESMUC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, conductor
Program
Amériques is Varèse’s portrayal of a new world and is scored for a very large orchestra comprising 125 musicians. Varèse uses percussion, and builds the work by juxtaposing blocks of music, and includes quotes and recurring short motifs, to create a new reality on a huge scale, to symbolise his discovery of the overwhelming scale before him when he arrived in New York. Pierre Boulez, renowned for his interpretation and consolidation of Varèse’s works, wrote 12 Notations for piano in 1946. Thirty years later he revisited the idea of orchestrating these short pieces, and in 1984 he completed the orchestra versions of the first four numbers. The project that went beyond the idea of orchestration to a complete rewriting, including the appearance of small elements of influence from Weber resulting in the creation of an impossibly precise huge orchestral canvas. The programme concludes with Orion, a large scale work by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho depicting the contrast and inner tension of the Greek mythological character Orion, son of Poseidon, transformed by Zeus into a radiant constellation after his death.
Downloads
