Esprit Orchestra: Sonic Universe

Alex Pauk, Conductor
Krisztina Szabo, Mezzo-Soprano

Programme:

R. Murray Schafer (Canada): Adieu Robert Schumann (1976), for mezzo soprano & orchestra

John Adams (United States): Harmonielehre (1985)
I. First Movement
II. The Anfortas Wound
III. Meister Eckhardt and Quackie

Two master composers provide inspiration for this concert. Schafer’s work is concerned with the last days of Robert Schumann, from the time of his first hallucinations until his death in the Endenich asylum in 1856. Adapted selections from Clara Schumann’s diaries form the monodrama in Schafer’s work. The piece incorporates fragments of Schumann’s own vocal and piano compositions including the melody he wrote down the night of his first hallucination which he claimed was dictated to him by the angels. Harmonielehre is a musical tour-de-force. In Adams’ words, his piece, “postmodern in spirit”, is “a large, three-movement work for orchestra that marries the developmental techniques of Minimalism with the harmonic and expressive world of fin de siècle late Romanticism”.