Dream of the song : for countertenor, female chorus and orchestra (2014-15)
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Dream of the song : for countertenor, female chorus and orchestra (2014-15)
Faber Music, 2016
Printed Music（Full Score）
Available at / 1 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Contains 5 movements; mouvements I and II for countertenor and orchestra; movements III and V for countertenor, female chorus and orchestra; movements IV for female chorus and orchestra
English and Hebrew words; also printed as text with English translations
English words for solo countertenor; Hebrew words for female chorus
"Hebrew poems from The dream of the poem: Hebrew poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1452, translated, edited and introduced by Peter Cole, Princeton University Press, 2007"--T.p. verso
Duration: ca. 20:00
Description and Table of Contents
Description
A beguiling 20-minute work for countertenor, women's voices and orchestra, Dream of the Song, George Benjamin's first work since his ground-breaking opera Written on Skin, was premiered in 2015 by the countertenor Bejun Mehta, the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by the composer. Employing a reduced orchestra (two oboes, four horns, two percussionists and two harps and strings), the work sets verse by three major poets who spent formative years in Granada; two Hebrew poets of mid-11th century, Samuel HaNagid and Solomon Ibn Gabirol (sung by solo countertenor in English versions by Peter Cole), and Gabriel Garcia Lorca (sung by the female chorus in the original Spanish). This inspired pairing of texts creates a rich, melancholy and strange poetic conjunction, expressed most beautifully in the final movement which, overlaying soloist and choir, offers two simultaneous visions of dawn, conceived a millennium apart.
'Perfectly structured music of great beauty, fleet-footed and profound, varied and thoughtful... Benjamin possesses a passionate, almost fanatical, gift for tone colour...'
NRC Handelsblad (Joe Stack), 28 September 2015
by "Nielsen BookData"
