Sebastian Currier's Harp Concerto, Traces, Premieres in Berlin
(December 2009)
Sebastian Currier’s new concerto for solo harp and orchestra, Traces, receives its world premiere on December 18 in Berlin under the baton of Donald Runnicles, with subsequent performances on December 19 and 20. International audiences may attend Sunday’s concert virtually via a live hi-definition stream from the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall website Sunday, December 20.Commissioned jointly by the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker and the Grand Teton Music Festival, Traces was written for the Berlin Philharmonic and principal harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet. Also on the program is Johannes Brahms’s German Requiem, with soprano Helena Juntunen, bass baritone Gerald Finley, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
To purchase a ticket to the hi-definition Digital Concert Hall live web stream, click here.
The Berlin Philharmonic has worked extensively with Currier over the past several years, having dedicated a full evening to his significant chamber music output in October 2005, including the premieres of Remix for mixed ensemble and Crossfade for two harps.
Of Traces, Currier says, “There has probably never been a piece of music written that doesn't owe its form and content largely to its predecessors. The difference here is simply that this lineage is being celebrated, albeit in a fragmented way, not unlike how we might admire some Classical ruins, not just because its architecture is pleasing, but also because it is ruined. The concerto is in five movements, with the middle three resembling the standard fast-slow-fast structure of classical concerto form. Each fragment is signaled by the entrance of the solo harp.”
Looking ahead to 2010, Sebastian Currier will enjoy another world premiere---this with American Composers Orchestra (ACO) on January 29 at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York City. Inspired by New Orleans and written for string orchestra and pre-recorded sound, Next Atlantis also includes a video component by Pawel Wojtasik and will be presented as part of ACO’s “Orchestra Underground: Conversations.” Paquito D’Rivera’s Conversations with Cachao serves as the centerpiece of this program, which will travel in its entirety to Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on January 30.
Photo credit: Jeffrey Herman
> News Search
Mailing List
Sign up for news updates and offers via email
SIGN UP
Featured Publication
Britten: War Requiem
Britten's pacifist masterwork, combining war poetry by Wilfred Owen with the Latin Requiem Mass, is included in the Masterworks Library of full scores, ideal for conductors, students and music lovers.
READ MORE