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Turnage premiere: music and dance in Chicago

(December 2006)

Mark-Anthony Turnage is enjoying an ever-rising profile in North America, with numerous performances by major US orchestras over recent years, and a highly successful residency at Tanglewood this summer including a powerful account of Blood on the Floor. The coming season brings the first commission resulting from his Chicago Symphony Orchestra residency, From All Sides, premiered under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen on 25 January.

Not only a suite of orchestral character pieces, the new work is also Turnage’s first created specifically for dance, with the performance at Symphony Center being choreographed by Jorma Elo for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Following three performances with the Chicago Symphony, Hubbard Street Dance takes the ballet into repertoire at the Harris Theater in April.

From All Sides adopts the form of six short ballet scenes with distinct moods and rhythmic profiles, contrasting with many of Turnage’s recent works composed as single, cumulative musical spans. The opening Fanfare for wind and brass consists of three paeans first heard separately then combined. Snapshots, in lighter vein, introduces the strings and was written as a tribute to Oliver Knussen. Slow Dance is the most intense movement, based on a Bachian descending phrase and highlighting chamber groupings. Tango picks up the tempo, emphasising pizzicato strings. Collage combines many of the earlier ideas, leading straight into the continuously energetic Moto Perpetuo finale.

The New Year also heralds the first US performance of Turnage’s ‘asteroid’ Ceres with the Boston Symphony conducted by Robert Spano (4/5/6/9 January). Plans are underway for the US premiere of From the Wreckage, recently released on disc by Deutsche Grammophon with Håkan Hardenberger as soloist (00289 477 6150).

Photo: Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL

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