Music Text
from Genesis (Heb,E)
Scoring
2.afl.1.corA.1.bcl.2-1.2.2.1-strings
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes
for the world.
World stage premiere
14/06/1999
Carre, Amsterdam
Peter Sellars, director / Nieuw Sinfonietta/Asko & Schoenberg Ensembles / Reinbert de Leeuw
Repertoire Note
Dedicated to "the people of the State of Israel," Abraham and Isaac was commissioned by the Israel Festival Committee. Stravinsky agreed to set the story in Hebrew – a language he did not know. "I began to compose Abraham and Isaac because of the attractions of the Hebrew language as sound, because of the subject, and, not least, because I wanted to leave a token of my gratitude to the people of Israel." To a considerable degree, Hebrew is what this piece is "about".
Repertoire note by Joseph Horowitz
