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Julian Anderson and George Benjamin in Chicago and Aspen

May. 30, 2012

Julian Anderson and George Benjamin in Chicago and Aspen

The summer performance season kicks off in high style with airings of two unique works by Faber composers Julian Anderson and George Benjamin. Chicago’s celebrated Ensemble Dal Niente performs Julian Anderson’s exuberant layering of dances, Khorovod on June 8 at the Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston, IL. On June 30, George Benjamin’s Olicantus is featured in Aspen by the Aspen Music Festival’s Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Sydney Hodkinson. Both works are scored for a chamber ensemble of 15 players and were written in dedication to composer/conductor Oliver Knussen.

Following its performance in a preliminary version at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1993, Julian Anderson’s Khorovod was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta who gave its premiere in 1994 at the Barbican under the direction of Markus Stenz. In Khorovod, Anderson superimposes angular dance melodies with varying tempi, allowing each melodic structure to define contour and harmony.

Anderson prefaces the work as follows:

The title is the Russian for ‘round dance’ and refers to a category of melodies celebratory in character, whose most obvious feature is their limitation to a small group of pitches (often just three or four) which are cycled round and round in ever-varied rhythms. Although Khorovod does not quote any Russian, Turkish, Romanian or Lithuanian melodies of this type, about twenty of them were used as models for melodic writing in the piece.

George Benjamin’s Olicantus, a brief work of stark and pensive beauty, was composed in 2002 as a surprise tribute for Oliver Knussen’s 50th birthday. The work was premiered in June of 2002 at Queen Elizabeth Hall by the London Sinfonietta with the composer conducting. Though compact in length, Olicantus is ripe with simmering and provocative subtleties, and includes prominent roles for cello solo and bass-clarinet duo.

More on the lives and music of Julian Anderson and George Benjamin is located at www.fabermusic.com. 

For more information on the Ensemble Dal Niente performance of Khorovod, visit www.dalniente.com.

For more information on the Aspen Music Festival performance of Olicantus, visit www.aspenmusicfestival.com. 

Khorovod (1994)
for ensemble
1(pic).1.1.1(cbsn)-1.1.1.0-2perc-pno(cel)-2vn.va.vc.db
12’ 

Olicantus (2002)
for ensemble
2fl.2bcl(I.cl)-2hn-2perc(vib/t.bells)-cel-hp-str
4’

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