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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Performs David Fennessy's Conquest of the Useless in Glasgow

Nov. 29, 2023

Jack Sheen led the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a complete performance of David Fennessy's Conquest of the Useless on November 4 at Glasgow City Halls in Scotland. The performance was preceded by a discussion with the composer and a screening of Les Blank’s 1982 documentary of the 'Fitzcarraldo' shoot, 'Burden of Dreams'. The work was performed in part by the BBC SSO at Glasgow’s first Tectonics Festival in 2013.

Conquest of the Useless is Fennessy’s orchestral depiction of German film director Werner Herzog’s diary of his struggle to make his film Fitzcarraldo in the Amazon. The work moves from an orchestral depiction of Herzog’s original vision – “a large steamship scaling a hill under its own steam” – though a four-part choir made up of samples from Caruso’s recordings, to a finale once described by the composer as “Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde put through a blender.”


David Fennessy Discusses Fitzcarraldo and Conquest of the Useless

David Fennessy
Conquest of the Useless (2017)
for male actor, mezzo-soprano, and orchestra
3.3.3.3-4.3.3.1-timp-3perc-pno(cel)-table gtr(egtr)-str(12.10.8.8.6)
28'

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