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Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Premieres the Third Movement of Hannah Lash's Forestallings

Feb. 16, 2022

On February 26, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, led by Federico Cortese, performs Hannah Lash's Forestallings, including the premiere of the third movement commissioned by the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Foundation to celebrate Cortese's ten years as HRO's esteemed music director. The performance takes place at Saunders Theatre at Harvard University. Lash's Forestallings has been commissioned in parts by three different orchestras: the first movement was commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; the second by the Colorado Music Festival; and the third by the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. The fourth movement remains to be commissioned and composed. 

The composer notes: 

"My piece, Forestallings, takes just the opening gesture from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 as a point of departure. From that rather stark D – an anacrusis, my slow introduction unfolds in its own direction, quickly parting ways from Beethoven’s. I explore a constellation of harmonies which then lead to a faster music, which derives from the same material as what I used in my slow introduction, but now reimagined in a more urgent character. The slow music and the fast music form a sort of dialectic and a dialogue, and a sense of conflict is produced by the harmonic constellation whose hierarchies shift throughout the length of the piece. It ends uncertain of which tonal center leans upon which, asking a question rather than offering a resolution."

Listen to Hannah Lash's Subtilior, Lamento (2018):

(Subtilior, Lamento/Hannah Lash/American Modern Ensemble/
Francisco José Hernández Bolaños, conductor)


To learn more about Hannah Lash, visit: schott-music.com.

Hannah Lash
Forestallings (2019)
2.2.2.2.-2.2.1.0-timp-str
12'
First movement commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Second movement commissioned by the Colorado Music Festival
Third movement commissioned by the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Foundation

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