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Susanna Mälkki leads the New York Philharmonic in Jonathan Harvey's Tranquil Abiding

May. 04, 2015

Susanna Mälkki leads the New York Philharmonic in Jonathan Harvey's <em>Tranquil Abiding</em>

On May 21 and 23, Susanna Mälkki leads the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Jonathan Harvey’s Tranquil Abiding, marking the first performance by the orchestra of a work by one of the UK’s most revered contemporary composers who, sadly, passed away in 2012.

Scored for chamber orchestra, Tranquil Abiding was commissioned jointly by the Riverside Symphony and Bournemouth Orchestra as the result of a Koussevitsky award and funding from the Arts Council of England; George Rothman led the Riverside Symphony in the world premiere at Lincoln Center in 1999. The work takes its title from a Buddhist term for a state of single-pointed concentration, which informed the progression and form of the piece as a whole. Harvey wrote of the work:

This piece is a 14-minute movement based throughout on a single, slow breathing rhythm. The rhythm consists of an “inhalation” on an upper note followed by an “exhalation” on a lower one. There are melodic fragments above it: one using only one pitch, another three pitches, another five pitches, another eight pitches and a fifth fifteen pitches.

The New York Philharmonic’s performance takes place at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.

For more information on Jonathan Harvey visit fabermusic.com.

Details on the performances can be found at nyphil.org.

Jonathan Harvey
Tranquil Abiding (1998)
for chamber orchestra
2(2.pic).2.2(2.bcl).2(2.cbsn)-2.2.0.0-perc-str
14’

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