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World Premiere of Hannah Lash's Songs of Imagined Love at Carnegie Hall

Oct. 01, 2018

World Premiere of Hannah Lash's <em>Songs of Imagined Love</em> at Carnegie Hall

On October 26, tenor Paul Appleby and pianist Natalia Katyukova present the world premiere of Hannah Lash's new Songs of Imagined Love, commissioned by Carnegie Hall. The program also includes music by Britten, Crumb, Handel, as well as selections from Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang. Lash describes the inspiration behind her new song cycle:

"Songs of Imagined Love sets texts I wrote inspired by some of the poems of Ludwig Rellstab, which Schubert sets in his Schwanengesang. While my piece does not represent a direct relationship to Schubert, I found inspiration in Schubert's eloquent reading and interpretation of text through his music. In setting my own texts, I was interested in approaching the intersection of music and language as an equal-partnering dance between the two. The texts are often abstract, suggesting rather than narrating. I play with musical clarity by constantly shifting the harmonic meanings within my music, creating a network of relationships from which I can draw and through which I can draw multiple possible pathways."


In addition, on October 19, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), led by Gil Rose, will present Hannah Lash's Concerto No. 2 (2016) for harp and orchestra, featuring the composer as soloist. Lash described this work:

"Concerto No. 2 is in three movements: the first is a gentle arabesque – an extended cadenza for the harp with orchestral accompaniment. The second movement distances the soloist from the orchestra almost violently: the harp’s music is serene, evoking an earlier period – a kind of memory of a landler waltz – while the orchestra surges restlessly. The third movement joins soloist and ensemble in a sweeping recall of some of the material from the first movement, now faster and more dynamic."


Listen to Hannah Lash's Stalk (2008) for solo harp here:


(Stalk/Hannah Lash, composer and harpist)

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

Hannah Lash
Songs of Imagined Love (2018)
texts by the composer
for tenor and piano
16'

Concerto No. 2 (2016)
for harp and orchestra
2.2.2.2-1.1.1.0-1perc(crot, vib, tamb, b.d)-hp-str
25'



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