Satellitenkonzert Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich

18:00 Tonhalle Zürich / Kleine Tonhalle
Artist talk and chamber music

Roy Ranen – piano
Sebastian Ortega – cello

Anna Thorwaldsdóttir: «Scape» (2011) for piano solo
Anna Thorwaldsdóttir: «Transitions» (2014) for cello

19:30 Tonhalle Zürich / Grosse Tonhalle

Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
André de Ridder – conductor
James McVinnie – organ

Anna Thorwaldsdottir: «Catamorphosis» (2020) for orchestra
Nico Muhly: «Register» (2017) concerto for organ and orchestra
Daníel Bjarnasson: «Emergence» (2011–2016) for orchestra

«Register» is the title of the organ concerto written by the American Nico Muhly for the British organ player James McVinnie. The two have known each other for a long time – and share an enthusiasm for the English Renaissance composer Orlando Gibbons. A few chords from a «Pavane» by Gibbons were the starting point for this work. André de Ridder will conduct two works from Iceland in keeping with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich's seasonal focus: «Catamorphosis» by Tonhalle's Creative Chair Anna Thorvaldsdottir is about nature and climate change, about hope and despair. And Daníel Bjarnason's «Emergence» shows how quietly a large orchestra can play.

LINER NOTES

Anna Thorwaldsdottir: «Catamorphosis» (2020) for orchestra

The core inspiration behind «CATAMORPHOSIS» is the fragile relationship we have to our planet. The aura of the piece is characterized by the orbiting vortex of emotions and the intensity that comes with the fact that if things do not change it is going to be too late, risking utter destruction – catastrophe. The core of the work revolves around a distinct sense of urgency, driven by the shift and pull between various polar forces – power and fragility, hope and despair, preservation and destruction.
The relationship between inspiration and the pure musical feeling and methods, for me, tends to shift at a certain point in the creative process of every work. The core inspiration provides the initial energy and structural elements to a piece and then the music starts to breathe on its own and expand. In «CATAMORPHOSIS» this point in the process became more apparent and tangible as it aligned with an event that has had such dramatic impact on our lives and reality. The notion of emergency was already integrated into the music and to counterbalance that a sense of hope and belief. The meditative state of being needed to gain focus in order to sustain and maintain the globally important elements in life also became increasingly important and provided another layer to the inspiration.
«CATAMORPHOSIS» is quite a dramatic piece, but it is also full of hope – perhaps somewhere between the natural and the unnatural, between utopia and dystopia, we can gain perspective and find balance within and with the world around us.

– Anna Thorwaldsdóttir

Biography Anna Thorwaldsdóttir

Nico Muhly: «Register» (2017) Concerto for Organ and Orchestra

«Register» for organ and orchestra is one of many collaborations between me and the organist James McVinnie, one of my oldest friends. I’ve always treated the organ as an early version of the synthesizer, with additions and subtractions to the sounds creating sudden shifts of mood, or register. Like in speech, changes in tone and style can be subtle or jarring; here, the organ and orchestra work with and against one another in an animated and intimate conversation, with sudden asides and rapid shifts in tack. The piece is built around three distinct cycles of chords: one, large and ascending, with a sense of slight menace; the second, bright, descending, and brilliant; and the third, a sparkling perpetual-motion machine, in whose genetic past is a Pavane in G minor by Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625), a composer with whose music Jamie and I both enjoy a lifelong romance. Despite the power of the modern organ, the piece ends with a glance towards the Jacobean period, with strings played without vibrato, and the organ in its smallest, most understated register.

– Nico Muhly

Biography Nico Muhly

Daníel Bjarnasson: «Emergence» (2011–2016) for orchestra

Daniel Bjarnason's evocative «Emergence» pivots between beginning-of-the-universe-like slow builds and frenetic flurries of counterpoint and lush string hooks, ultimately untethering itself into the ambient expanse of deep space.

– HIGHRESAUDIO

Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason’s piece «Emergence» sweeps listeners up in a kind of stream-of-consciousness that reflects Bjarnason’s wide-ranging experience working in pop and classical new music.

– Esprit Orchestra

This piece is aptly titled «Emergence». The inexorable progresses of the underlying harmonies suggest a vast, preexisting form just coming into view, but while these harmonies keep steady somewhere beneath the audible surface of the piece, they’re manifested in a range of unstable attacks, hesitations and anticipations.

– Bedroom Community

Biography Daníel Bjarnason

Production: Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich