Rolf Wallin Under City Skin (WP)
Steve Reich Different Trains
Alfred Janson Nocturne
Three poems by Ebba Lindqvist
Masquerading as zoological encyclopedias, bestiaries were popular books in the Middle Ages containing collections of fantastical hybrid creatures such as the dragon, unicorn and chimera. Even real animals could be ascribed bizarre characteristics, such as ‘a dog that crosses a hyena’s shadow will lose its voice’ or ‘the blood of a he-goat can dissolve a diamond’. Rolf Wallin’s fascination with bestiaries was expressed in his Urban Bestiary (2008) for string orchestra and surround sound system.
Under City Skin is based on the same idea and is a violin version of a viola concerto written in 2009. The work asks whether our modern day surroundings and objects – a park at night, high-heeled shoes, cash registers, City Hall bells – still unconsciously hold hidden, counter-intuitive meanings for today’s society. In Berlioz' famous viola concerto, young Harold travels to Italy to broaden his mind. Here our protagonist goes under the skin of the city sounds, in a quest to discover the forces hiding within.
The rhythms and shifting acoustic patterns of train travel were loaded with meanings for American minimalist pioneer Steve Reich. His Different Trains (1988) is a dynamic journey, narrated by cut-up voices on tape, from the coast-to-coast railroads of the USA (which Reich took frequently as a boy, visiting his separated parents) to the Nazi death trains conveying Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz.
The performance is accompanied by video works specially made for this by Tone Myskja.
Arne Nordheims Composer Prize 2016. Work by the prize winner will be performed.
Oslo Camerata
Det Norske Solistkor
Conductor – Grete Pedersen
Øyvind Bjorå – artistic director
Peter Herresthal – violin
