Orfeo V: Orfeo ed Euridice (1975, rev 2019) - Thea Musgrave

Orfeo V: Orfeo ed Euridice (1975, rev 2019)
(World premiere)
Composed by Thea Musgrave
Performed by the the UCLA Philharmonia
Featuring:
J.R. Santiago, flute 1 (Orfeo)

Katlyn Lang, flute 2 (Euridice)
Neal Stulberg, conductor
Program Notes:
This work was originally commissioned by the BBC for James Galway, as a work for solo flute and tape (Orfeo 1): All the music on the tape would be an electronically treated recording of James Galway playing a variety of different flutes. It was first performed by him in this version in 1976.
Shortly after, another version (Orfeo Il) was written where all the music on the tape was distributed amongst 15 strings..
This work is intended as a simple retelling of the famous legend. The flute represents Orfeo; all the other elements and characters in the story are represented by the music for the strings. Orfeo's journey to the underworld exists only in his imagination. To heighten the effect of this separation of reality and imagination, much of the music of Euridice, the Furies, the Shades, is suggested by "memory elements" that is, quotations from the Orfeo of Gluck. They are woven into the fabric of the music. The whole work is thus focussed on Orfeo; on his mourning for Euridice and his vain attempts to recover her. In the end he has to resign himself to her loss.
Orfeo V is an arrangement of Orfeo II: here a second flute is added who enacts the part of Euridice.
in 2019, I was asked to write Orfeo V
for William Bennett (known as WIBB)
...but sadly he died so it was never
performed. Orfeo V is an arrangement
of Orfeo II: here a second flute
is added who enacts the part of
Euridice.
Composer Bio:
Rich and powerful musical language
and a strong sense of drama have
made Scottish-American composer
THEA MUSGRAVE one of the most
respected and exciting contemporary
composers in the Western world. Her works are performed
in major concert halls, festivals,
and radio stations on both sides of
the Atlantic. Known for the clarity
of her invention, the skill of her
orchestrations, and the power of her
musical communication, Musgrave
has consistently explored new means
of projecting essentially dramatic
situations in her music. Frequently
altering and extending the conventional
boundaries of instrumental
performance by physicalizing their
musical and dramatic impact: both
without programmatic content and
others with specific programmatic
ideas including the famous Greek
legends in Orfeo, Narcissus, Helios,
and Voices from the Ancient World; -
all extensions of concerto principles.
In some of these, to enhance the
dramatic effect, the sonic possibilities
of spatial acoustics have been
incorporated.
Her ten large-scale and several
chamber operas of the past 40
years beginning with The Voice of
Ariadne (1972) and followed by Mary,
Queen of Scots (1977), A Christmas
Carol (1979), Harriet, The Woman
Called Moses (1984), Simón Bolivar
(1992), Pontalba (2003) are in every
sense the true successors to these
instrumental concertos. Two major
retrospectives in recent years have shown the immense diversity of her
music: the BBC’s Total Immersion
weekend in 2014 and the Stockholm
International Composer Festival
2018, in which fifteen of her
orchestral and chamber works in
four concerts- the largest profile of
her music to date.
Musgrave has been featured at
many other major festivals including
Edinburgh, Warsaw Autumn, Florence
Maggio Musicale, Venice Biennale,
Aldeburgh, Cheltenham and Zagreb.
Musgrave has been the recipient of
many notable awards including two
Guggenheim Fellowships, the Ivors
Classical Music Award 2018, and The
Queen’s Medal for Music. She was
awarded a CBE on the Queen’s New
Year’s Honour List in 2002.
More information at
wisemusicclassical.com