Nordic Lights
One World Symphony
Sung Jin Hong, Artistic Director and Conductor
One World Symphony Vocal Artists
Christopher Johnson, Pianist
Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 (1868)
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Foreign Bodies (2002, Brooklyn Premiere)
Kaija Saariaho: Parfum de l'instant, Quatre instant (2002, Brooklyn Premiere)
Jean Sibelius: Three Songs — The North, First Kiss, The Tryst (1904)*
*World premiere orchestration and arrangement (2011) by Sung Jin Hong
Soar to the mystical sounds of the North. Devoted to Norwegian identity and folk music, Edvard Grieg's only piano concerto opens with a drum-roll and solo cascade of octaves and ends with the glorification of the Norwegian national dance "halling." Foreign Bodies, a work by Finnish composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, builds on rhythmic innovations and fuses stunning virtuosity and rich sonorities. The sensual intensity of Kaija Saariaho's Parfum de l'instant (Perfume of the moment) for soprano and orchestra casts a potent spell, creating the evocative soundscape of the North. Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' love for nature inspired him to write nearly 100 songs. Sung Jin Hong has orchestrated and arranged four of Sibelius' songs into a cycle conjuring the intimate feelings of a first kiss and lover's betrayal, all set in the Scandinavian countryside. Might this all have been a dream?
Program length: 80 minutes without intermission
Friday, March 4, 2011
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity
Brooklyn Heights
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Church of the Holy Apostles
Manhattan
