09 Oct 2015 19:00
Venue:
Tampere Hall: Main Auditorium
Tampere, Finland
Presenter:
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
The Fractal Symphony was composed at the request of the Residentie Orchestra on the occasion of the orchestra’s centenary. It was premiered on 28 January 2005 under Etienne Siebens in the Dr. Anton Philipszaal in The Hague. The performance time of its five movements is linked to the ratio 7:5:6:4:8; in accordance with the fractal principle, these proportions are also used at micro- level. Verbey strove in this symphony for the balance and elegance that he found in Haydn’s symphonies; he also consulted Barto´k’s Concerto for Orchestra and Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique, both of which are also in five movements. The Fractal Symphony nonetheless calls up completely different associations: the rapid fourth movement is reminiscent of Gustav Holst’s The Planets and even of Rawhide, whilst the central movement with its pulsing percussion parts that are woven around one note resembles the windblown sound of a distant gamelan orchestra.Symmetry rules throughout the work: the tempi of the rapid second and fourth movements and the slow first, third and fifth movements mirror each other, whilst within the movements themselves, with the exception of the third one, the musical structure retraces its steps at the halfway point. The piece is also so arranged that one of the sections of the orchestra takes the leading role in each movement, with the strings, the wind, the percussion and the brass in succession. In the fifth movement, a wonderfully calm and collected coda, Verbey pays homage to his French colleagues; he at first combines Valle´e des cloches, the fifth movement from Ravel’s Miroirs, with Viderunt omnes, a 13th century organum work by Perotin. At the centre of the movement we hear the song Au travail suis by the Renaissance composer Barbingant.(translation: Peter Lockwood )© Frits van der Waa 2008
Program
Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20
Ensemble: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Santtu-Matias Rouvali
Verbey: Fractal Symphony
Ensemble: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Santtu-Matias Rouvali
Sibelius: Symphony no 4 in A minor, Op. 63
Ensemble: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Santtu-Matias Rouvali