I was deeply struck by Brian Levison's powerful and disturbing poem which, though hard-hitting, evokes a poignant sense of the preciousness and beauty of our fragile world. I had to think very carefully about the tone and mood of this setting and wanted to avoid the potential trap of an easy, browbeating kind of 'sloganization'. At the same time, I knew that the music must not soften the message of responsibility.
I realised that by having a narrator to reinforce, with stark clarity, the critical and dramatic concepts, I could allow the collective human voice of the choir to communicate the more reflective and plaintive elements contained within the poem; So a line such as - 'And at some unknown midnight, it will be too late for our beautiful heartbreaking home, and our children will awaken in a world beyond rescue.' - informed the emotional resonance at the core of the music.
The Most Fortunate Generations is scored for choir and a chamber ensemble of winds and strings - the note of warning being sounded by a single trumpet at the very start. This opening contains many of the thematic seeds which are developed in the music that follows.
Performance: The Most Fortunate Generations
Saturday 8th November 2014
St Albans Choral Society | Conducted by George Vass | St Saviour's Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans, AL1 4DF | Further Details TBA
Works: The Most Fortunate Generations
World Premiere: The Most Fortunate Generations
Saturday 13th November 2010, 7.30pm
Poet Brian Levison and James Francis Brown unite to create a powerful and dramatic vision of a potentially doomed Earth which questions the responsibilities of our own generations and draws uncomfortable parallels with the era of the Nazi death-camps.
Harrow Choral Society |
St George's Church, Headstone, Pinner View, Harrow, HA1 4RJ
Tickets available at the door or in advance: email ollypet@hotmail.com
or phone 020 8863 7830
Works: The Most Fortunate Generations
