The world premiere of Le lontane speranze for chamber orchestra with clarinet solo and basset horn solo by Richard Dünser takes place on March 5, at the Musikverein Vienna. Johannes Steinwender will conduct the Wiener Concert-Verein Orchestra, clarinettist Marlies Wieser and basset hornist Alexander Neubauer. The concert takes place on the occasion of the composer's 65th birthday later in May.
The formal structure of the work is based on fragments of poems by Giacomo Leopardi, Nikolaus Lenau, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Japanese haikus.
Fragilely, the music begins to form, depicting ‘night moods, descending eclipses, moonsets, wind sounds’, as the composer describes it. Then, a haiku interrupts this stream that seems to flow between awakening and dreaming. It gives way to ‘wild outbursts which then sink back into melancholy night music’. This is followed by a farewell with clear references to the beginning of the work, closing the arc but also announcing the end of the night in a new haiku.
the nightingale, hark
accompanied with a distant song
the sunrise
Le lontane speranze is dedicated to the Vienna Concert-Verein.
