This month will see performances of two world premieres by composer Roxanna Panufnik.
On Thursday June 11, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Domingo Hindoyan will perform the world premiere of Lunar Solar – Double Concerto for Oboe and Cor Anglais, at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. The work was commissioned by the Liverpool Philharmonic for two of the Orchestra’s principal players, oboist Helena Mackie and cor anglais player Drake Gritton, and also features prominent roles for both harp and percussion.
Panufnik describes the concerto as “two days in the life of the Moon (cor anglais) and the Sun (oboe), musical palindromes with the arc, over the world, of their rising and setting. The harp and percussion are there to enhance their soundworlds, with warm, also searing, radiance and chilling but sinuous, glinting mystery”.
The performance will be repeated on Friday June 12, in Barrow-in-Furness. For more information and to purchase tickets, please click here.
On Thursday June 25, the Orpheus Sinfonia and cellist Jonathan Swensen will perform the world premiere of Panufnik’s cello concerto, Orfeus: to Hell and Back. The performance is conducted by Thomas Carroll and takes place at St George's Hanover Square, London.
"When the Orpheus Sinfonia commissioned this cello concerto from me, it didn’t take me long to imagine how inspirational it would be to tell the love story of Greek mythology’s poet, prophet and legendary musician of the same name, with the cello soloist as the protagonist", says Panufnik. "I have renamed him and his nymph lover with the Ancient Greek spellings Orféüs and Eürüdikē.
"The piece draws inspiration from Ancient Greek music which was, by all accounts, very dramatic. Orfeus is said to have had the most beautiful singing voice and, as the sound of the cello is often described as being the closest instrumental sound to a human voice, I have given the cello operatic lines, but also pizzicato (plucked) for Orfeus’s lyre (small harp). The nymph Eurudike is portrayed by panpipes, imitated by the piccolo and flute. Within the orchestra, the oboes and clarinets imitate the aulos (two pipes with one mouthpiece, playing a fourth apart) and we have some authentic percussion, such as krotale (finger cymbals) and clappers.
For more information or to purchase tickets for the performance of Orfeus: to Hell and Back, please click here.