On two consecutive weeks Judith Weir’sMoon and Star and Hans Werner Henze'sScorribanda Sinfonica will receive their US Premieres in Symphony Hall, Boston. Sir Andrew Davies who premiered Moon and Star at the BBC Proms in 1995 will conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus on 10 October 2002. The work derives its title from the Emily Dickinson poem Moon and Star and Judith Weir says of the work: “… Moon and Star ... is not simply a setting of a favourite poem. My intention was to write an orchestral piece with a small chorus included as part of the available sound. The text acts as a philosophical motto to the music (rather as an abstract painting has a caption) but the sung poem is not always heard in the foreground of the composition. The idea of using a vocal group as an orchestral colour has been round a long time but - for obvious logistic reasons - instances of its use are comparatively rare. In this piece, the voices are most used as a source of textural richness, in wide harmonic paragraphs. … “ Just a week later on 17 October 2002 Roberto Abbado will give the American Premiere of Scorribanda Sinfonica in which Henze revisits an earlier ballet Maratona di Danza which was written for the director Luchino Visconti.
