Program note
WRITING THE CITY was written in February 2011, after months spent gathering texts by various authors among which Capote, Ginsberg, Fitzgerald, Lethem, Gornick, Miller, Whitman. The piece evokes the city of New York, and particularly Manhattan and Brooklyn.
A slow opening movement gradually reveals the city — as if seen from an airplane, or from a boat on the East River in the mist, emerging into the harbor and then the view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade, near which I lived for several years. Handled like a camera, the music penetrates the city's streets and the thoughts, rituals, and idiosyncrasies of its inhabitants, culminating in an evocation of the Lower East Side of the 1980s.
Paul Auster and his very particular approach follow, infused with restraint, doubt, and confusion. The piece, using a large excerpt of T. C. Wolfe's Of Time and the River concludes with a questioning of the city's meaning itself.
The central part contains many musical quotes emblematic of NYC, among which Ellington, Debussy, Bernstein, Strayhorn, etc, inspired by one of my favorite pieces of music: the third movement of Berio's SINFONIA of 1968.
Recording — A. Laiter & D. Rubinstein, narrators — Philharmonique de Radio France, G. Rufet, cond.
Details
Instrumentation
Orchestra & two narrators
Duration
18'
Date
2011
Commissioned by
Radio France
Sheet music
Available upon request
First performance
Philharmonique de Radio France, Alexander Laiter and Donald Rubinstein, narrators; Gwénolé Rufet, conductor. Concert Passion-Fusion, Le CentQuatre, Paris, May 25 2011