Imagine

2010-2011 Season Opener:
Imagine

One World Symphony
Sung Jin Hong, Artistic Director and Conductor
One World Symphony Vocal Artists
Michael Crane, Pianist

John Lennon: Imagine (1971)*
Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs (1948)
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat for left hand, Op. 53 (1931)
Olivier Messiaen: From Quartet for the End of Time (1941)**
Dmitri Shostakovich: Four Songs, Op. 86 (1951)***
Sung Jin Hong: Eye of the Storm for audience and symphony  (2010, world premiere, commissioned by West Village Concerts)

*World premiere orchestration (2010) by Andrew Struck-Marcell
* *World premiere orchestration (2010) by Sung Jin Hong
***World premiere orchestration (2010) by Eric Lemmon

Imagine a world without countries or religions. Is John Lennon inviting us to share in his vision of Utopia or is he conveying personal self-discovery in a melodic song? Olivier Messiaen composed Quartet for the End of Time while he was a prisoner of war, overcoming his adversity through music. The work premiered at German prison camp Stalag VIII-A in 1941 to an audience of 5,000 prisoners. Disability and human creativity transcend limits in Sergei Prokofiev's rarely performed Piano Concerto No. 4, which was written for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in WWI. Richard Strauss surveyed the destruction of his country after WWII and wrote his Four Last Songs, his final work, meditating on life, death, and the transfiguration into "the magic circle of the night." Dmitri Shostakovich's song cycle Four Songs, Op. 86 was written at the request of Yevgeni Dolmatovsky for a play that needed "aeronautical beacon," songs for a pilot to sing to help him navigate through the Alps. Eye of the Storm (태풍의 눈), Sung Jin Hong's world premiere composition inspired by traditional Korean drumming, pulsates with his personal experiences at the Demilitarized Zone. In the face of war, can miracles be born?

Performance length: 1 hour and 40 minutes with intermission


Friday, September 17, 2010
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity
Brooklyn Heights

Sunday, September 19, 2010
Church of the Holy Apostles
Manhattan
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