Sunday, January 09, 2005
Turnage Goes Scherzoid in New York
 Mark-Anthony Turnage�s Scherzoid will make its world debut Wednesday as Xian Zhang leads the New York Philharmonic, which commissioned the piece. The program at Avery Fisher Hall, which also includes Britten�s Four Sea Interludes from �Peter Grimes,� is repeated on January 13, 15, and 18.
�Although the focus of the work is the scherzo, it wasn�t the light dance movement as much as the high energy aspect I was after,� Turnage says. �So, it is the ghost of Beethoven�s scherzos in the Eroica and the Ninth Symphony that hovers in the background. I wanted to write a piece that was one in a bar and drove right through.�
The pun on �scherzo� and �schizoid� is deliberate, Turnage says.
�The piece developed into something exploring changes of personality. I realised it would be too much to have one giant 17 minute scherzo, and broke things up into three scherzos divided by two trios. The scherzos have the same mood but the music is different, while the trios offer some contrast with more slow and sustained writing, particularly the second trio which introduces melodic ideas that are much more lyrical. Yet even here there is an element of schizophrenia, because the harmony relates to that of the scherzo, here being sustained rather than punched out.
�There is very little literal repetition in my music - rather I try and achieve the Stravinskian thing where everything is being constantly varied. Formally this can mean that returning music can be cut up and reordered like in a film, something Eisenstein described as �intellectual montage.��
Scherzoid is only one of three major Turnage works bowing in the 200405 season. A Man Descending, for tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and chamber orchestra, was unveiled by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on October 15, and has its American premiere with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra on May 6 and 7. October also brought the premiere of Turnage�s new choir and orchestra work, A Relic of, Memory conducted in Berlin by Simon Rattle.
posted by Jerry Bowles
1/09/2005
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