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World premiere, new CSO commission
This work was commissioned for the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 season, by Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Jessica Cottis. Sibelius’ tone poem Tapiola is the main inspiration for the work. Below is a prose printed in the Tapiola score, which depicts the character of the wood-sprite and the majestic yet unnerving feeling of the deep, tall Finnish forests:
Wide-spread they stand, the
Northland’s dusky forests,
Ancient, mysterious, brooding
savage dreams;
Within them dwells the Forest’s
mighty God,
And wood-sprites in the gloom
weave magic secrets.
Weave Magic Secrets also takes influence from other works in the Living Green concert, with motifs derived from Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 and Strauss’ Four Last Songs. Two antiphonal French horns, occasionally jaunty but more often dark and brooding, are grounded by the depth of the drone-like bass trombone. Harmony is ever-changing like the seasons.
© Louisa Trewartha, 2023