George Benjamin Dream of the Song (2015)
For countertenor, female voices and orchestra
Reviews of the World Premiere
25 September 2015, Bejun Mehta/Netherlands Chamber Choir/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/George Benjamin
Commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw, BBC and Boston Symphony Orchestras as well as the Festival d’Automne, Dream of the Song was premiered by the countertenor Bejun Mehta (the creator of the role of Angel 1/Boy in Written on Skin), the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the composer’s baton.
Benjamin's first creation since Written on Skin, the song cycle sets verse by three major poets who spent formative years in Granada; two – Samuel HaNagid and Solomon Ibn Gabirol – wrote in Hebrew in the mid-11th century (heard here in English version by Peter Cole), while the third, Gabriel García Lorca, wrote in Spanish and was killed by Fascists soon after the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936. Despite the centuries which separate them and the difference in language, all these texts were inspired by a common source: Arabic poetry, which flowered in Andalucía from the 9th century onwards.
The work’s UK premiere will be given on 18 March 2016 with Iestyn Davies, the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen as part of ‘Benjamin at the Barbican’, a weekend devoted to the composer at London’s Barbican Centre.
A recorded broadcast of Dream of the Song can be found here
REVIEWS
‘Dream of the Song proved to be perfectly structured music of great beauty, fleet-footed and profound, varied and thoughtful... From the virtuosically poetical opening song to the concluding ode to daybreak, the fluid melodic lines fitted Mehta's bronzed voice like a glove. Benjamin possesses a passionate, almost fanatical, gift for tone colour… The reduced orchestra sounds mysterious and silvery, with an occasional well-placed punch from the horns or a plaintive oboe melody. The interaction between voice, choir and instruments was reminiscent of the game of sunlight on water, with fish just below the surface: sometimes you know exactly what you heard, and then the sounds subtly and inimitably flowed together again.’
NRC Handelsblad (Joe Stack), 28 September 2015
‘The music is fluid and layered… The most powerful section is the fourth, where the choir – in cutting long tones – declaim above stacked dissonances.’
De Volkskrant (Frits van der Waa), 28 September 2015
‘… very well made. It sounds like clockwork and develops in beautiful, bright lines. Benjamin can write a true melody and has – like Benjamin Britten – a talent for creating music that displays a barbed form of compassion.’
Het Parool (Roeland Hazedonk), 28 September 2015