Description:

Mallory Thompson, conductor

The ensemble’s second concert of the fall quarter is centered around themes of loss, grief, and spirituality. Carlos Simon’s Go Down Moses, inspired by the spiritual of the same name, depicts the Biblical story of Moses and the ten plagues from the perspective of the despairing Pharaoh. Dream Elegy, composed by new Bienen School dean Jonathan Bailey Holland, is a somber response to the Black Lives Matter movement, dedicated to those who felt powerless against the system that allowed racist acts of violence to occur. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen and transcribed from the original works by Henry Purcell, Steven Stucky’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary is a haunting mix of Baroque and contemporary sounds. The concert closes with Olivier Messiaen’s massive commemoration of the dead of both world wars, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.

Carlos Simon, Go Down Moses
Jonathan Bailey Holland, Dream Elegy
Steven Stucky, Funeral Music for Queen Mary
Olivier Messiaen, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum