Next on the docket for the New York Philharmonic's Insights series, composer-in-residence Esa-Pekka Salonen discusses his most recent major work, Karawane. As always the series is free and takes place at the David Rubenstein Atrium, dubbing the segment Insights at the Atrium.
The piece was co-commissioned by the New York Phil and is Salonen's first major work in years. If you don't know, the title and piece are an homage to Hugo Ball's poem of the same name. That is, if you know Hugo Ball, then you can see the production carries in that same, anti-institutional spirit.
The work was described in the L.A. Times when it premiered two years ago in 2014:
"Karawane is a mischievous, madcap 30-minute work for orchestra and chorus based on a gibberish text by a Dada founder, Hugo Ball. It is Salonen's first big work since leaving the L.A. Phil ... (after 17 years as music director) to devote more time to composing.
"The main thing is that Karawane, completed this summer after Salonen and his family moved back to Santa Monica from London, is a hit. It bodes well not just for the continuing spirit of Dada and, in a thrilling performance, for Bringuier's rising career (about which there will be much more next Sunday in The Times) but also for a long-awaited Salonen opera said to be gestating.
But there's more to be said by Mr. Salonen himself, who will engage an audience at the Atrium for a special evening on Wednesday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m. Seating is available on a first-come-first-served basis but can be reserved for Friends at the Fellow level and up.
Patrons can file requests at AdultEd@nyphil.org.
Be sure to bring all queries about Dada and its 100-year existence to the Atrium tomorrow and discover Salonen's perspective on meaning in music. But for now, get up with Salonen in a video of the composer below.
