The Crossing @ Winter

Donald Nally, conductor

 

Our annual Winter concert on the first Sunday of January features the American introduction of Latvia’s emerging compositional giant, Eriks Esenvalds, in an impressionistic work based on ancient letters describing the phenomenon of Sun Dogs, those ice halos that can mirror the sun and which have mystified with their beauty for centuries. Esenvalds’ ear for textures creates an intensely beautiful atmosphere that seems to float in time – not this time, and not the past, but perhaps a memory of the future. We will also sing his Légende de la femme emmurée, based on an Albanian folk song; its juxtaposing styles create tension between a modern language and purer, beckoning, earlier time. The Crossing’s relationship with David Lang continues with the Philadelphia premiere of The Little Match Girl Passion, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008. Lang sets Hans Christian Andersen's fable in the format of Bach's St. Matthew Passion; he writes of this work, “Her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There's a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope.” Lang’s sparse, minimalist, emotionally charged language inspired one LA Times critic to remark, “There is no name yet for this kind of music.”

Program
Eriks Esenvalds: The Sun Dogs (2008)
Esenvalds: Légende de la femme emmurée (2005)
David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion (Pulitzer Prize 2008)

 

Tickets available on the website or at the door.

www.crossingchoir.com