There was hardly ever an atmosphere like that on Sunday in the Brucknerhaus, in whose history this world premiere will go down. The famous Welsh choral composer Karl Jenkins conducted his latest opus “One World”, a 14-part appeal for peace to humanity today and our time full of crises, wars and destruction of natural resources on our planet. Shy attempts at applause between sentences soon faded away, only to break out at the end into a hurricane of cheers accompanied by a standing ovation.
Hundreds of singers and an ingeniously composed work
On the stage and on the balcony there was a giant choir of several hundred people, dressed in white, and in front of it a large orchestra of all instruments, which played music with tangential reverence for the master, precisely following his signals. And three excellent, attractive soloists who you would like to meet again: Ruby Hughes (soprano), Kathryn Rudge (mezzo-soprano) and Roderick Williams (baritone). What a hassle, you might think. It was certainly worth it and absolutely required Jenkins’ creative process for this special work.
“One World” is not an opera, an oratorio, a program symphony or a composite plot of stories, but rather a contrapuntal, ingeniously invented music like a cantus firmus, which Jenkins permeates harmonically inventively. Difficult to define stylistically, which is not necessary anyway given the tension throughout. Perhaps with his global peace works, which are supported by UNESCO and this time the successful Linz choir intimate Alexander Koller organized the premiere for Linz, he created a “Stile Pace Nuovo” that has rarely appeared in this style before.
The World Choir of Peace and the Stay at Home Choir, the Hard Choir Linz, the Music BORG Linz Choir as well as state youth choirs from all over the world were confronted with a whole complex of texts (Carol Barrat) and also had to sing according to a specially created code. The World Orchestra of Peace had it better and stood out several times not only with its great concertmaster Krzysztof Wisniewski, who was also a brilliant soloist. As you move through the movements, you can admire the unity of the work.
Jenkins begins with creation, continues to ask and pray for peace, goes on a spiritual search, appeals in Hebrew, comes to mantra prayer, lets the sun rise in the form of the Blessed Mother for illumination, and addresses our specific problems in four sentences , reminding us of the truth of slavery, human trafficking, among others. The last two scenes are dedicated to rebirth and hope. In the final hymn to a golden age, the overall impression is of a religiously inspired work as a mystery of the creative, world-reaching personality of Jenkins. He was embraced by everyone. His music embraced the whole world.
2023-11-20 20:42:15
#Music #messenger #world #peace
