Painted Rainbows
7:30PM Saturday 28 September, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide
Conductor - Colin Prichard
Piano - Simón Pazos Quintana
Rachel Bruerville - The colours of light
Jennifer Higdon - Mysterium
Leoš Janáček - Capriccio for piano left-hand and chamber ensemble
Yukiko Nishimura - Smiling after the rain
David Bedford - Sun paints rainbows on the vast waves
The symphonic wind ensemble paints rainbows through the use of modern orchestration and novel combinations of instruments. Similarly how light interacts with the landscape affects our perception and understanding of the environment, depending on our position and time of day. These combinations provide different opportunities to experience beauty from the world and the symphonic wind ensemble. Referencing poetry, David Bedford's Sun paints rainbows on the vast waves is abstract yet evocative, describing the interaction of the sun and the landscape. In the more literal sense, Yukiko Nishimura's Smiling after the rain also seeks to describe the rainbow in musical terms and the feeling of happiness that comes from this natural phenomenon.
Jennifer Higdon's Mysterium is her own arrangement of the sacred choral work, O Magnum Mysterium, and beautifully links the original content of the music, which marvels at the birth of the saviour but also the wonderful mystery of music.
Simón Pazos Quintana joins AWO to perform the extraordinary Capriccio, written by Czech composer Leoš Janáček who wrote it for pianist, Otakar Hollmann, who lost the use of his right hand in World War One.
Opening the program is Rachel Bruerville's joyous 'The colours of light', a bright celebration of colour to start an evening exploring the whole entire spectrum of the wind ensemble rainbow.
