John Psathas (1966 —)
Next Planet
Next Planet is the 12th piece in the “Green Piece” series commissioned and premiered in 2023-2024 by the Tonhalle Düsseldorf GmbH and the Düsseldorf Symphony as part of their Green Mondays project. Next Planet was premiered in the Düsseldorf Tonhalle on Friday 28 June, 2024, when the entire series of twelve works were performed as one mega-symphony. The program was also performed on the 30th of June and the 1st of July. The concerts were conducted by Axel Kober.
"Part of my brief was also to select the other 11 composers to be commissioned. When combined into a single meta-work (with additional inter-piece transitions I’d also been asked to compose) the programme became:
Somei Satoh (Japan) Circulation (Green Piece No. 3: "Public Transport")
Shiva Feshareki (Iran/UK) Recurring (Green Piece No. 4: "Nutrition")
Aziza Sadikova (Uzbekistan) Heat Efficiency (Green Piece No. 5: "heat efficiency")
Eve de Castro Robinson (NZ) Furious Burials (Green Piece No. 2: "energy efficiency")
Gordon Hamilton (Australia) Upcycle (Green Piece No. 1: "Waste and Recycling")
Juhi Bansal (India/Hong Kong) Flash, Shimmer, Glow, Spark (Green Piece No. 8: "Biodiversity")
Kristjan Jarvi (Estonia) OHM – Twilight (Green Piece No. 9: "Energy Generation")
Leila Adu-Gilmore (NZ/Ghana) Agua Es Vida (Green Piece No. 7 on the theme of "Water")
Enrico Chapela (Mexico) Spinphony (Green Piece No. 10: "bicycle travel")
Adeline Wong (Malaysia) Verdure (Green Piece No. 11: "CO2 compensation")
Yuan-Chen Li (Taiwan) Digitally Made Possible (Green Piece No. 6: "Digitalization")
John Psathas (NZ) Next Planet (“Green Piece” No. 12)
I was the only composer not presented with a topic. My work was subsequently triggered by the self-aggrandizing heroes who are intent on spending billions in taking a few people to Mars, rather than invest that same money in improving life here on earth – which they could do dramatically, and immediately, for all of humanity, with the staggering wealth they’ve hoarded." - John Psathas
Alexander Glazunov (1865 — 1936)
Concerto for Violin op. 82 in A minor
In a survey of Shostakovich’s career, composers such as Glazunov, who forged a Russian tradition before him, deserve attention. Glazunov was Rimsky-Korsakov’s student and shared his fascination with orchestral colour. Later, as director of the Petrograd Conservatory, Glazunov supported the student Shostakovich, even securing food rations so Shostakovich could survive the wartime famines.
Glazunov’s violin concerto is notable for its intelligence and deep feeling. Written in 1904, it’s firmly Romantic and lyrical. The soloist presents the first themes, but then the slow movement, introduced by the harp, is folded into the middle of the first movement. The tutti orchestra brings back the first movement for development and recapitulation, ending in the difficult solo violin cadenza that leads to the trumpet calls heralding the final Allegro.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 — 1975)
Excerpts from the opera, Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk
This is the opera that brought the weight of Stalin’s oppression down of Shostakovich just as his star seemed ascendant. Based a story by Nikolai Leskov, it was already a national and international success by the time Stalin purged it. It tells the story of a lonely woman who falls in love with one of her husband’s workers. She has her husband murdered, and one crime breeds another until she ends up in a Siberian gulag, still protesting her oppression.
It’s a tale of lust, corruption, oppression, and rebellion against the social order. Stalin loathed its dissonance, and its depiction of society so estranged from what his utopian State should be.
Shostakovich drew on his familiarity with music-hall and cabaret styles to draw his characters with broad strokes, and the music is often satirical, verging on parody. Yet many of the scenes are sincerely moving, especially Katerina’s arias.
Between orchestral interludes, Katerina sings about the pointlessness of her life as the wife of the merchant Izmailov. Next, she intervenes when Izmailov’s workers are hassling a woman. She fights the ringleader, Sergei. Later, she sings about how desire comes to everyone but her. Then comes a knock on the door…It’s Sergei!
When Sergei betrays her Katerina laments her fallen fortunes; from honour and respect to judgment; “the whip on my back, to sleep on frozen ground, to walk a thousand versts…”
Finally, Katerina’s conscience catches up with her; “In the woods there is a deep lake, black like my conscience, and the waves rise up so very high…”