Under the direction of Antony Hermus and with soloist Boris Giltburg (piano), the NJO dares to perform an adventurous, breakneck, breathtaking program. Rachmaninov’s fourth piano concerto, Joey Roukens’ Night Flight and Stravinsky’s Petrushka are on the music stands.
Night Flight is the third movement from Joey Roukens’ Symphony No.1 ‘Kaleidoscopic’ and was written for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In Roukens’ own words, the third movement is characterized by pronounced rhythm and high energy. Roukens: ‘I imagine it as a kind of nighttime ‘rollercoaster ride’, above a bustling city. The music is dark but at the same time colorful, full of erratic rhythms and grotesque, carnivalesque elements.’
Night Flight was written as the obligatory work for the finalists of the International Conducting Competition Rotterdam. It is a 7-minute scherzo that has to be played from beginning to end in a very energetic tempo. The music has something volatile (in the sense of ‘on the run’) as well as nocturnal in character, hence the title. The challenge for the conductors is to maintain the high energy throughout the piece while striving for the greatest possible orchestral transparency and rhythmic precision. There are constant changes of time in the piece and the rhythms should be given a pop-like tightness. Night Flight is a part of a larger, multipart symphony (Symphony No.1) which was premiered by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention