Levitation
for two clarinets, string orchestra and accordion
Commissioned by Canary Islands Music Festival
Description
First Performance: 7 February 2008, Las Palmas
Finnish Radio Symph. Orch.
Conductor: Sakari Oramo
Sabine Mayer, Wolfgang Mayer
I remember an experience that made an unforgettable impression on me: at a Chinese opera performance I saw an artist balance a chicken feather on the tip of his nose and then made it move up in the air with very light, barely noticeable breaths. He made it dance, turn seemingly without weight, rise and fall until it finally came to rest on the tip of his nose again.
When I was working on Levitation I had this image in mind– objects dancing in the air free from the gyves of gravity, like in Marc Chagall’s paintings.
Nothing reaches the floor – to remain in the picture, in this composition; perhaps only once, a single time in the 2nd movement, when an accordion melody slowly sinks from high to low.
Just as elements can form bonds in chemistry, so are sound,images created in Levitation by mixing the „colours” of the two clarinets, the accordion and the string ensemble: the piece begins with a scene set in the street in an enormous storm: telephone boxes and traffic signs are uprooted by the wind; it is followed by a dream state, which often recurs in my works: My feet rose from the ground, hover about a metre above it. I certainly wasn’t flying but hovering over the landscape in a vertical posture. Then came gondolas floating over the water in lagoons and then the slowly rising body of a puppet, the “resurrection” of the fairy-tale character Petrushka
This is the chemistry of music.
/Peter Eötvös – 23 October, 2007/
Performances
Eötvös: Levitation
Petra Stump-Linshalm, Heinz-Peter Linshalm
Conductor: Ajtony Csaba
MIKAMO Central European Chamber Orchestra
Budapest Music Center
Eötvös: Levitation, Speaking drums
Eötvös: Levitation
Eötvös: Speaking drums
Concert: 23 November, Karlsruhe, Germany
Eötvös: Now, Miss! für violine und Violoncello, Hommage a Domenico Scarlatti, Psy, Dances of the Brush-Footed Butterfly, a Call, Para Paloma, Thunder, Cadenza, Levitation, Kosmos
Festspielhaus Hellerau
Soloist of Sachsischen Staatskapelle Dresden
Eötvös: Levitation
HR Orchestra, Frankfurt
conductor: Gregory Vajda
Eötvös: Levitation
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
Conductor: Zsolt Nagy
Funkhaus Halberg
Eötvös: Konzert für zwei Klaviere, Levitation
Rheingau Music Festival
Bartók: Tanzsuite
Eötvös: Konzert für zwei Klaviere
Eötvös: Levitation
Bartók: Musik für Saiteninstr., Schlg., Celesta
Cond: Peter Eötvös
SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart
Kurhaus
Eötvös: Konzert für zwei Klaviere, Levitation
Bartók: Tanzsuite
Eötvös: Konzert für zwei Klaviere
Eötvös: Levitation
Bartók: Musik für Saiteninstr., Schlg., Celesta
Cond: Peter Eötvös
SWR Orchestra
Eötvös: Konzert für zwei Klaviere, Levitation
Bartók: Tanzsuite
Eötvös: Konzert für zwei Klaviere
Eötvös: Levitation
Bartók: Musik für Saiteninstr., Schlg., Celesta
Cond: Peter Eötvös
SWR Orchestra
Eötvös portrait concert
BBC London
Paris-Dakar
Octet Plus
Derwischtanz
Sonata per sei
Psalm 151
Guildhall Ensemble, cond. Richard Baker
zeroPoints
Psychokosmos (Miklos Lukács, cimbalom)
Levitation (Richard Hosford, John Bradbury clarinets)
IMA (BBCSC + BBC Singers)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Peter Eötvös
Films:
"The Seventh Door" - portrait film
"Three sisters" - opera film
Barbican Center
Eötvös: IMA, Seven, Levitation, Snatches of a conversation
Composer portrait
Eötvös: IMA, Seven, Levitation
Zappa: 3 Orch. pieces
Bartók: Choirs
Cond: Peter Eötvös
Orch. Philharmonic Radio France
Eötvös: IMA, Seven, Levitation, Snatches of a conversation
Composer portrait
Eötvös: IMA, Seven, Levitation, Snatches of a conversation
Zappa: 3 Orch. pieces
Bartók: Choirs
Cond: Peter Eötvös
Orch. Philharmonic Radio France
Eötvös: IMA, Seven, Levitation, Snatches of a conversation
Composer portrait
Eötvös: IMA, Seven, Levitation
Zappa: 3 Orch. pieces
Bartók: Choirs
Cond: Peter Eötvös
Orch. Philharmonic Radio France
Eötvös: Levitation
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Cond: Marc Albrectht
Sabine Meyer, Wolfgang Meyer, clarinet
Eötvös: Levitation
Savaria Symph. Orch.
International Bartók Festival
Eötvös: Levitation, Seven, Steine
Composer in residence
Orchestre de Caen
Cond: Mark Foster
Akiko Suwanai, violin
Eötvös: Levitation
Suisse Romande Orch.
Conductor: Susanna Malkki
Eötvös: Levitation
GMEM Festival Les Musiques
17-26 April
Eötvös: Levitation
Gran Canaria Festival
Finnish Radio Orch.
Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Eötvös: Levitation
Gran Canaria Festival
Finnish Radio Orch.
Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Eötvös: Levitation
Finnish Radio Orch.
Conductor: S. Oramo
Eötvös: Levitation
first performance
Finnish Radio Orch.
Conductor: S. Oramo
Details
Publisher information
Schott Music Mainz
Orchestration
Clarinet solo 1 in Bb
Clarinet solo 2 in A
Accordion
8 Violins I
6 Violins II
4 Violas
4 Violoncellos
2 Double basses
Sound
Recordings
