Sirens’s Song
for orchestra
Commissioned by Pannon Philharmonic Orch. – Pécs
Gürzenich Orch. – Köln, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg
Description
First performance: 25 March 2021 – Pécs
Pannon Philharm. Orch.
Conductor: Peter Eötvös
For millennia, sirens – killer birds with women’s heads – have been the most famous singers in mythology.
My composition “Sirens´s song” was inspired by three authors. According to Homer, the sirens seduced sailors with their bewitching song and then killed them. Ulysses cautiously puts wax in his ears, so that he can lay eyes on but cannot hear them. Kafka suggests that the sirens cunningly fooled Ulysses because they refused to sing for him, anyway.
The sirens are the muses of the underworld. Non only Joyce did they seduce but also all composers who have tried to make audible what Ulysses could never hear.
/Peter Eötvös/
Performances
Eötvös: Sirens´s Song, Focus
Marcus Weiss, saxophone
Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Sinfonieorch. Basel
Eötvös: Sirens´s Song, Focus
First performance
Marcus Weiss, saxophone
Conductor: Elena Schwarz
WDR Symph. Orch.
Eötvös: Sirens´ Song, Alhambra
Eötvös: Sirens´Song
Eötvös: Alhambra - violin concerto (Isabelle Faust, violin)
Debussy: Prélude à l´après-midi d´un faune
Debussy: Ibéria - Images pour orchestre No 2
Cond: Peter Eötvös
Concerto Orchestra
Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music
Eötvös: Siren´s song
Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Pannon Philharmonic
Eötvös: Siren´s song (first performance)
Bartók: Music for strings percussion and celesta
Kodály Center
Details
Publisher information
Orchestration
Middle-size orchestra
3333-2220-2 Perc- 14-12-10-8-6
or 12-10-8-6-4