Instrumentation
3 (III=picc).3 (III=ca).3(III=Ebcl).3(III=cbsn) - 5.3.2.1 - timp - perc - harp - strings
Availability
Full score 0-571-52238-6 for sale and parts for hire
Programme Notes
Nicholas Maw’s opera Sophie’s Choice, based on the novel of the same name by William Styron, received its world premiere at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden on December 7, 2002, to great critical acclaim. Maw has created a Concert Suite from “Sophie’s Choice,” a 22-minute work for large orchestra deriving from the opera. This was given its world premiere by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hajime Teri Murai, at The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore on Saturday, April 24, 2004. Nicholas Maw is a member of the school’s composition faculty. “The contents of the Concert Suite,” says Maw, “are for the most part the purely orchestral interludes from the opera. I have included a version of the opera’s Prelude and the Epilogue which contain some of the same music. In the opera, the Prelude and the Epilogue are both sung by a character called The Narrator. In the Concert Suite, I have taken the voice part out and somewhat re-arranged the music. The musical elements in the Concert Suite are not in the same order as in the opera. I hope I have arranged them in a way that makes a satisfactory orchestral suite and gives it a sense of form.”