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- Julius Eastman
Symphony No. II - The Faithful Friend: The Lover Friend's Love for the Beloved (1983)
- Music Sales Corporation (World)
Duration may range from 12-22 minutes, depending on interpretation.
Edited by Luciano Chessa.
- 3.2+2ca.0+3bcl+3cbcl.3+3cbn/0.0.3.3/6timp/str
- 22 min
Media
Scores
Features
- Independent Repertoire: American Optimism — Grappling with Dark and Light
- Since the early days of the United States, Americans have had a reputation for optimism and a particular attitude of possibility. Yet the U.S. has also faced great challenges in its history, from the Civil War to the Great Depression and present-day threats. Numerous scholars and cultural commentators have also noted our enduring streaks of both apocalyptic thinking and forthright engagement with life’s hardships. American composers have grappled with and balanced such forces of dark and light.
Reviews
Yes, the work ends abruptly, on a handful of exhausted staccato notes. And embedded in a texture of spendthrift immensity — stacked with extra tubas, contrabassoons, bass clarinets and 24 timpani — individual voices sound frightfully naked. But what’s most striking is the composer’s command of these monstrous forces.
The work opens with unison strings tracing a meandering line at a ritualistic pace. A dull, dissonant chord releases a dark haze, and from there on the music proceeds in an opposition between human gait and atmospheric forces. For much of the work’s duration, the timpani keep up a low, ominous rumble. When they ratchet up the volume, the sound rises like a tsunami that temporarily submerges everything else in darkness.
The end is carried by low wind instruments playing at the upper edge of their comfort zone, where the sound grows reedy and tense. The feeling that lingered for me as the audience erupted in applause was one of sacrifice, or at least surrender.
The work opens with unison strings tracing a meandering line at a ritualistic pace. A dull, dissonant chord releases a dark haze, and from there on the music proceeds in an opposition between human gait and atmospheric forces. For much of the work’s duration, the timpani keep up a low, ominous rumble. When they ratchet up the volume, the sound rises like a tsunami that temporarily submerges everything else in darkness.
The end is carried by low wind instruments playing at the upper edge of their comfort zone, where the sound grows reedy and tense. The feeling that lingered for me as the audience erupted in applause was one of sacrifice, or at least surrender.
21st November 2018
Discography
Dalia's Mixtape
- LabelPlatoon
- ConductorDalia Stasevska
- EnsembleBBC Symphony Orchestra
- Released30th August 2024
More Info
- Listen Now: World Premiere Recording of Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. II
- 17th September 2024
- 40 years after its composition, Symphony No. II - The Faithful Friend: The Lover Friend's Love for the Beloved by Julius Eastman has been recorded by conductor Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
- Eastman and Sibelius symphonies at the proms
- 20th August 2024
- The BBC Symphony Orchestra perform symphonies by Eastman and Sibelius in this Saturday's prom.
- Julius Eastman’s ‘Symphony No. II‘ receives German premiere at Freiburg
- 2nd July 2024
- Symphony No. II - The Faithful Friend: The Lover Friend's Love for the Beloved by Julius Eastman is performed for the first time in Germany on July 9 by Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg under the baton of André de Ridder.
