Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Josefine Opsahl
Hands (2023)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Commissioned by Århus Sinfonietta
- 2.1.2.3/ 2.2.2.1 /timp.4perc/harp/cel/6.5.4.4.2
- Cello
- 33 min
Programme Note
Humankind’s evolutionary development takes a quantum leap when man arises from the ground. This enables the species to use its hands for new purposes and quickly leads to the creation of tools. Along with the motor development of the hands the human brain matures accordingly and results in the formation of refined systems, societies, cultures and expressions.
In Hands Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Opsahl investigates the balance and interdependency between body and mind; nature and culture, integration and disintegration of the two human aspects in a modern world increasingly ruled by the computerized, alienating, yet alleged ‘extended human mind’.
The work unfolds a unified analogue auditive and visual aesthetic that use and emphasize the natural musical movements of the soloist’s and the orchestra’s hands to shape a collective choreography reflecting upon the hands being core human medias for expression, for the shaping and development of the mind, communities and cultures.
Hands o will call for us to remember the importance of analogue expression and communities deriving from the evolution of hands, bodily manifestation, craftsmanship and discipline as a counterpoint to the detaching and lonesome digitized reality of today
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Reviews
Josefine Opsahl has the ability to set a scene: her new cello concerto HANDS for Aarhus Sinfonietta+ went from mysterious and neoclassical sound worlds over the folkloristic to neoromantic depths.
If you love the fast, the agile and the glamorous, you will indeed enjoy Opsahl's HANDS.
The music blasted through the hall recalling the final peak of a Hollywood film (…) where all the forces of good finally unite and triumph.
Opsahl's cello sound is truly beautiful; not the excessively wide one that we often encounter, but a slender and distinct expression. An expression that matches the soloist's appearance on stage.
The music expands, now first the harp and then the celeste joins in - heavenly!
The whole orchestra unites in the music echoing the solo cello through all the parts. We are hearing a truly classical work unfold as the work presents us with a core Central European melodiousness that evokes distant images of for example Dvorak's cello concerto
I hear an optimism, a joie de vivre. A joyfulness that also ripples through the hall in the audience's enthusiastic applause and standing ovation after the last note. There are smiles on everyone's faces.
And there's good reason to be happy - we've gotten one more solid, new Concerto for Cello and Orchestra to add to the repertoire.