Danielpour's "Toward a Season of Peace" is a seven-movement oratorio in Hebrew, Farsi, Arabic, Aramaic and English...
Richard Danielpour,
composer. Pacific Symphony.
SEE article entitled: "Persian culture celebrated at American Composers Festival"
--featured in LA Times Entertainment March 18, 2012 (and several other US & world media sources...
(I went to High School and spent some of my College/University years in Orange County and applaud this elegant selection. I will BEG that an audio and written transcription of this once-in-a-lifetime work for art, beauty and world-peace be available to the general public! Below the featured article, find other special features which highlight Spring, Iran, Bangladesh and the World at large. These Persian artist/musicians -- with their bounteous background -- are leading the way: let's follow them in their love of humanity, beauty, and creation. Connie)
This event held in Costa Mesa -- a major city of Orange County, Calif -- will feature Iranian conductor Farhad Mechkat and the WORLD premiere of an oratorio by Iranian American composer Richard Danielpour.
Steve Hochman, Special to the Los Angeles Times
March 18, 2012
Carl St.Clair, the music director and principal conductor of Orange Country's Pacific Symphony, was a bit taken aback at one of the programming choices for the 2012 edition of the organization's American Composers Festival...
There's a world premiere of an oratorio by Iranian American composer Richard Danielpour and collaborations between the symphony and Persian music troupe the Shams Ensemble.
And to kick off each of the first three nights in the four-day festival at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Iranian conductor Farhad Mechkat — a "distinguished hero," St.Clair says, for his progressive efforts at the helm of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra in the years leading to the 1979 Islamic revolution — is being flown in to lead the orchestra in a classic he handpicked for the event.
But it's that choice that gave St.Clair pause: "The Dances of Galánta" by Zoltán Kodály. Yes, a suite of pieces written in 1933 by a Hungarian composer from folk dances of his childhood home town.
What does this have to do with Nowruz or Persian American culture?
"The specifically Iranian part of it is myself!" Mechkat says.
He laughs heartily at his declaration but stands by his selection.
"The theme of the evening is the coming of spring," says Mechkat, whose résumé includes bringing the Tehran Symphony Orchestra to world-class stature in the years before the revolution. "The joyful celebratory character of Kodály's music is most apropos."
St.Clair, though, wasn't so sure. After all, the rest of the program is at once directly tied to the theme and impressively ambitious.
Danielpour's "Toward a Season of Peace" is a seven-movement oratorio in Hebrew, Farsi, Arabic, Aramaic and English, sung by soprano Hila Plitmann and the Pacific Chorale, capping the composer's midlife reconciliation with, and exploration of, his Persian heritage. The Shams Ensemble has crafted arrangements of traditional material for collaborative performances with the symphony.
(Plz Note! :) And in preparation for his role (for this premiere Carl) St.Clair took on intensive study of Persian history and culture, developing a passionate attachment to the mystical verse of 13th century poet RUMI -- the key figure in Persian/Sufi arts...
PLZ READ the rest and leave your comments under this unique LA Times article -- where I happily just left the FIRST comment: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-persian-music-20120318,0,3188357.story
You may want to find this article with a simple online search as transcribing the LA url seems tricky right now -- happy reading and Nowruz Mabarak!
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