Mark Wigglesworth conducting ‘ABLAZE THE MOON’ as part of The BBC Proms 2023 @Chris Christodoulou
Mark Wigglesworth previously conducted The Imagined Forest with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in November last year, as well as giving the premiere of ‘ABLAZE THE MOON’ in July with The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, London, as part of the BBC Proms 2023.
In this duo of concerts centred around ‘Dreams’, Wigglesworth opened the programme with The Imagined Forest, followed by Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.1 with Ilya Gringolts and Sibelius’ Symphony No.1.
“Before this in this concert dubbed ‘Dreams’ came another treat: a new work of genuine beauty that actually had something to say...Descriptive in its nature painting and symphonic in breadth, it can fairly be described as a tone poem. It is a skillfully written, glistening score of delicacy and restraint.”
Conductor Mark Wigglesworth brought ‘The Imagined Forest’ down under for its Australian premiere this week with two performances by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide Town Hall, South Australia, on the 22nd and 23rd September.
“Mason’s The Imagined Forest cleverly maintained momentum while simultaneously allowing listeners to appreciate its greenery.
Mason projects a formidable presence through the composition’s tensile strength and sensitive beauty.”
“For Grace-Evangeline Mason’s The Imagined Forest (2021), audience members should be instructed to close their eyes and let their imaginations wander where they will.
Mason’s 13-minute delight (commissioned for the 150th anniversary of the Royal Albert Hall) might be described as a musically-guided meditation or a kind of aural virtual reality, as it places the audience in a state of relaxed attentiveness and takes us for a walk through a wonderland of colourful forms evoked by solo instrumental passages amid vivid orchestral interplay. One can even imagine the delicate aromas of a verdant forest wafting in the air... The music rises in power and then settles again in the latter stages. The composition’s lightness belies its complex and finely balanced orchestration, and the absence of rhythmic drive heightens the dreaminess.”
Mark Wigglesworth in rehearsal with the ASO for the ‘Dreams’ concert
The ASO woodwind section after the premiere concert of ‘The Imagined Forest’
“ it is picturesque work, creating a landscape of picnics and mountain hikes, fairy tales and fancies.”
