‘ABLAZE THE MOON’ (2023) for orchestra is inspired by the poem ‘Tonight’ by the American lyric poet, Sara Teasdale (1884-1933). The melodies in the piece follow the lines of the poem, which are full of vivid descriptions and begin ‘The moon is a curving flower of gold, the sky is still and blue; The moon was made for the sky to hold, and I for you.’
In this short concert opener, the image of the moon as a flower of gold hanging in a dark sky is alluded to by atmospheric passages that begin in the circling woodwinds. These are contrasted with deep punctuations suggesting the vast darkness that surrounds it. The woodwinds are sparked to fall and spiral, momentarily accentuating the dark backdrop of the sky. The music drives forward through the expanse, with the horns and brass building the texture, until the piece opens out into an ethereal, and celestial space as ‘the sky is luminous; eternity was made for them, to-night for us.’
The new concert-opener, ABLAZE THE MOON, was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to be premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 18 July by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. The new five-minute work draws inspiration from American lyric poet Sara Teasdale (1883-1933), with Mason’s melodies mirroring the lunar arcs heard in lines from the poem Tonight.
Sara Teasdale’s poetry also features in Mason’s recent sea-themed choral work A Memory of the Ocean, commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and AVROTROS in the Netherlands, which was premiered on 24th June by the Bristol Choral Society. Mark Wigglesworth returns to Mason’s music in September when he leads the Australian premiere of Mason’s The Imagined Forest with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The score has received more than a dozen international performances since its premiere at the Proms in 2021, recently including its US premiere with the Baltimore Symphony conducted by Jonathon Heyward.
Prom 6 opens with the premiere of ‘ABLAZE THE MOON’, followed by Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.1 performed by Sir Stephen Hough, and Mahler’s Symphony No.1, all performed by BBC Philharmonic and conducted by Mark Wigglesworth - a concert of Manchester connections celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Royal Northern College of Music, of which Mason and Hough are both alumni.
