Composition Comission to Philippe Manoury

Odyssey Europe. A Lab-Oratory
Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Germany

Together with Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra under the baton of François-Xavier Roth French composer Philippe Manoury has been working for several years on his Köln Trilogy in which he systematically sounds out the acoustic, structural and aesthetic possibilities of modern concert hall architecture. Philippe Manoury is to encapsulate his research in the field of electronics and spatial music in an oratory work for soloists, actors, vocal ensemble, amateur choir, a spatially divided orchestra and live electronics. Software newly developed by the composer at Paris’ IRCAM allowing new interactions between spoken language and music played a special role here. The potential of this software will not only be leveraged here for the first time in the context of speaking and soloist singing voices but also with the capabilities of a large vocal ensemble. Filling an entire evening the content of the work revolves around a contemporary odyssey in search of the utopia of a multilingual, borderless Europe – a treasure that risks being lost due to current political developments. When creating the text basis and the form Philippe Manoury will once again be collaborating with Nicolas Stemann.

The oratory forms the conclusion and highpoint of the trilogy and will be performed three times as part of the subscription series of the Gürzenich Orchestra and then finally at Philharmonie de Paris and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, in each case in collaboration with an amateur ensemble.

May 21, 22 & 23, 2019
Cologne Philharmonic

May 27, 2019
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

June 3, 2019
Philharmonie de Paris

Further Information:
www.guerzenich-orchester.de