“Paul Moravec’s new work The Overlook Hotel Suite is fantastic!” George Manahan, Music Director of the American Composers Orchestra, introduces us to Moravec’s new orchestral piece, as he looks forward to leading the October 28 world premiere at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. The Overlook Hotel Suite is based on Moravec’s critically acclaimed new opera The Shining, which premiered in May to sold-out audiences at the Minnesota Opera.
George Manahan; photo: Richard Bowditch
Manahan shares some insight into preparing Moravec’s work for its premiere. “The orchestration for Paul’s new suite is fun. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the Minnesota Opera’s world premiere staging. So, I studied and analyzed this work as I would with any new piece I conduct; and I believe it encapsulates the music from the opera. Paul’s suite is written for chamber orchestra — an economy of resources — and it definitely sets the mood of Stephen King’s original story. It’s clear that this score is about texture, color, and illusions with its ghostly effects, high society big band-music (think Benny Goodman), and frightening gestures that keep coming back like a mist that melts in-and-out of the musical atmosphere. I’m looking forward to hearing the suite come to life in rehearsals and then conducting the world premiere.”
Upcoming: M
oravec has two (!) world premieres in December. On the 3rd, the Harvard Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society (led by music director Andrew Clark) offer the first performance of Winter Songs as part of its celebrated “Christmas in Sanders” seasonal concert. On the 6th, David Curtis conducts the Orchestra of the Swan’s world premiere of the composer’s Nocturne in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK.
