#70 – November 23, 2020
OLE SCHMIDT (1928 – 2010)
HOMMAGE A STRAVINSKY
for Orchestral Winds
Movement I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UioQ1GjI22A
Movement II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBp1FxKZ9Yo
Movement III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLugiMnUHXU
Hommage a Stravinsky by Danish composer Ole Schmidt is our Composition of the Week.
Written in 1985 and published in 2004, Hommage… has a duration of 10 minutes and uses the following instrumentation:
2.2.2.2/4.3.3.1.Perc (2)
“Ole Schmidt is one of Denmark’s leading composers and conductors; his Hommage a Stravinsky was written in early 1985 and has already been broadcast and performed many times in Denmark. The work is a humorous and affectionate tribute to the music of possibly the most eclectic of composers, lgor Stravinsky, and this homage reflects all of the different facets of his output. Within the three short movements there are obvious references to works as disparate as the Mendelssohn Wedding March and Rhapsody in Blue, entwined with well-known material from all of Stravinsky’s major works, as well as a more subtle employment of favourite motifs and rhythmic patterns. But much more significant than this is the striking way in which Schmidt has captured the very essence of Stravinsky’s various styles in his instrumentation, harmonic and rhythmic procedures and in the overall construction of the work. One constantly feels that Stravinsky might well have produced exactly this piece if he had been asked for a witty potpourri of past masterpieces.”
Program Notes by Tim Reynish
Ole Schmidt was a composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. During a career of more than forty years, he has cut a versatile figure on the Danish music scene, although Ole Schmidt is best known internationally as a conductor. He achieved world renown as a conductor in 1974, when he recorded the symphonies of Carl Nielsen with the London Symphony Orchestra in the wintry surroundings of St Giles Church in London.
You can see the score here:
https://issuu.com/edition-s/docs/hommage
More on Ole Schmidt
