Imagine a world without countries or religions. Is John Lennon inviting us to share in his vision of Utopia or is he conveying personal self-discovery in a melodic song? Olivier Messiaen composed Quartet for the End of Time while he was a prisoner of war, overcoming his adversity through music. The work premiered at German prison camp Stalag VIII-A in 1941 to an audience of 5,000 prisoners. Disability and human creativity transcend limits in Sergei Prokofiev's rarely performed Piano Concerto No. 4, which was written for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in WWI. Richard Strauss surveyed the destruction of his country after WWII and wrote his Four Last Songs, his final work, meditating on life, death, and the transfiguration into "the magic circle of the night." Dmitri Shostakovich's song cycle Four Songs, Op. 86 was written at the request of Yevgeni Dolmatovsky for a play that needed "aeronautical beacon," songs for a pilot to sing to help him navigate through the Alps. Eye of the Storm (태풍의 눈), Sung Jin Hong's world premiere composition inspired by traditional Korean drumming, pulsates with his personal experiences at the Demilitarized Zone. In the face of war, can miracles be born?
Performance length: 1 hour and 40 minutes with intermission
Tickets are $40 / $30 (students & seniors). For tickets and more information, please visit
www.oneworldsymphony.org or call 718-462-7270 718-462-7270 .