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The Encantadas (orchestral work)

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The Encantadas (orchestral work)
by Tobias Picker
The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
GenreModernist
Occasion175th Anniversary of The Albany Symphony Orchestra
Commissioned byAlbany Symphony Orchestra
Composed1983 (1983)
PerformedOctober 14, 1983 (1983-10-14): Palace Theatre, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
Movements6

The Encantadas is an orchestral composition written by the American composer Tobias Picker in 1984 for the Albany Symphony Orchestra.[1]

History

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Drawn from Herman Melville's descriptions of the Galapagos Islands,[2] The Encantadas was commissioned by the Albany Academy in celebration of its 175th anniversary. It was premiered by the Albany Symphony Orchestra on October 14 and 15, 1983, at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and the Albany Palace Theatre with Michael Arkin as Narrator, conducted by Julius Hegyi.[3]

The Encantadas has been recorded by the Houston Symphony,[4] with Christoph Eschenbach as conductor and John Gielgud as narrator,[5] as well as by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, led by Giancarlo Guerrero.[6][7][8]

Movements

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The Encantadas is in six movements:

  1. Dream
  1. Desolation
  1. Delusion
  1. Diversity
  1. Din
  1. Dawn

Influence

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Oliver Sacks, a personal friend of Picker,[9] wrote of the inspiration he took from Picker's music in the preface to his book, Island of the Color Blind, saying he "owe[d] a special debt to Tobias Picker's version of The Encantadas, and that "whenever, in the writing, memory failed me, listening to the piece operated as a sort of Proustian mnemonic, transporting me back to the Marianas and the Carolines."[10]

References

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  1. ^ "The Encantadas". Schott Music. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  2. ^ Schwarz, K. Robert (May 2, 1999). "A Composer Freed by Opera To Be Tonal And Tuneful". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  3. ^ "Tobias Picker's The Encantadas in Boston". Schott Music. 1 September 2006. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Picker: The Encantadas, Old and Lost Rivers & Romances and Interludes". Warner Classics Music. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  5. ^ Gold, Gerlad (March 31, 1991). "RECORD NOTES; Good, Bad and Just So-So". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  6. ^ "Picker: Opera Without Words - The Encantadas". Naxos Recordings. 1 August 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Picker: Opera Without Words - The Encantadas". Gramophone Magazine. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  8. ^ "Tobias Picker Narrates The Encantadas with the Nashville Symphony". Schott Music. 1 March 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  9. ^ Harries, Rhiannon. "How We Met: Oliver Sacks & Tobias Picker". The Independent. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  10. ^ Oliver Sacks, The Island of the Colorblind, Illustrated Edition, (New York: Vintage, 1998), p. xxi. ISBN 9780375700736

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