WORKING WITH WAYNE
Like Nissinen, McGregor had listened to Salonen’s music and followed his career for years. He had previously choreographed a ballet to Salonen’s score Foreign Bodies in 2010. “I’m a fan of Esa-Pekka, and I think that’s how it starts,” said McGregor in an INTERVIEW WITH THE ROYAL BALLET. “You find something that really inspires you, makes you want to get into the studio and make something, and those are the people you want to work with, people who really fire your imagination.” When McGregor heard the premiere of Salonen’s Nyx in Paris in 2011, he was awed by the overwhelming power, physicality, and seductiveness of the piece, so he asked Salonen to save the music for him to choreograph.
According to Russell Platt of THE NEW YORKER, Salonen’s “greatest strength as a composer is as an orchestrator: he not only selects and combines instrumental colors in a precise and radiant manner but deploys them with enormous physical energy.” It was this intense physicality that also inspired McGregor to choreograph to Salonen’s music.
Many musicians consider their instruments to be an extension of their bodies, and Salonen keeps this physical component in mind when he composes. “From this to actual dance, it’s a very short step because the body is the instrument, and the instrument is not the extension of the body but the body itself is the instrument,” said Salonen in an interview with The Royal Ballet.
Salonen had been fascinated by Nyx, the Greek goddess of night, for many years because her story and genesis are mostly unknown. According to Greek mythology, Nyx is an ancient deity shrouded in a veil of shadowy mists who is said to have spawned dark spirits, including Sleep, Darkness, Death, and Retribution, as well as Brightness, Day, and Eros. It is this ambiguity and shadowiness that Salonen explores in his orchestration. As THE NEW YORK TIMES classical music critic David Allen notes, “Mr. Salonen revels in the aural possibilities of a full orchestra, and ‘Nyx’ stomps around with teeming complexity. Arguably, it’s most evocative when most tender.” In Obsidian Tear, McGregor has juxtaposed Nyx—its power, grandeur, and sensuality— with Salonen’s Lachen verlernt, a piercing, melancholy solo for violin.
You can listen to Salonen’s score HERE, along with other music on the program by Jean Sibelius. We are excited to kick off our 2017–2018 season with Obsidian Tear (Nov 3–12) and share this thrilling marriage of sight and sound with you.
