Flying to Kahani
2005
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SKU: PE.EP68101
2005. Composed by Charles Wuorinen. Contemporary Large Ensemble/Orchestra. Modern. Full Score. Composed 2005. Duration 00:11:00. Edition Peters #EP68101. Published by Edition Peters (PE.EP68101).ISBN 9790300750279.
Commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Peter Serkin and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.
"KAHANI is the undiscovered "second moon of Earth" in Salman Rushdie's novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories, of which I have made an opera of the same name. Early on, after a translation from a nominally real-world environment (yet one, Marquez-like, of "magic realism"), to one of fantasy, the 11-year-old hero and a companion mount a mechanical bird to fly to this hidden satellite. As they approach their destination they come upon Kahani's vast sea - It is the Ocean of the Streams of Story, from which all stories originate.
For purposes of Flying to Kahani I prefer to think of this sea as the source of all compositions, of which Flying to Kahani is of course one. My opera has provided certain basic materials for the generation of the present work, but both in its form and its melos, it is quite distinct from its sources. In fact, it is a small piano concerto with a specific purpose, and while some of the soloist's substance ultimately derives from vocal elements in the opera, most of it is newly conceived to fulfill at once a virtuoso and an integrative role. The work is dedicated to Peter Serkin, whose poetic and brilliant pianism I had constantly in mind in composing the solo part, and which has been so impressive in my recent Fouth Piano Concerto, written for him and the Boston Symphony under James Levine.
At eleven minutes there is no time for a multi-movement design, but instead the work unfolds almost raga-like, in that slower music is usually succeeded by faster (with one or two exceptions)." - CW