Surge
for orchestra
(2022)
- Duration 6'
-
Instrumentation
Piccolo, 2 Flute, 3 Oboes, 3 Clarinet in Bb, 2 Bassoon, Contrabassoon, 4 Horn in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, 2 Percussions, Piano, Harp, Strings
Percussion 1: Snare Drum, Crash Cymbal, Tom-toms, Vibraphone, Suspended Cymbal, Marimba, Wood Blocks, Bass Drum, Flexatone
Percussion 2: Glockenspiel, Tom-toms, Whip, Marimba, Snare Drum, Wood Blocks, Bass Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Flexatone - Commission the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation
- Premiere the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Dalia Stasevska. January 20, 21, 2023.
Program Notes
While writing Surge, I remembered the exhilaration of hearing the New York Philharmonic for the very first time in the fall of 2005 as a newly arrived foreign student. I was staring at the stage and couldn’t believe where I was and what I was experiencing. I also thought of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s historical 1973 visit to Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, the power of “Music Diplomacy” that helped write a new history between two worlds. I connected the beautiful resonances and orchestral colors bouncing off the walls of what is now David Geffen Hall with the all too familiar phrases and orchestration that I used to listen to on cassette tapes, but many times more enhanced and poignant in person. There was also the memory of my conservatory's student orchestra sound, with its striving, joyful imperfections. The palette of the symphony orchestra is endlessly attractive and malleable because of each individual player’s unique contribution, and of coming together in the moment of performance, which is nothing short of magical. This is what draws me to contribute my own independent expression as a composer to this lineage.
– Wang Lu