On Sunday’s (11/23) YourObserver.com (Sarasota, Fla.), June LeBell reviews a recent performance of Heiner Goebbels’s 2007 work Songs of Wars I Have Seen by members of the Sarasota Orchestra. “Based on one of Gertrude Stein’s books, Goebbels has taken the rhythm and cadence of Stein’s written words and turned them into a visual, visceral experience that seems to grow on you even after the last sounds have ceased ringing from the stages…. Set on the smallish platform of Holley Hall, the orchestra, featuring members of the Sarasota Orchestra, is placed by gender, with the men—in black attire—sitting on risers upstage … and the women, dressed as if at home … are assembled as a septet.” The seven women “put aside their musical instruments to read the Stein stories and they did it in a way that allowed the words to become part of the music.” Sarasota Orchestra Music Director Anu Tali “held all of this together in a way we’ve rarely seen in orchestra performances.”
Posted November 24, 2014
