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Australian premiere for QWO |
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It has just been announced that QWO will perform the
Australian premiere of John Mackey’s Redline
Tango at their concert in November. Redline
Tango was the winner of the 50th ABA/Ostwald Original Band
Composition Award in 2005 and the 2004 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition
Prize. The piece takes its title
from two sources: the common term of ‘redlining an engine’ or
pushing it to the limit, and the ‘red line’ or the IRT subway line of
the New York subway system, which is the train that goes between the composer’s
apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and BAM, where this work was
premiered.
The work is in three sections. The first is the initial virtuosic ‘redlining’
section with constantly-driving 16th-notes and a gradual increase in intensity.
After the peak comes the second section, the ‘tango’, which is
rather light but demented and even a bit sleazy. A transition leads us back to
an even ‘redder’ version of the first section with one final pop at
the end. Originally commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, this is the
re-worked, or ‘windestrated’ version. Both the composer and the QWO
are very excited about Redline Tango
receiving its Australian premiere. It will be an exciting concert not to be
missed. |
