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Prelude for Orchestra (Fantasie Symphonique) - 1998 (rev.2011)                       

9:00

(*3*3*3*3 / 4331 / T / 2 Perc / Hrp / Strings)

 

Composed for and Commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

 

  • Premiere: January 29, 1998, Centenial Concert Hall, Winnipeg/Manitoba, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey - Conductor

  • Revised Premiere: November 6, 2011, Orpheum Theater, Vancouver/British Columbia, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey - Conductor

 

Prelude is available from the Canadian Music Centre

 

Prelude for Orchestra was my first orchestral commission, and second work for symphony orchestra. 

 

It is broken into three sections, slow, fast, and slow, with the middle fast section moving at a furious pace.  As I was so impressed with what I had seen the Winnipeg Symphony do with my own work, Rhapsody, as well as with the many other pieces they played, I wanted to write a fiery opener to showcase their many talents.

 

In retrospect, I find this work to be symbolic of the beginnings of my life as a professional musician.  The mood is dark and serious, but also energetic and youthful.

 

Reviews:

 

Concert Delivers Explosive Impact

Gwenda Ramsay, The Winnipeg Free Press, January 30, 1998

 

"From the tentative opening notes of Scott Good's Fantasie Symphonique (ed. Prelude) one sensed something big and explosive was imminent.  In Just 8 minutes, Good took listeners through what seemed like the eruption of a volcano.

 

This work, strongly featuring the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras enviable wind and percussion sections, built up tension gradually, then exploded with torrents of notes, like molten lava.

 

The calm after the storm soon followed, slowly weakening and retreating.  This is a dynamic, vivid composition."

 

Vancouver Classical Music - A Festival of Diversity

Geoffrey Newman, Vancouver Classical Music, November 6, 2011

 

     "The youthful tradition is also represented in Scott Good’s Prelude for Orchestra, a revised version of his first commissioned piece, premiered in 1998 when the composer was 26.  This is effective writing, starting with the ominous feeling of ‘Mars’ in Holst’s The Planets, and developed with the seriousness found in, say, William Schuman, the American composer."

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