Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Members of the Grossman Ensemble and guest artists perform _Ophelia Dances, Book I_ by Oliver Knussen on October 1, 2022 at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, IL.
Emma Hospelhorn, flute
Andrew Nogal, English horn
Katherine Jimoh, clarinet
Matthew Oliphant, horn
Daniel Pesca, piano
MingHuan Xu, violin
Doyle Armbrust, viola
Nick Photinos, cello
Winston Choi, celeste
Stefan Asbury, conductor
Christopher L. Willis, audio recording and production
Mike Grittani, video production
Faber Music, publisher and licensor
https://cccc.uchicago.edu
Program note by the composer:
Why is Ophelia dancing? Partly as an instrumental response to Shakespeare’s description of her chanting ‘snatches of old tunes/ As one incapable of her own distress’, and partly because I wanted to write a piece whose light-headed and giddy qualities would suggest a crossing of the line that divides laughter from tears. The ‘old tunes’ in this piece are Schumann’s Carnaval, whose mottos provided much of its melodic and harmonic material, and two late works of Debussy, La boîte à joujoux and Gigues. There is an introduction, four dances (which become more and more compressed) and a long slow coda, all played continuously. Ophelia Dances was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation and first performed in New York in May 1975 by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Members of the Grossman Ensemble and guest artists perform _Ophelia Dances, Book I_ by Oliver Knussen on October 1, 2022 at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, IL.
Emma Hospelhorn, flute
Andrew Nogal, English horn
Katherine Jimoh, clarinet
Matthew Oliphant, horn
Daniel Pesca, piano
MingHuan Xu, violin
Doyle Armbrust, viola
Nick Photinos, cello
Winston Choi, celeste
Stefan Asbury, conductor
Christopher L. Willis, audio recording and production
Mike Grittani, video production
Faber Music, publisher and licensor
https://cccc.uchicago.edu
Program note by the composer:
Why is Ophelia dancing? Partly as an instrumental response to Shakespeare’s description of her chanting ‘snatches of old tunes/ As one incapable of her own distress’, and partly because I wanted to write a piece whose light-headed and giddy qualities would suggest a crossing of the line that divides laughter from tears. The ‘old tunes’ in this piece are Schumann’s Carnaval, whose mottos provided much of its melodic and harmonic material, and two late works of Debussy, La boîte à joujoux and Gigues. There is an introduction, four dances (which become more and more compressed) and a long slow coda, all played continuously. Ophelia Dances was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation and first performed in New York in May 1975 by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
