Long premiere with 1500 pupils
Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang has written a work for orchestra and audience to mark Lucerne's 50th anniversary of the Kantonsschule am Alpenquai. It will be performed for the first time today and tomorrow at the KKL Lucerne. The orchestra and audience, including 1500 pupils, are equal partners.
On Monday, a meeting with the composer took place in the auditorium of the Kantonsschule Alpenquai Lucerne. He introduced the pupils to his new work. It is the first time that over 1500 pupils have been able to experience the creation process of a composition so closely.
The audience begins the first section of the work, entitled "As in the forest", by whispering the alphabet. Each person then answers questions in a "quiet and calm voice" about their earliest memory, their happiest childhood memory and an experience with someone who has a different language.
The last section is entitled "like walking across a field". The audience becomes a choir, speaking words and strings of words in the world language Esperanto to create "harmony and understanding". In this, grand gestures are condensed: the importance of voice and language for human culture, the importance of individuality and society and the importance of a common language. The common language is shown through the artificial world language Esperanto, a language that is free from national domination.
