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6
HALFFTER
Music for
Madrid and
Dresden
For the occasion of his 75th birthday,
Christóbal Halffter (born on 24
March 1930) was invited by the
Dresden Philharmonic to compose
an orchestral work. Palimsesto for
timpani and orchestra will receive
its première on 5 Feb 2005 at the
Kulturpalast in Dresden, conducted
by Pedro Halffter and with Alexander
Peter, timpani; the piece is dedicated
to the memory of longserving
artistic director Olivier von
Winterstein.
Palimsesto means to write or paint
something anew on a page or a
canvas on which something has already
existed. … I used this process
on a piece which I had composed
halffter
back in 1956. Of this score, I left only
the formal structure intact. Over it I
laid sound surfaces of various dynamic
densities, resulting from my experience
during the nearly 50 years
spent composing since then.
Hence, Palimsesto is a "new" score in
which the "old" elements can still be
heard, depending on where we
focus our eyes or our ears. (Halffter)
In celebration of the 100th birthday
of the Orquesta Sinfónica de
Madrid, Halffter wrote Eritaña for
orchestra, an arrangement of the
original piano piece Eritaña from
Isaac Albeniz' piano cycle Iberia.
The orchestra is given the role of
the main instrument. World première:
30 December 2004, Teatro
Real, Madrid, c. Rafael Frühbeck de
Burgos.