Mirage: The Dancing Sun
(Mirage: Die tanzende Sonne) (2002)Sikorski
‘Fata Morgana: The Dancing Sun’ by Sofia Gubaidulina was premiered on 10 May 2002 in Beauvais, France. The composition, commissioned by the Cello Ensemble Festival, will be performed by the Octuor de Violoncelles de Beauvais.
The composer: ‘The unusual instrumentation (8 cellos) offers a multitude of sound and textural possibilities. The luminous natural harmonics were particularly interesting for me. I used them to express the shape of a dancing sun. Let's imagine the image of a sun disc spinning very rapidly around its own stationary centre, throwing ‘flaming arrows’ in different directions. This image emerges in the last third of the work. Everything that happens before is merely a preparation for this moment.’ (Sofia Gubaidulina)