3.picc.3.corA.3(III=bcl).bcl.3.dbn-4.2WagnerTubas.3.3.1-perc(4):vib/tam-t/almglocken/Japanese Temple bells/marimba/BD/tom-t(lg)-bongo/timbales/glsp/bell plates/tuned gongs-cel-2harp-pft-strings
Abbreviations (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Frieze was created as a concert companion for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with one of the commissioners being the Royal Philharmonic Society who had funded Beethoven writing his final completed symphony. The work opens with the familiar open fifth and the four movements follow Beethoven’s ground plan for the Ninth with a mysterious and expansive opener, a menacing scherzo, a lyrical slow movement, and an energetic carnival-like finale leading to an exuberant close. The title refers to Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze at the Secession Building in Vienna, an earlier tribute to Beethoven — or rather Wagner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth — combining painting, gilding, mirrors, and mother-of-pearl to depict humanity struggling to overcome worldly suffering via the unification of the arts.
"...an audacious and vividly orchestrated piece from a major composer."
New York Times