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Concert Suite from Sophie’s Choice (2002/2004)
Nicholas Maw (b. 1935)

            Commissioned by the Royal Opera of Covent Garden, Nicholas Maw’s opera Sophie’s Choice, based on the novel of the same name by William Styron, received its world premiere conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden on December 7, 2002, to great critical acclaim. Two years later Maw created a Concert Suite from Sophie’s Choice, a 22-minute work for large orchestra deriving from the opera, which received its world premiere by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hajime Teri Murai, at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore on April 24, 2004.  Maw, who is a member of the school’s composition faculty, has written the following note for the Concert Suite:

            The contents of the Concert Suite are for the most part the purely orchestral interludes from the opera. I have included a version of the opera’s Prelude and the Epilogue that contain some of the same music. In the opera the Prelude and the Epilogue are both sung by a character called The Narrator. In the Concert Suite I have taken the voice part out and somewhat re-arranged the music. The musical elements in the Concert Suite are not in the same order as in the opera. I hope I have arranged them in a way that makes a satisfactory orchestral suite and gives it a sense of form.

 Not recorded