Emmanuel Pahud is celebrated with a mini-festival, culminating in an award concert in Odense Concert House on 30 May 2024. As part of the celebration, the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation commissioned a new work by Bára Gísladóttir, which Emmanuel Pahud will premiere at the award concert.
Bára Gísladóttir wrote three different versions of her new piece, Lazy Venus Syndrome, a solo version, a version for solo flute and electronics and the version that will be performed at the award ceremony, Lazy Venus Syndrome (in good company) where Emmanuel Pahud is joined by a flute choir of approximately 70 flutes.
In the programme note, Gísladóttir writes about the work: "The work was spun out of (quite abstract) thoughts on the universe, stars, planets, symmetrical systems, astrology and large cusps of void – all gaining further (un)clarity when I reread one of my favourite books, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk:
My Venus is damaged, or in exile, that’s what you say of a Planet that can’t be found in the sign where it should be. What’s more, Pluto is a negative aspect to Venus, and in my case Pluto rules the Ascendant. The result of this situation is that I have, as I see it, Lazy Venus syndrome. That’s what I call this Conformity. In this case we’re dealing with a Person whom fortune has gifted generously, but who has entirely failed to use their potential. Such People are bright and intelligent, but don’t apply themselves to their studies, and use their intelligence to play card games or patience instead. They have beautiful bodies, but they destroy them through neglect, poison themselves with harmful substances, and ignore doctors and dentists.
This Venus induces a strange kind of laziness - lifetime opportunities are missed, because you overslept, because you didn’t feel like going, because you were late, because you were neglectful. It’s a tendency to be sybaritic, to live in a state of mild semi-consciousness, to fritter your life away on petty pleasures, to dislike effort and be devoid of any penchant of competition. Long mornings, unopened letters, things put off for later, abandoned projects. A dislike of any authority and a refusal to submit to it, going your own way in taciturn, idle manner. You could say such people are of no use at all."
The programme for the award concert also includes the premiere of Gísladóttir's work Ms. Ephemeris Abyss, which was originally written for the flute ensemble Viibra. For this occasion Ms. Ephemeris Abyss is also performed in a special version involving a large flute choir.
Find more information about the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2024 here.