Simon Steen-Andersen / Photo credit: SWR Classic
Last Friday, October 18, Simon Steen-Andersen's TRIO world premiered at the opening concert at Donaueschinger Musiktage. Connecting all three SWR ensembles the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Vocal Ensemble, and the SWR Big Band, with historical video clips from the SWR archive, Simon Steen-Andersen has received the SWR Orchestra Prize.
In their motivation the jury wrote:
The decision falls upon a piece, which through the virtuosity and accurate implementation of its compositional craftsmanship knows and honours the orchestral tradition and translates it into composing today. But it is more than that: it makes a long-overdue meeting possible of three different ensembles of sound with their history and media presence. A video as a separate instrument, choir and big band as partners, and the orchestra as a part of the whole story.
Read the motivation in German here
Simon Steen-Andersen and the SWR Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal / Photo: James Black
Working in a large format, the creational process of TRIO has been new and comprehensive. All the material used in TRIO is archive recordings of the SWR film archive. Thus, the 45-minute piece is merging many different pieces into one, making the work highly virtuoso as three conductors, a click-track, and pieces of music in many different tempos are combined.
Watch the live stream of TRIO here
Edition·S congratulates Simon Steen-Andersen for this prize.