DEATH OF LIGHT/ LIGHT OF DEATH
de Jonathan Harvey
Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) :
Death Of Light | Light Of Death, 1998
chamber ensemble of five players after Grunewald’s Crucifixion in the Issenheim Altarpiece.
1 JESUS CRUCIFIED (the body on the cross bearing gruesome scars of terrible physical torture)
2 MARY MAGDALENE (kneeling, leaning back to look wildly, passionately up at Jesus, hands imploring)
3 MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS (pale, in a deathly faint, wiped out)
4 JOHN THE APOSTLE (holding the senseless body of Mary, weeping hopelessly)
5 JOHN THE BAPTIST(by contrast completely impassive, grave, seeing another world, yet, from the other side of the picture, pointing at its subject, Jesus)
MUSICIANS
Piet Van Bockstal, oboe
Annie Lavoisier, harp, tam-tam
George van Dam, violin
Aurélie Entringer, viola
Geert De Bièvre, cello
Jean-Luc Plouvier, commentary
Production : Opéra de Lille
“No crucifixion has ever seemed so devastating”,
wrote the composer about Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece,
which is the inspiration behind his quintet in five movements.
From the cry of despair to the painful reassurance of the infinite beauty of the funeral march,
Harvey’s flamboyant mysticism is at its most intense.
Annie Lavoisier 
Bon concert autour du retable d’Issenheim, Annie. J’en ai beaucoup parlé dans mes cours et nous l’avons vu sur place. Amitiés, Jacqueline.
>