Michael Hersch: I hope we get a chance to visit soon

Featuring

Ah Young Hong
Kiera Duffy
Anna Matz
Messun Hong Coleman
Joel Hunter
Beni Santora

Piotr Zimnik
Raphael Schenkel
Gary Louie
Cody Dean
Amy Yang
Tito Muñoz
Michael Hersch

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Recording & Production

This recording is a live performance from the 2018 Aldeburgh Music Festival, recorded by the BBC, and was originally aired on the BBC Radio 3 programme "Hear and Now."

Compositional Technique

The first and longest section of the work adapts and elaborates on an earlier piece by Hersch, "…das Rückgrat berstend," setting fragments of Christopher Middleton's (1926-2015) verse in both English and German.

Compositional Technique

The work features two soloists, Soprano I and Soprano II, whose distinct texts — direct letters from Mary Harris O'Reilly and metaphorical poetry from Rebecca Elson — are often heard separately, in alternation, or in counterpoint.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Composer Michael Hersch described "I hope we get a chance to visit soon" as an elegy, a work of lamentation and remembrance, intensified by his own experience as a cancer survivor.

Composition History

The principal texts for "I hope we get a chance to visit soon" are drawn from the correspondence of Mary Harris O'Reilly (1964-2009), a close friend of the composer who died of ovarian cancer, and poetry by Rebecca Elson (1960-1999), who also succumbed to cancer.

Composition History

Michael Hersch's monodrama, "I hope we get a chance to visit soon," is a companion piece to his earlier work, "On the Threshold of Winter," both addressing the topic of cancer.