The Stars and the Roses
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The Stars and the Roses is a three-movement composition for tenor solo and orchestra set to the poetry of Czesław Miłosz by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was commissioned by the Berkeley Symphony, for which Stucky was then composer-in-residence. It was first performed on March 28, 2013 by the tenor Noah Stewart and the Berkeley Symphony under the conductor Joana Carneiro. The work was rewritten by Stucky in a chamber arrangement of the piece that premiered on October 18, 2013 by the Curtis 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble and tenor Roy Hage. The piece is dedicated to Stucky's wife Kristen.[1][2]
Background
The Stars and the Roses has a duration of roughly 15 minutes and is composed in three movements:[1]
- Happiness
- The Sun
- The Bird Kingdom
Stucky began composing a set of orchestral songs for the tenor Noah Stewart at the suggestion of the conductor Joana Carneiro, then music director of the Berkeley Symphony. Stucky chose to base the piece on three poems by Czesław Miłosz, writing in the score program notes, "I chose poems by Czesław Miłosz because I love his work, and because he was a Berkeley resident for many years." Stucky added:
Rather than the dark, melancholy poems of the war years, I gravitated toward lyrical texts expressing happiness and acceptance. These, it seemed to me, fit the medium of tenor with orchestra and the artistic personalities of Carneiro and Stewart. The first two texts call for a kind of tenderness and intimacy that strongly appealed to me, while "The Bird Kingdom" invited a brilliant, scherzo-like treatment.[1]
