Niels Marthinsen's Symphony No. 2 - Snapshot Symphony (2009). 1st movement Fiesta Mexicana: fortissimo accelerando (ca. 6 minutes) 2nd movement Arabian Nights: adagio intensivo e furioso (ca. 11 minutes) 3rd movement Great Fireworks in China: giocoso esplosivo e marcatissimo (ca. 8 minutes)   Programme note I’ve never been to Mexico and Arabia or to China. But I love the way those countries sound in Hollywood movies and inpop culture generally: When Clint Eastwood rides south of the border when Disney’s Alladin or Mulan takes me far east when arabic pop music roars past me out of the open windows of a car... and bull fighter music and the sound of acrobatic beat-em-up’s in John Woo’s Hong Kong karate movies – and so on: powerful images splashed all over my eye balls and ear drums. My recollections of this ethnic-pop-film-music has turned itself into a symphony. And I don’t even have to just remember what I have heard: A few internet clicks gives me access to incredible sound libraries containing live-and-kicking ethnic music from my three favorite countries just waiting to be put together in new combinations and energize my personal imagery.  The symphony is like a huge slide show – musical snapshots from my travels in the western pop culture versions of three exotic locations: Mexico Arabia and China – original and popular melodies welded together by my personal musical language and associations. I use all the effects of modern pling-plong-music plus a few of my own inventions to create a spectacular contemporary orchestral sound sporting a bee hive of melodies from either East or West played simultaneously in different keys and differents tempos at once while kept firmly in place by

Composed in 1964 Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum is a religious piece by Olivier Messiaen which title means “And I wait for the resurrection of the dead”. Commissioned by André Malraux this orchestra lasts approximately 35 minutes and was written for the commemoration of the dead in the world wars. It features five movements: I. 'Des profondeurs de l'abîme je crie vers toi Seigneur: Seigneur écoute ma voix!' II. 'Le Christ ressuscité des morts ne meurt plus; la mort n'a plus sur lui d'empire.' III. 'L'heure vient où les morts entendront la voix du Fils deDieu...' IV. 'Ils ressusciteront glorieux avec un nom nouveau -- dans le concert joyeux des étoiles et les acclamations des fils du ciel.' V. 'Et j'entendis la voix d'une foule immense...' This is the conductor's score which includes all parts. Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was a French Organist and composer passionate about Ornithology and one of the most important composers of his century. Inspired by Japanese music he had a very special way of composing and his work can be identified by its complexity its diatonic aspect its harmony with limited transposition its colour and its additive rhythms. He composed many works related to ornithology and birdsongs including the Bird Catalogue in 7 volumes and the Treatise on rhythm colour and ornithology in 7 volumes.