12 Jul 2018

Poul RUDERS: Light Overture

From Music Alive, 8:00 pm on 12 July 2018

Poul Ruders wrote his Light Overture for the 100th Anniversary of the Alabama Power Company. 

Light music for a light company ... get it?

Played by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Giordano Bellincampi in Auckland Town Hall, 12 July 2018.

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Photo: Zouavman Le Zouave CC3.0

Poul Ruders is a prolific Danish composer born in 1949.

This piece dates from 2006, when it was commissioned to mark the Alabama Power Company’s 100th anniversary.  So there’s a pun in the title: it’s a light overture because the power company provides light.

But there’s also a nod to the tradition of light music – a piece setting a festive mood.

Structurally the piece follows the form of a prelude and fugue, and it’s in five short sections which the composer calls ‘chapters’.

Recorded by RNZ Concert in Auckland Town Hall, 12 July 2018
Producer: Tim Dodd
Engineer: Adrian Hollay

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