Birkat Haderekh – Blessing for the Road II

Description

Clarinet in Bb, Alto Saxophone, Violin, Cello, Percussion, Piano — In celebration of its 75th anniversary season, the Tanglewood Music Center commissioned a mixed quartet from Shulamit Ran, resulting in this work's original 2015 scoring for Bb Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano. Birkat Haderekh (in either scoring) may be heard as a "prayer without words" in which the saxophone and clarinet figure most prominently in cantillation-inspired cadenzas that frame the work and dramatically emerge throughout. The present sextet scoring was created in 2016 for Latitude 49's world premiere at the Ear Taxi Festival in Chicago.