In music, the imitation of animals is an age-old practice. Some even speculate that it may lie at the very origins of music. But direct musical depictions are not always used. Analogies can also be drawn with qualities of movement or culturally constructed allusions. Even if this is not the composer’s intention, the listener is free to make whatever mental associations they wish. Sometimes, these associations go ‘viral’. This is how the final movement of Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 82 came to be associated with the bear; because the music is reminiscent of the bagpipes that traditionally accompanied dancing bears at 18th-century folk fairs. The first movement of Symphony No. 83, in turn, evokes the clumsy gait and clucking of hens. In more recent times, Christian Lindberg placed the double bass at the forefront of the orchestra to evoke the agility and strength of the black bear. In doing so, he challenges the limits of the instrument, here entrusted to the hands of Ercole de Conca.
Zoo Sinfonias
Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa
F. Haydn Symphony No. 82, ‘The Bear’
Christian Lindberg ‘Blackbear in Motion’, concerto for double bass and orchestra
F. Haydn Symphony No. 83, ‘The Hen’
Soloist: Ercole de Conca double bass
Sylvain Gasançon conductor
