Samuel Headrick
HOPE RISING is a three-movement symphony with a total duration of 35 minutes. The scoring for the first movement, entitled Elegy, is primarily delicate and chamber music-like, while the two subsequent movements present an ever-increasing growth in orchestral fullness, emotional intensity, and intellectual power.
The overall progression of the complete symphony likewise moves from the meditative and introspective Elegy, to the symphony’s namesake, Hope Rising, the faster, more intensely expressive centerpiece of the entire work. The symphony ends with a virtuosic, contrapuntal, scherzo-like finale, entitled, Awakenings, that brings the symphony to its energetic, celebratory conclusion.
Each movement of the symphony was also created as an independent, stand-alone composition. As such, Hope Rising was premiered by David Hoose conducting the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Elegy was premiered by Lukas Foss conducting the Boston University Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Globe praised the work and its composer as “Another tone of voice altogether…expansive melodic lines of unmistakable nobility…the ending was very beautiful, and eloquent as well…about the sensitivity and commitment the composer brought to his task.”