Festivo

In a way, Festivo could be viewed as a double celebration.
Officially, it was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for the grand opening of its newly refurbished Duke's Hall in October 1993, with Lynn Harrell on the podium. On a more personal level, the work was devised as a birthday present to Patterson's old friend and mentor Krzysztof Penderecki, who turned 60 that same year. To mark the event, Patterson incorporated a Polish popular song, Sto lat, sto lat, which is that country's equivalent of our own For he's a jolly good fellow. The tune itself is never quoted outright, but it is never far away from the surface and it plays a pervasive role in the work's thematic landscape. The first Polish performance took place in Cracow and was performed by the Cracow Philharmonic in a concert to mark the 60th birthday of Krzystof Penderecki
That aside, all the first time listener needs to know about Festivo is that it's a 10-minute explosion of orchestral fireworks written in the form of a rondo, its rocketing Prestissimo pace never lets up, from the opening whipcrack right through to the final jubilant yawp of E major!

Paul Pellay, 29 - 5 - 2000.

Festivo

Festivo Op.74

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