''Parada'' is an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l composition by the Finnish composer

Magnus Lindberg Magnus Gustaf Adolf Lindberg (born 27 June 1958) is a Finnish composer and pianist. He was the New York Philharmonic's composer-in-residence from 2009 to 2012 and has been the London Philharmonic Orchestra's composer-in-residence since the b ...

. The piece was composed for the music festival Related Rocks which celebrates the works of Lindberg and related composers. Its world premiere was given at

The Anvil, Basingstoke The Anvil is a concert hall and a performing arts centre in the town of Basingstoke in Hampshire, UK. Built on a site originally set aside for the third phase of Basingstoke's shopping centre, The Anvil was built to tackle what was then seen as ...

on February 6, 2002 by the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, ...

under the direction of

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music dir ...

, to whom the work is dedicated.

Composition

''Parada'' is composed in a single slow movement and has a duration of approximately 13 minutes.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a large orchestra consisting of two flutes (2nd doubling

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the s ...

), two

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

English horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...

, two clarinets,

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave ...

, two bassoons (2nd doubling

contrabassoon The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences. Differences from the bassoon The reed is cons ...

), four horns, two

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

s, three

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th&n ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditiona ...

, two percussionists, harp,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

(doubling

celesta The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five- octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box ...

), and strings.

Reception

''Parada'' has been praised by music critics. Reviewing the world premiere, Fiona Maddocks of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'' opined, "''Parada'', part of the Related Rocks festival, is an expansive, mainly slow (unusual for Lindberg) single movement. It opens with lush, dream-like massed strings, muted and using vibrato. Within this slow trajectory, moments of rapid action and clarity - brass explosions and woodwind ripples - unsettle the hazy stillness, dying away with simple cello pizzicatos. Lindberg achieves luminous orchestral effects, holding the sounds poised as if centrifugally. The Philharmonia, now well groomed in his style, made masterly work of its subtleties." Reviewing the United States premiere by the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

, Mark Swed of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' wrote, "Magnus Lindberg's ''Parada'' begins with a slow parade of chords. They are somber but colorful. They move with solemn grace, like ghostly visions floating through a fog. And when you have resonant chords like these--complex and new, yet somehow familiar-sounding, cloaked in beautiful sonorities, awash in mystery--you have a pretty good sense that something special is about to follow in their wake." He added, "It is a weighty slow movement, with lots of fast things happening on the surface and distant hints of Sibelius." Anne Midgette of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' called it "an attractive braid of music created by winding two disparate ideas - a fast scherzo and the slow shimmer of strings - into a single whole, now full, now slender, set off with gleaming beads of percussion, tapering at the end to something gentle and warm." She added, "It took a big orchestra, including a full complement of percussion, but felt light." However, reviewing a recording of the piece alongside other Lindberg works, the magazine ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' was somewhat critical of the piece, remarking, "''Parada''‚ the slowestmoving of these scores‚ is also the most frankly Sibelian‚ full of gestures and textures redolent of the inescapable Finnish master. While its ravishing invention is easy to enjoy‚ I wasn't sure how it was meant to hold together‚ so this may or may not be the place to start for the uninitiated."

Recording

A commercial recording of ''Parada'', performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Salonen, was released through

Sony Classical Records Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by ...

in 2002. The album also features Lindberg's '' Cantigas'', Cello Concerto No. 1, and '' Fresco''.

References

{{italic title Compositions by Magnus Lindberg 2001 compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra