The juggernauts of romance duke it out. Jedi master Edvard Grieg engages kung-fu sword-fighter Igor Stravinsky. While Astor Piazolla comes under heavy rose petal fire from Johann Wolfgang von Göthe.
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Rose Wars was a commissioned work I did for Festspillene i Bergen (Bergen International Festival) back in 2013, as part of their Masterpiece: Revisited concert series, where contemporary artists re-worked classical masterpieces being performed at the festival.
The festival asked me to create a Ugress version of Grieg’s “Zur Rosenzeit”, and I then expanded to also include other elements from their programme: Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring, the moody tangos of Astor Piazolla and elements of Göthe’s poetry, all connected through roses.
This release is an updated 2023 English version of the original 2013 Norwegian performance. The difference from the original is a new translated voice-over text, and added rose petal sounds for Göthe’s parts. (The rose petals were originally done with real rose cannons firing explosions of rose petals live on stage.) The rest of the work is pretty much exactly as it was back in 2013.
I’m also including an instrumental version (the musical instrument battles without the voice-over narration), and a pure backdrop version, which is just the orchestral elements. This drop is an interim “historical archive” release, while I’m workin on new material for the upcoming 2024 album Retrotopia.
