- Year of composition: 2006
- Work category: Orchestral works in one movement
- First performed: 20 August, 2006, Berwaldhallen [the Berwald Hall], Stockholm, Sweden, Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester [Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra], Conductor Manfred Honeck
- Duration: 10 min
Instrumentation
3 3 3 3 - 4 3 3 1 - timp, perc(3), hp, pno, str
Location for score and part material
Universal Edition (see below)
Description of work
Open Ground for symphony orchestra is inspired by Salman Rushdie’s novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet. It is one of his most significant and complex novels where the fictitious reality goes side by side with real historic events. The collisions between the two worlds often have a most devastating effect on the fate of all characters involved. One of them, a legendary rock singer Vina Apsara, disappears under mysterious circumstances while an earthquake is raging in Mexico.
Victoria Borisova-Ollas says:
'I have found an emotional inspiration in the first chapter of the book containing the description of the earthquake. The title for the piece is my own though. Open ground is an expression which might be interpreted differently depending on the context. The ground beneath our feet, the reality in which we exist at the moment, how real and stable it actually is? Also who would have ever dared to imagine what it feels like when it suddenly starts to rock?'