Work of the Week – Noriko Koide: Riverside

Mythological river journey: The new orchestral work by Japanese composer Noriko Koide will be heard for the first time on 23 February 2024. The Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra will present the world premiere of the 10-minute Riverside under the direction of Kentaro Kawase in the NTK Hall Forest Hall in Nagoya.

Koide chose the title Riverside to refer to the banks of the Sanzu River. This mythological river of the Buddhist tradition, also known as the "river of three crossings", is comparable to the river Styx in Greek mythology. Here, too, it is about the boundary between life and death.

Riverside by Noriko Koide: A Journey to the Frontiers of Life

While working on her piece, the composer was concerned with questions such as the path to sanzu and its actual nature.Is there a clear boundary at all or is it very blurred?Koide conceived her composition from this point and let the flow of her thoughts drive her through a wide variety of themes and let them take shape in music.

The breathing river, fluctuation and weathering of emotions, burial in the air, burial in the sea, blurring of the boundary... Melting of things that continue to exist despite the rapid changes within, fermentation, gradual transformation of something into something else...Big things that are hard to resist, changes in atmospheric pressure, climate change, rising sea levels... The passage from the Hōjōki according to which the flow of the river never stops and yet the water remains the same... (Noriko Koide)

Riverside will be performed once again by the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra the day after the premiere.
 

Further Reading:

Noriko Koide: Composer Profile 

Riverside: Work Details and Online Score

Website Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra