10 April 1983
Presser Pavilion, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Orchestra Society of Philadelphia / Daron Hagen

2(I,II=picc).2(II=corA).2.2-2.2.2.0-timp.perc(2)-strings

7'

Andersonville Overture is in rondo form, and is based on three themes from a (withdrawn) operatic treatment of McKinley Kantor's novel Andersonville and the Saul Levitt play, The Andersonville Trial. The opera concerned the inhabitants of a small southern town and how they reacted to the American civil war and the fact that a confederate prison camp was nearby. It's central action was the trial of one Captain Henry Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville Prison and the only Confederate soldier convicted and executed for war crimes during the Civil War. A student performance of the overture took place on 22 November 1982 at the Curtis Institute of Music under my baton. After revisions, it was formally introduced — also under my direction — on 10 April 1983 by the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, in a concert which also featured the professional premeire of my Stanzas for cello and orchestra.