A Farewell Without Words

Click here to get tickets for Raiskin Conducts Rouse & Gourzi.

When Christopher Rouse finished his Symphony No. 6 in June 2019 in his home in Baltimore, he knew it would be his final composition. Outside, the world carried on. Inside, Rouse knew this would his farewell to the world, though its meaning, he decided, was not his to declare.

“I hope it will communicate something sincere in meaning to those who hear it,” he said, hoping for audiences to take the piece as they would, without imposing his own narrative.

Rouse, one of America’s most accomplished composers, created music that carried emotional intensity like few others. A Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, his music had been embraced by major orchestras across the country and around the world. But Symphony No. 6 was different. It wasn’t for the critics or the orchestras. This one, he said, was for himself.

Knowing he was nearing the end of an eight-year battle with renal cancer, Rouse described the work as a personal epitaph, stating: “One final time my subject is death, though in this event it is my own of which I write.”

The symphony made its debut on October 18, 2019, at Cincinnati Music Hall, commissioned and performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Louis Langrée. The reviews were immediate and glowing. The New York Times called it “a haunting and profound farewell,” while Chicago Classical Review described it as “one of the truly great symphonies written by an American composer.”

But Rouse was absent. He had passed away just weeks earlier, in September, never hearing the music he had created in the final days of his life. The music became a posthumous conversation, one-sided yet filled with unspoken understanding.

This piece will be performed later this month in the upcoming Raiskin Conducts Rouse & Gourzi concert, part of the Thursday Classics series and this year’s Winnipeg New Music Festival (WNMF). The WNMF has long been familiar with Rouse’s music, having welcomed him as the distinguished guest composer at its 1999 edition.

Music Director Daniel Raiskin reflects on the work ahead of its Canadian premiere. “Rouse’s musical language continues the great tradition of what the “symphony” became in the 20th and 21st century after giants such as Mahler and Shostakovich,” he said. “It is remarkable how much life is packed into this very concise symphony of some 26 minutes.”

Like his other symphonies, Rouse’s final score is meticulously crafted. It is music that refuses to turn away from the complexity of life and death, leaving its listeners with the enduring weight of what it means to say goodbye.

Book Tickets

Avi Bhatt (he/him) is the Communications Specialist for the WSO.