Stories: Eric Jacobsen

About two years ago, I was talking with Osvaldo Golijov about Creation and how we could help bring it into the world. I wanted to see this piece born. There’s something very special about being involved at that stage, when you’re beginning to imagine together what a piece might become. And with Osvaldo, there’s the added pleasure of working with someone who inspires me so much, and whose music has been such an important part of my life for so long.

Last January, we got to do a preview concert of Creation in Orlando, which brought back the feeling of the early days of Silkroad, when we recorded his Lullaby & Doina. There was that same energy of getting to know the music together, hearing the sounds emerge, and discovering how they fit. Years later, we’re still having that conversation, and there are still so many things to discover.

When I’m studying a new score, I’m trying to imagine the sound as fully as I can. But there’s always a moment in rehearsal when the musicians bring something to it that I couldn’t have heard on my own. With Creation, getting to play the music and hear these incredible orchestrations has been a real joy. We’re finding the sound of the orchestra together.

I remember that process so specifically from working on She Was Here, Osvaldo’s setting and take on Schubert songs, with Dawn Upshaw. Osvaldo has this extraordinary ability to bring words and orchestration together. The sound of the instruments becomes part of how you understand the text, and the voice changes how you hear what’s happening in the orchestra. As a performer, you’re listening for all those relationships, trying to give them room.

As Creation continues to grow, I keep hearing things that bring me back to other moments we’ve shared. There’s beautiful writing for solo cello, and this incredible percussion world he creates with Cyro Baptista. Hearing those sounds reminds me of recording Azul with Yo-Yo Ma. It’s lovely to have those memories in your ear while you’re getting to know something new.

Then there’s a movement like “The Push,” which has such hustle and joy. That energy takes me back to recording Osvaldo’s Last Round. There’s a physical excitement in the music that you feel among the players. Those are wonderful moments to be in the middle of an orchestra.

All of that comes with me as we prepare for Boston, but I’m also curious about what we’ll discover there. Each group of musicians brings its own sound and its own way of listening. Part of my job is to arrive prepared, and part of it is to be open enough to hear what happens when we’re all in the room. And getting to imagine being on stage with the absolutely amazing soloists Cécile McLorin Salvant, Davóne Tines, Cyro Baptista, and Kayhan Kalhor makes me so excited to see it all come to life.

I have enormous hopes for Creation. I really feel this piece will become one of the great works of the 21st century. We’re still discovering what it will be, which makes this a particularly moving time to be part of it. Two years ago, we were talking about how to help it be born. Now we get to hear it come to life.

Eric Jacobsen with premiere Creation at the Boston Symphony Orchestra on November 12-14; jacobseneric.com