"I said everything that a painful swelling in one's libido tells one to say." - Petronius, The Satyricon

The Satyricon: violently erotic, lascivious, debauched. One of the single most important books in Western literature, believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius around 61 A.D.

In "Satyricon Revisted" Oerknal presents a musical exploration of this literary classic, centered around Petronius Fragments, a retelling of Petronius' tale by our 2014/15 composer-in-residence Arne Gieshoff set for singers and chamber ensemble. It is a stunningly poignant and occasionally fierce meditation on themes of isolation, impotency, and mankind's search for emotional and physical connectedness. Also featured are Dichtere Kreise and ...nach dichteren Kreisen, two works by Arne forming a diptych that explores the seemingly contradictory relationship between soft, fragile textures and very dense musical gestures. Rounding out the concert is Brian Ferneyhough's phenomenal percussion solo Bone Alphabet and Le Journal du Corps by Oerknal favorite Lewis Nielson, a consummately original and visceral string quartet coupling extended/percussive string techniques with the human voice.