Program Notes

Footnote, Suite for Orchestra

Amit Poznansky
BORN 1974, Tel Aviv
RESIDES: Givataim, Israel

COMPOSED: 2011

WORLD PREMIERE: October 10, 2017, at the Charles R. Bronfman Auditorium, Tel Aviv. Zubin Mehta led the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

US PREMIERE: Earlier this month, in Los Angeles. Zubin Mehta conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

INSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes plus piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, harpsichord, and strings

DURATION: About 8 mins

Amit Poznansky is an Israeli composer of film and television scores, music for the theater, songs, and concert, chamber, choral, and jazz music. He is also a prolific arranger and orchestrator in a variety of music genres. Poznansky is a pianist and began his career as a performer before arranging music for numerous productions in the Israeli repertory theater, primarily at the Cameri (Tel Aviv's municipal theater) and Habima (Israel's national theater). His notable film scores include Joseph Cedar’s Footnote, the late Assi Dayan’s Dr. Pomerantz, Shira Geffen’s Self-Made, Amos Gitai’s feature Rabin, the Last Day, and Schnitzel.  In 2012, Poznansky scored the second season of the Israeli TV series Hatufim, directed by Gideon Raff, which was later adapted into the American television series Homeland. His Waltz for Flute and Piano, Life of the Dead: A Song Cycle for Female Choir, and Four Miniatures for Violin and Piano are published by Edition Svitzer, and have been performed worldwide.

Footnote, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, is a wry look at the bitter disappointments, rivalries, and fragile egos of father-son academics.   

Amit Poznansky offers these comments:

Footnote, Suite for Orchestra, comprises several of the main musical themes from the soundtrack I composed for Joseph Cedar's film Footnote. The Suite has a neo-classical character and is built like a waltz, in which it undergoes many transformations throughout. The music reflects the main characters in the film and their contrasting forces: the strictness and seriousness of Eliezer, the father, against the tenderness and forgiveness of Uriel, the son. Yet, each one has a hint of the other. These two forces collide at times, but they create a beautiful harmonic musical reflection of the complexity of the storyline.

—Amit Poznansky

(October 2017)