Album

• Orchestral Works / Concerti

• A Child’s Dream of Toys

  2018
  Vivian Fung
  Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

A Child’s Dream of Toys for full orchestra

Duration: c. 11 minutes 

Commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

World Premiere performance:  January 30, 2019 as part of the WSO’s 2019 Winnipeg New Music Festival, conducted by Daniel Raiskin.

Instrumentation – 2(2nd doubl. Picc);2-2-2; 4-3-3-1; Timp 3 perc; Harp; Piano; Strings
 
Program Note

Vivian Fung’s A Child’s Dream of Toys is inspired both by Fung’s three-year-old son and by an oil painting by Grant Maxwell, Fung’s late piano teacher from Edmonton, who passed away from a brain tumor in 1993, while Fung was still a student.  The piece is fast-paced and virtuosic and moves along at a clip evoking a child’s seemingly unlimited energy.  The piece is organized as a series of episodes—short sections that morph and change as often as a child’s moods.  The softest section in the middle of the piece features a very short and somewhat hidden quote of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” but is bent out of shape with a sliding glissando that pulls the tune downwards in key.  The title of the work is taken from Maxwell’s painting, which he gave to Fung shortly before his death and is a small abstract rendition of a child’s imagination in bright yellow and primary colors.