The piece was commissioned by the Mannheim Orchestra to celebrate its anniversary.
The title refers to a famous technique of the 18th-century Mannheim school: a rapid ascending passage (arpeggio)...Read more

The piece was commissioned by the Mannheim Orchestra to celebrate its anniversary.
The title refers to a famous technique of the 18th-century Mannheim school: a rapid ascending passage (arpeggio) that culminates in a crescendo.
Corigliano combined this historical term with his childhood imagination, imagining a huge `wedding cake rocket` in which Baron Munchausen is launched into space.
During the rocket’s “flight,” allusions and direct quotes from works by I. Stamitz, Mozart (Symphony No. 40), Wagner (Ride of the Valkyries, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), Brahms, and R. Strauss (Till Eulenspiegel) can be heard.
The piece begins with the `sound of a lit match` and a 12-tone `wick,` then the `engine` (in the form of a slow Albertian bass) gains power, the rocket takes off, reaches the zenith, and falls back to earth.

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