for orchestra
picc.2 (2=picc).2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn - 6.3.3.1 - perc(7) - 2hp - strings
duration 2'30"
First performed London, 2005 (Kensington Symphony Orchestra, cond. Russell Keable)
Classical Source review
This short piece was commissioned by Kensington Symphony Orchestra as one of six concert openers for their 50th season in 2005-6. The title comes from Eliot's Little Gidding. To put the following programme note in context, the work preceded a performance of Tippett's final orchestral piece, The Rose Lake.
Programme note:
I'm suspicious of tributes - they always seem to end up sounding more like obituaries, and it occurs to me that dwelling on past glories goes against the spirit of KSO. So I've tried to write something that celebrates and encapsulates the orchestra's ebullience and energy, and rather than marking the end of one half-century, signals the start of the next. If music matters at all, it's because it's about community, bringing people together. It's something KSO does very well, and something worth celebrating.
So, taking T.S. Eliot's advice that "What we call the beginning is often the end / And to make an end is to make a beginning", I hope I've produced something that will help your imaginations bridge the gap between a grey November evening in London and Tippett's glittering Senegalese lake. "The end is where we start from."
Showing posts with label orchestra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orchestra. Show all posts
What will survive of us is love (1999-2002)
symphony-ritual for orchestra
3picc.2.2.0 - 0.0.2.1 - perc(4) - strings
duration 15'
3picc.2.2.0 - 0.0.2.1 - perc(4) - strings
duration 15'
Infinite Breathing (1999-2001)
for string orchestra or 11 solo strings
Duration 15'
First performed 2001, manchester (Goldberg Ensemble)
Guardian review
Original programme note:
Duration 15'
First performed 2001, manchester (Goldberg Ensemble)
Guardian review
Original programme note:
Infinite Breathing juxtaposes quiet, intimate moments with intense, quasi-ritualistic passages. The two musics emphasise the contrasting qualities of each other. Beyond the surface differences, though, they share a deeper concern, that of finding a place in the world, that point where past, present and future coalesce into an all-pervading now, and the Ephemeral (as represented by the act of breathing) may seem to encompass the Infinite (the force of Life).
