Instrumentation

afl(=fl).ca(=ob).bcl - hn - perc(1): mar/SD/BD/5 temple blocks/4 tom-tom/floor tom/tam-t - harp - vln.vla.vcl.db

Availability

Score 0571539327 on sale, parts for hire

Programme Notes

What is the true nature of the piano in this concerto, who / what is she / he / it? Possibly a maenad: a wild woman, driven by the desire to connect the earthly and spiritual realms, led purely by instinct. Without expectations about how to behave, the maenad simply exists. In contact with her environment, she responds to her desires according to the logic of her soul, and of the realm she inhabits. The physicality of the piano is very important, at times becoming an athletic figure, running fearlessly through dense forest at night, invoking spirits. Carlos Casteneda in his writings on shamanism, describes something similar, the Gait of Power: “The gait of power is for running at night, and it is completely safe. This is the night! And it is power! At night the world is different. My ability to run in the darkness had nothing to do with my knowledge of these hills. The key to it is to let one's personal power flow out freely, so it could merge with the power of the night. Once that power takes over, there is no chance for a slip-up. You have to abandon yourself to the power of the night and trust the little bit of personal power that you have or you will never be able to move with freedom. The darkness is encumbering only because you rely on your sight for everything you do, not knowing that another way to move is to let power be the guide.” Or the piano becomes an enormous moth, prowling in the undergrowth, at the edge of a wilderness where man meets Nature or the Supernatural. A powerplace, removed from the physical world we think we know, where perceptions of reality can shift. Tansy Davies

Nature

Streamed on Youtube

Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music (London, United Kingdom)

George Fu/Musicians from the Royal Academy of Music/Joseph Havlat

Nature

Auer Performance Hall, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN, USA)

Noah Sonderling/Indiana New Music Ensemble/David Dzubay

Nature

Reaktorhalle, Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (Munich, Germany)

ensemble oktopus/Konstantia Gourzi/Erika Mikami

Nature

Saturday Classics

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

Huw Watkins/Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Nature

Templo de la Valenciana (Guanajuato, Mexico)

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Christian Karlsen/Huw Watkins