On 8 August 12 Ensemble perform Jonny Greenwood’s Three Miniatures from Water at London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The 10-minute work is based on Greenwood’s larger Philip Larkin-inspired Water, originally composed for the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Three Miniatures is scored for violin, upright piano, two Indian tampuras, and a cello or bass providing a drone. In the first a dreamlike backdrop is provided by a circling ostinato on the piano, with the two tampuras providing a hypnotic underlay; above this the solo violin spins its own capricious melodic lines. In the second the piano comes to the fore for pregnant, quasi-improvisatory figures, as the violin provides a chordal accompaniment. In the final part the circling piano figures return, with the solo violin playing increasingly extroverted and elaborate melodic figures.
Three Miniatures from Water was recorded in 2019 by Greenwood alongside Katherine Tinker, Daniel Pioro, Clare O’Connell, Chistopher Graves, Dave Brown, and Nicolas Magriel, and released on Octatonic Records. Pioro, Greenwood and Tinker return to the piece at Wigmore Hall on 17 September, where Greenwood and Pioro also perform the violin version of Cassandra Miller’s Daylonging, Slacktide.
It has appeared at the 2019 BBC Proms alongside the world premiere of Greenwood’s Horror Vacui, a violin concerto for Daniel Pioro and the 68 solo strings of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Proms Youth Ensemble, conducted by Hugh Brunt. It received its world premiere earlier that year as part of the iconic NPR Tiny Desk concert series.
In 2021 12 Ensemble performed Water at the Barbican with Greenwood, alongside Anna Meredith’s Moon, in which they were also joined by the composer for the performance; in 2019 they performed the Prospector’s Quartet from Greenwood’s score to There Will Be Blood, likewise at the Barbican. Water received its Dutch premiere from the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in May 2024, touring across the Netherlands, as part of their Philip Glass in India programme.