On 3 November George Benjamin’s DIVISIONS for piano, four hands, makes its UK debut at Wigmore Hall, performed by the composer and his longtime collaborator Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Commissioned by the Boulez Saal, the Dina Koston and Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music in the Library of Congress, and Wigmore Hall, the 14-minute work received its world premiere on 21 June from the duo at the Boulez Saal. DIVISIONS will appear at New York’s 92nd Street Y on 19 November.
A term used in 17th-century English keyboard music for a set of variations, the idea of the title DIVISIONS also applies to the physical separation of two players at one instrument. The friction and conversation that emerges between the interaction of the two players and the material assigned to them formed an essential part of Benjamin’s compositional process. The piece opens with quiet but insistent repeated notes, as fragments of melody begin to appear and, in turn, clouds of harmony. Different strands of music are played simultaneously and juxtaposed accordingly, against a slow-moving backdrop, which is disturbed by cascades and ripples.
Aimard also performs Benjamin’s Shadowlines at Wigmore Hall, a work he premiered in 2003. The 15-minute piece is a set of six canons of remarkable drama and invention, with Benjamin’s manipulation of the basic material going far beyond the usual procedures of transposition and invention, animated by hidden processes.
November will also see the North American premiere of Benjamin’s Concerto for Orchestra from the Vancouver Symphony and Otto Tausk, who perform the 17-minute work at the Orpheum. Dedicated to Oliver Knussen, its various instrumental protagonists play multiple roles – both dramatic and sonoric – including a volatile solo tuba, elaborate horn duos, bubbling clarinets and two pairs of rumbling timpani. Most prominent of all are the impassioned first violins, who almost have the last word during the work’s tranquil conclusion.
Benjamin’s chamber music is in focus in Japan at Toyko’s Bunka Kaikan at the Festival de l’Intemporel on 16 and 17 November. Benjamin’s Upon Silence – a 10-minute setting of W.B. Yeats’ The Long Legged Fly for two violas, three cellos, and two double basses, performed by musicians from the Buka Kaikan Chamber Orchestra – appears alongside his Three Miniatures for Solo Violin and Viola, Viola – the latter performed by Carole Roth-Dauphin, who led a focus on Benjamin in 2023 at the Festival des Volques. Kotaro Fukuma showcases Benjamin’s piano music alongside Mozart, performing Shadowlines, the Meditation on Haydn’s Name and Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm.