The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and conductor Brad Cohen present two performances of Lisa Illean’s Land's End for chamber orchestra on 13 and 14 May, at the Adelaide Town Hall.
Land’s End received its first performance in 2016 from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson; it has seen recieved performances from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Academy of Music. The 11-minute piece is inspired by the drawings of Vija Celmins, Illean has said, “…particularly those that use the ocean surface as the framework for an exploration in mark-making with incremental grades of graphite. In such work, surfaces act as forms through which subtle change can be perceived and felt.”
Land’s End expresses Illean’s interest in “sounds comprised of hushed repetitive fragments. These recall the murmurings - of human voices or natural elements – that form a continuous, ever-varying undertint to more foreground sounds.” The ensemble, she adds, “is conceived as one instrument, which glows and breathes from the inside.”
The ABC Classic podcast focused on Land’s End and discussed the piece with Illean in 2016 here. Tickets for the ASO performance are available here.