On 19 April at the Monestir Sant Pau del Camp, Barcelona, Nicolas Altstaedt premiered Tom Coult’s Craftsmen and Clowns for solo cello. The 13-minute work, cast in three movements, was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society through the generous support of an anonymous donor.
On the new work, Coult writes,
There is an analysis about the makeup of sitcoms (though it can be applied to dramas as well), that four central characters generally fit into the archetypes of ‘matriarch’, ‘patriarch’, ‘craftsman’, and ‘clown’.
Mostly I just love the imagery and sound of the phrase ‘craftsmen and clowns’, and for me that’s reason enough to make it a title. If I were to apply these archetypes to the piece though: the cellist in this piece is generally a craftsman or craftswoman – constructing, weaving, shaping. Their music, however, is occasionally interrupted by, or co-existent with, something more primal, or mischievous.
The first movement, marked liberamente, calls on the cellist to duet with themselves almost throughout, with a lyrical line in the instrument’s upper register punctuated – often quite violently – with left-hand pizzicato, and see-sawing between high and low. A scherzo-like second movement in triple time – Giocoso – features flickering open string grace notes as dance-like writing unfurls, before a bravura ending. The ‘Quasi passacaglia’ finale sees dark, plucked chords offset by tapping on the instrument, with occasional flutters from bowed passages.
Altstaedt will present the UK premiere of the work at the Aldeburgh Festival on 16 June 2026. The festival has previously seen the premieres of Coult’s Black Shuck Lament in 2025 – for Allan Clayton and Dunedin Consort, telling the tale of a huge black dog – O Ecclesia, O Euchari and Hymns of Kassania in 2024 – Marian Consort and Daniel Pioro presenting ancient chants elaborated for violin and choir – and in 2022 his critically-acclaimed debut chamber opera Violet.