Commissioned by Luxembourg Philharmonie for Stefanovich, the 3-minute work will be premiered at the Philharmonie on 20 January 2022.
Suckling describes his Etude: ‘Orrery’ as ‘a series of more or less imperfect “clockwork” mechanisms rotating harmonies around a central point. Each pitch-satellite has its own orbital period and the changing rhythmic patterns thus generated result in the emergence of hidden melodies; sometimes the mechanism catches, and a particular pattern gets stuck in a loop.’
Stefanovich previously premiered Suckling’s clarinet trio Visiones (after Goya) at the 2015 Aldeburgh Festival, and went on to record his Piano Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov as part of a recently released portrait disc on NMC.