OTHER PIECES
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Completed Works
(To be published by Scherzo Editions)
Requiem
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for Mixed Choir Duration: 17'
This piece was commisioned by Ramsay Silver, then director of Banks Music Publications, and it was subsequently published by them. Somewhat sadly, Ramsay Silver died a few months after publication of this work and it is dedicated to his memory. It is not a conventional Requiem, in that it takes isolated phrases from the Requiem Mass and weaves Russian folk melodies between them.
Sanctus IU Chorale conducted by Goncalo Lourenco
Symphony no 8 'Playing Away'
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for Symphony Orchestra Duration: 18'
Commissioned and premiered by the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Klassika under the baton of Roman Leontiev in February 2008 in the Grand Hall of the Herzen Institute, St Petersburg. This symphony is in four movements laid out in the form of a cup final football match i.e. First Half, Second Half, Extra Time and, finally, Penalties and charts the rivalries and ups-and-downs of such an important game.
Two Extracts from Symphony no 8 'Playing Away'
Echoing Curves (from Solntsegrad)
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for Guitar Quartet and Choir with soloists Duration: 8'
This is a section from the as-yet incomplete science-fiction/esoteric opera called Solntsegrad, about the mental deterioration of a lone female cosmonaut (soprano) stuck in close orbit around the Sun in her disabled spacecraft. This is the section where she is trapped in one of the deserted corridors with only the ghosts of her dead colleagues for company. She calls out to them as if they were still alive and converses with them.
Short vocalise from the opera 'Solntsegrad'
Fire
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for Chamber orchestra Duration: 11'
First commissioned by Greenpeace and the London Pareschi Players in 1989 it was premiered in St James Church, Piccadilly in London in April 1990 conducted by Ron Spigelman. A revised version was performed by the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Klassika conducted by Roman Leontiev in February 2004. It is basically in scherzo form with the scherzo sections depicting with sizzling ferocity the devastating power of fire, in all its forms, and the trio section feels like the aftermath, in which ashes gently fall around the observer like grey rain.
Two sections of Fire performed by the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Klassika conducted by Roman Leontiev
Gesualdo Fantasy
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for String Quintet (2Vl/2Vla/Cello) Duration: 44'
The Gesualdo Fantasy was also commissioned by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet but is, as yet, unperformed by them. It is in 7 substantial movements each of which takes a motet by Carlo Gesualdo as it's starting point and then taking that music for a sort of musical voyage of discovery, much in the way Gesualdo himself might have done had he been alive in the 21st century.
First movement of Gesualdo Fantasy
Octet
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for Fl/Ob/Cl/Bass/Hrn/Vla/Cell/Db Duration: 19'
Composed for a chamber ensemble called Camerata, this Octet was premiered by them in the Holywell Music Rooms in Oxford in June 1991 directed by Matthew Taylor. Although it is called simply Octet, it is really a chamber symphony in the tradition set by Arnold Schoenberg, and it is thus quite difficult to perform as chamber music without a conductor. It is in three substantial movements.
Two extracts from Octet
Symphony no 5 'Symphony-Haiku'
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for Symphony orchestra Duration: 11'
Originally composed for an orchestra in Japan, this short symphony is laid out in six, short, haiku-like movements, the climax coming in the fifth movement which, rather like an ornamental Japanese garden is laid out with simple raked gravel and a group of imposing boulders set in the middle. The aesthetic and musical language of the symphony pays hommage to Japanese music without ever sounding like an imitation of 'style japonais'.
Four short extracts from Symphony-Haiku
Movimentum Thomas Tallis In Memoriam
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for Fl/Ob/Cl/Bass/Hrn/Vla/Cell/Db Duration: 9'
Composed at the same time as the Octet of 1991, it is a reworking of several keyboard pieces by the great English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis for the same combination of instruments. Between each of the short movements there are ad libitum solo lines for the instruments that make the piece into a kind of antiphonal call and answer form so common in Renaissance choral music. The piece ends symphonically with one of Tallis' most rousing hymns.
Extract from Movimentum pro Thomas Tallis In Memoriam
Three extracts from A Shakespeare Suite from a live performance by Asbjorn Voster in 1989
A Shakespeare Suite
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for Solo Guitar Duration: 9'
Written whilst studying with Hans Werner Henze, this is a short suite in three movements taking three characters from plays by William Shakespeare - Richard the Second, Hamlet and Propsero - and examining their inner states during the action of the plays in which they appear. They are not thumbnail sketches therefore, but an attempt to get 'beneath the skin' of these fascinating characters. A Shakespeare Suite will soon be available on Scherzo Editions as part of an album of solo pieces for the guitar.
Works-in-Progress
Solntsegrad, an Opera
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for Solo Soprano, Voices and Orchestra Duration: 50'
Solntsegrad is a 1 Act mono-opera in which a cosmonaut is left orbiting close into the Sun after a meteorite has struck the ship and killed all her colleagues. The opera charts her mental and physical deterioration and ends with her hallucinating a great love with the God of the Sun that takes place surrounded by the leafy glades of Elysium.
Final minutes of the background soundtrack for the opera Solntsegrad