LONDON: The Red Hedgehog

Wednesday 19th October, 2016

8:00pm

Event information

Imaginary Dances by William Duckworth (1943-2012)
Old Wine New Bottle by Tom Johnson (b. 1939)
Obsessions by Adrian Knight (b. 1987)

The program curated by R. Andrew Lee features composers who have been influenced by minimalism but are easily differentiated from my well-known minimalists such as Philip Glass or Steve Reich. Duckworth's Imaginary Dances draw on influences from jazz and bluegrass to Indian raga and medieval compositional techniques. Immediately accessible, these Dances manage to be both jocular and profound. Old Wine New Bottle is an homage to the baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti. An original 15 measure idea, which could have come straight from Scarlatti's works, is gradually expanded with minimalist techniques. The resulting variations stretch the material through the point of comical ridiculousness toward a new way of listening.

The second half of the program is a piece Lee commission from the young Swedish composer, Adrian Knight. A review of the piece recently stated, "There are several passages where the sense of unspeakable truth is almost unbearable; a place where gracefulness is achingly sorrowful," while another described it as "meditative, quasi-ecclesiastical serenity." This will be the European premiere of the composition.