1980 Revisited

After spending a wonderful few days in Leeds last month with Opera North, I'm preparing to visit that impressive city again this coming week, this time thanks to the University of Leeds Music Department. Their resident ensemble, Marsyas Trio, will be including my composition Several Concertos in their upcoming concert (Friday 17th October, 1.05pm, Clothworkers' Centenary Hall.) Straight after that I'm going to give a talk, with musical assistance from the Trio, about how I composed the piece in the first place, and the circumstances surrounding it.

The piece was originally commissioned by Odaline de la Martinez and her pioneering Lontano Ensemble, and was written in 1980. So I've had a particularly interesting time tracing some of the music I was listening to in those long gone times which clearly made its mark on me, and on Several Concertos. It's been thrilling listening again to, amongst others, Kottos (Xenakis, 1977) Points on the Curve to Find (Berio, 1974) and English Country Tunes (Finnissy, 1977).

It was also a pleasant surprise, on beginning my 1980 research, to find some excellent performances of this then-contemporary repertoire sitting there waiting for me on YouTube. We certainly didn't have this handy facility available "in the old days", and I believe I got to know the three works I've mentioned above simply through attending live performances.

PICTURED: Leeds Civic Hall (opened in 1933)