Brilliantly imaginative, and packed full of glistening, ever-changing ensemble textures, Nature sees Tansy Davies craft yet another thrilling and wholly distinctive soundworld.
Commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in 2012, Davies’s gloriously offbeat reimagining of the concerto form for piano and ten instruments teems with invention. This 20-minute work was inspired by shamanic rituals and the supernatural, and Davies describes the piano as ‘part moth, part Maenad’. Piano and harp are sometimes uncannily grafted together in gossamer two-part counterpoint, and there is a feral quality to much of the tumultuous solo writing – all hyperactive trills and gutsy bass eruptions, shot through with rare and unexpected moments of calm. After a wild cadenza (revised for this new edition) the music’s trajectory begins to change, and ends by drifting gracefully up into silence.
The full score of Nature, priced at £24.99, is available from fabermusicstore.com (ISBN 0-571-53932-7)