16 January 2010

In the bleak mid-winter

A week or more ago I read with pleasure the score for Luke Ottevanger’s Sonata in absentia II (piano solo). Delight was greater still upon listening to a “composer’s-own preview” recording. It is a tenderly beautiful piece, with a sweet melancholy (not sweet to any unbecoming excess, and the melancholy is well tempered), and possessing an admirable balance between an entirely engaging rubato narrative, and a firm sense of the ground it is covering. The pace of the piece, and how capably it commands the timespan, are thoroughly captivating. I love this piece, and I applaud Luke!




Restoration of contact with an old Wooster mate has now been confirmed, which was just nudge enough that I have at last burned two discs of Henningmusick to send him, not only so that he may know what I’ve up to musically all these years, but towards a mutual project combining live music and dance. It’s time we took this show on the road.

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