Lifesize Gods
Programme Note
The title of Lifesize Gods is a quotation from Ali Smith’s novel How to be both. In the novel, the narrator, the renaissance painter Francesco del Cossa, tells how he has been commissioned to paint a fresco containing ‘lifesize gods arriving all through the year’. I was interested by this paradoxical idea of depicting other-worldly subjects with precision and focus, and it is this that inspired the fantastical but always clearly defined textures of the music. Lifesize Gods is in two movements; the first is short, highly repetitive and dance-like, while the second is more extended and through-composed.
Performances
16th May 2022
Callum Smart (Violin), Ben Goldscheider (Horn), Richard Uttley (Piano)
Chiltern Arts Festival
6th March 2022
Callum Smart (Violin), Ben Goldscheider (Horn), Richard Uttley (Piano)
Conway Hall, London
11th August 2017
Maya Bennardo (Violin), Meredith Moore (Horn), Sophia Subbavya Vastek (Piano)
The Cell, Chelsea, New York
4th January 2016
Britten Sinfonia [Jackie Shave (Violin), Richard Watkins (Horn), Huw Watkins (Piano)]
Live performance on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’
2nd December 2015
Britten Sinfonia [Jackie Shave (Violin), Richard Watkins (Horn), Huw Watkins (Piano)]
Wigmore Hall, London
1st December 2015
Britten Sinfonia [Jackie Shave (Violin), Richard Watkins (Horn), Huw Watkins (Piano)]
West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
27th November 2015
Britten Sinfonia [Jackie Shave (Violin), Richard Watkins (Horn), Huw Watkins (Piano)]
St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich
Year: 2015
Duration: 12′
Instrumentation: Horn Trio
Commission: Commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia as part of the OPUS2015 project. This commission was supported by the RVW Trust and the generous individuals who contributed through Britten Sinfonia’s Musically Gifted campaign: Ruth Rattenbury and two anonymous donors.