in a bowl of grey-blue leaves
for two pianos
Instrumentation:
2 pianos
Duration:
14' 25"
Year of composition:
2014
Commissioned by:
Fiammetta Tarli & Ivo Varbanov
Premiere:
Fiammetta Tarli & Ivo Varbanov (pianos)
St John's Smith Square, London, 10 June 2016
Published by:
Recorded by:
Fiammetta Tarli & Ivo Varbanov (pianos), of gold and shadows, vol. 2, LORELT, LNT142
My duo for two pianos borrows its title from a line in Osip Mandelstam’s poem ‘Silentium’, and is inspired by Scriabin’s remark that his Tenth Sonata is a sonata of insects: ‘insects are born from the sun … they are the sun’s kisses …’.
Out of hushed expanses of trills and tremolos, as if brought about by the brush of a Chinese calligrapher, splashes of ink break the primordial homogeneity of the silk scroll to congeal transiently into interweaving melodic lines.
S.M.
Fiammetta Tarli & Ivo Varbanov (pianos), ending