On monday evening my new work 'RIVER', which was co-commissioned by BBC Radio 4's 'Front Row' programme and the BBC Proms, received it's premiere performance by London Early Opera and conducted by Bridget Cunningham. The performance took place on a boat on the River Thames, just as Handel's 'Water Music' was premiered exactly 300 years ago to the day. It was also really exciting to hear the piece performed on period instruments for a Handelian sound-world.
RIVER is a short work for chamber orchestra, which seeks to reflect the flowing of water through the use of fleeting, melodic fragments that encircle each other to imitate the small waves on the surface of a river. Instances of stability are juxtaposed with moments of turbulence to suggest the ever-changing movement of the still, yet restless, river.
