McCabe premieres
3rd January 2007
© Peter Thompson
The piece takes as its starting point the Fifth Pavan and Galliard from My Lady Nevell’s Book by William Byrd, a piece which has been in the composer’s repertoire as a pianist for many years. Although Byrd’s influence is most discernable at the beginning and end of Mccabe’s piece, aspects of the keyboard work inform many of the melodic and harmonic ideas. “[Byrd’s music] pervades the piece,” says the composer, “but only as an unheard presence.”
The concert is the first of several significant first performances for McCabe in 2007. On January 26 the King’s Singers will give the premiere of Cartography in Sittingbourne, Kent. The following month, David Pyatt will be the soloist in a new Horn Concerto to be performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka in Cardiff on February 16 and in Swansea the following day.
Forthcoming performances of John McCabe’s music.
