40. Main Evening Concert
Fazil Say is best known as an outstanding pianist, but he is also a prolific composer, whose works feature regularly in this Festival. This vivid conversational piece is a virtuoso display of writing for wind instruments and has become a favourite showcase for young wind quintets delighting in their mastery. The American composer, Anna Clyne, wrote ‘A Thousand Mornings’ during the Covid lockdown, her inspiration a short but evocative poem by the American nature poet, Mary Oliver, a poem that is written as a stream of consciousness, a process mirrored in the music. Enescu wrote his Octet when he was only nineteen. He set himself the goal of writing four linked movements that, while respecting the independence of each movement, would form a single sonata movement on a very large scale. He claimed to have worn himself out trying to lend coherence to this massive structure, each of whose sections were so long that they ran the risk of disintegrating at any moment. From this summary you can guess it is not an easy work to hold together and demands superb players. We are fortunate that both Doric and Marmen Quartets have before played this tremendous work together. There are few works in the chamber music repertoire that can match this extraordinary octet and none that can compete with its triumphant Finale that brings all the themes from the four movements together in a blazing, light-filled conclusion.
