Esoteric Mass
Instrumentation | 16 wind instruments / 4 winds and 12 string instruments
Date | 2014
Duration | 9’
Premiere | commissioned by Ilan Volkov and premiered by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra on Tectonics Festival, Reykjavík 2014
Performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at Tectonics Festival 2014, Iceland
Performed by Avanti! Chamber Ensemble at the Young Nordic Music Days 2015, Helsinki
The Oslo Philharmonic performing Esoteric Mass at Tectonics/Only Connect 2016, Oslo - photo courtesy of Henrik Beck / nyMusikk
August 2016, Robert Barry for The Wire
“A circle of light appears in the middle of the floor with a single white dot spinning in perpetual orbit. A woodwind quartet stands around it. As the dot passes them by they play a note - long if the dot spins slowly, short if it rushes past at speed. It is simplicity itself. But then a second ring is added with its own dot, asynchronous with the first. And then a third ring. Add to that the position of the audience, surrounding the four winds, with a further outer ring of brass around the audience, intoning long, langorous chords, and you get a work capable of bewitching effects, even as its means remain perfectly transparent.”
The International Contemporary Ensemble performing Esoteric Mass at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival 2019, New York City
