Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Cello Concerto reevaluates the tradition of the concerto. The three-movement sonic novella is scored for solo cello, large ensemble and sculpture machines featuring a series of hanging ceramic wind columns and a mechanical kinetic machines built from metal cogs and moving parts. Stylistically Cello Concerto falls in line with a set of works by Moore, focusing on long-winded rhythmic cycles, mechanical versus organic structures and the symbiotic relationship between chaos and order, resulting in the surprising sonic ecosystem that is entrancing and fragile yet raw, punk, iconoclastic and psychedelic where the surreal character of the virtuoso cellist is performed by the real life virtuoso cellist Ashley Bathgate for whom the concerto was written.

Work Details

Year: 2014

Instrumentation: Flute, oboe, clarinet in B flat, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn in F, trumpet in B flat, trombone, tuba, percussion (2 players), ceramic wind columns (suspended ceramic pieces), music machines (sound sculptures), piano, solo cello, strings.

Duration: 40 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Written for: ASKO/Schonberg, Ashley Bathgate

First performance: by ASKO/Schonberg, Ashley Bathgate, Christian Karlsen at ASKO/Schönberg: Kate Moore (TivoliVredenburg (Utrecht)) on 10 Sep 2014

The completion of the concerto was commissioned by Föreningen Kammarmusik NU. Each movt was commissioned separately. The Australia Council for the Arts commissioned 'Velvet' upon which the 1st movtnt is based, APRA who commissioned 'Sarabande' upon which the 2nd movt is based and Fonds Podiumkunsten NL who commissioned 'Days and Nature' upon which the 3rd movt is based.