It's well known that the second performance of a new composition is even harder to come by than the first. So, after my new orchestra piece Planet was premiered in Aldeburgh last summer and I was asked "where will the next one be ?" I was delighted to be able to answer, "in Criccieth, North Wales !"
This will be the case thanks to the wonderful Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, who are going to "tour" the piece to Neuadd Goffa Criccieth Memorial Hall (which I understand is a remarkable 100-year old Welsh Art Deco building) this Sunday, 16th March. How I wish I could join them - it's only 29 train stops from Wolverhampton - but I'll be travelling to Liverpool the following Sunday, 23 March, to hear them play the same programme in The Tung Auditorium at 3pm. I will also join a pre-concert discussion there at 2.15.
Meanwhile, I've been confusing myself, and perhaps others, by having previously written "Another Planet"; this is Airs from Another Planet, for wind quintet and piano. The Nash Ensemble, who commissioned this music in 1986, will be playing it side-by-side with RAM students at Wigmore Hall on 18th March (3pm). And that's enough Planets for this month.
PICTURED, Moon and Star is another of my orchestral titles; seen in clear skies over South London last month.
