<<  -- 3 --  Bill Newman    'LIGHT SHINING THROUGH'

'Lasting 40 minutes, it has four movements -- the first contains a triple fugue, the second is a lyrical Andante, perhaps an Adagio -- it is very slow -- consisting of three chorales which interlock with one another: the first intransient or disguised, the other two very open in style. The third chorale is a kind of collage, in a very modern style of composing with two different characters -- a dance in 3/8 like a waltz in canon, then a renaissance theme (three bars of one motif, three bars of another, the two unconnected) written in the form of patchwork and sounding like music from different epochs, each with its own individual language. The last movement is a big passacaglia.'

Although the version for organ is published, the one for 4-hands one piano is not.

Major record companies are always expressing their concerns about unknown repertoire selling sufficiently to meet overheads, but if performers capture their audience's imagination and appreciation beforehand this would guarantee the project. It is also now possible to accommodate up to 83 minutes on a CD -- I instanced the complete Falla piano works on the Claves label. 'Yes, we are happy with Sony, and our Koechlin will come out in the New Year.' I was fascinated with the sound presentation at their recital. 'If you sit in the middle of the hall the music comes from beyond, like from the past. Then it gets nearer to you, the players and the music are more substantial. Gradually it moves away again, very slowly..' Has this been tried out before? 'I don't think so; it was most innovative.'

Peter Mussbach is very well known in Europe with Direct Progress, and for the Salzburg Festpiele in productions of Busoni's Doktor Faustus, Berg's Lulu and Wozzeck, Mozart's Lucia Silla, Szymanowski's King Roger -- he is always involved. 'We got to know him about three years ago and began discussing his ideas in relation to Koechlin, whose music is very meditative, slow moving, simple on the surface but underneath very complex and pictorial; humble and modest for most of the time.' Although sequences sound similar, there are subtle differentiations. 'Like the Arab music, but he was thinking in orchestral terms -- the Sonatines were written for piano first, then orchestrated later -- he would most likely have done this with all his instrumental music.'

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