Before we fall (cello concerto)

Duration 26 min.

Orchestra instrumentation: 2+afl.ca.2+bcl.2+cbn / 4.0.2.1 / 2 perc / str

Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, the Iceland Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Odense Symphony and the BBC Proms

World premiere to take place with Johannes Moser, San Francisco Symphony and Dalia Stasevska in May 2025
Further upcoming performances announced soon

Program notes:
The core inspiration behind the cello concerto Before we fall centres around the notion of teetering on the edge, of balancing on the verge of a multitude of opposites. The musical structure flows between lyricism and a sense of distorted energy — two main forces that stabilise this entropic pull. Driven by the strong sense of lyricism that permeates the piece, the work also orbits a forward-moving energy that connects and balances the opposites in different ways. The stable fundament - a grounding power of sustained harmonic presence - communicates with ethereal and distorted sounds, together providing the earth for the essence of the solo cello, the structure upon which it stands and within which it moves. The cello, both alone and deeply connected to the orchestral elements in its expression, generates the atmospheric progression of the world it inhabits, yet continuously on the verge of falling outside the reality it is building for itself.

As with my music generally, the inspiration is not something I am trying to describe through the music or what the music is “about”, as such -  it is a way to intuitively approach and work with the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the piece.