Kenneth Hesketh: Partituras dificil

Die hängende Figur ist Judas' (The hanging figure is Judas) was commissioned by Dr. Margitta Giera as a gift for the German sculptor Michael Langer. Hesketh's first ideas for the work came from a phot...

'Point forms' was suggested by a group of five diagrams found in Wassily Kandinsky's book Point and Line and Plane. Many explanations of the geometric shapes, including Kandinsky's use of the words 's...

Aphorisms, a short nine-minute work that is a very useful addition to the repertoire for solo clarinet.

Chorpartitur

Each of the 'Three Japanese Miniatures' is a new challenge to the pianist: In each piece, a different playing technique is developed in a subtle and concentrated way.

This short piano work is one of Hesketh's most successful, taken from his opera The Overcoat - it would be an ideal opener to any recital programme.

In his programme note, Hesketh describes a conceit as an extended metaphor which can govern part of or an entire poem thereby leading to a more sophisticated understanding of the subject. Within the 2...

The title of this work is a reference to the poem Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats. Important images from the poem are freely connected to suggest musical gestures and contours. Such phrases as peri...

A concert suite of three pieces for piano, clarinet and violin. The composer has created concise aural pictures: whimsical, witty and pointed, they make an appealing addition to the contemporary chamb...

Influenced by a series of wood-engraved prints titled 'Opus' by Russian artist Naum Gabo, the three movements of this piece reflect the varying states that result from simple linear designs floating a...

Composed in 2007 for the Leeds Lieder festival, Hesketh's Shimmerwords and Idle Songs for soprano and piano is a 18 minute song cycle made up of six songs in four sections. The text is taken from a co...

Taking his starting point from 17th century philosopher-poet Cyrano de Bergerac's 'Grandes Plaines du Jour', Hesketh powerfully fuses a huge range of performing and compositional techniques into this...

This three-movement work reflects the character of the wunderkammer, or Cabinet of Curiosities, which flourished between the 16th to 18th centuries: 'in this labyrinthine landscape, I found a natural...