CD Recording of my complete piano music to date

CD recording of my complete piano music performed by the internationally renowned pianist Nicolas Hodges.
Works included: Pas au-dela, Genoi Hoios Essi, Monk, Beuys, écart-arc-trace, Eidos
Label: Coviello Classics COV 60809
The CD was selected as CD of the month by the Sunday Times CD review.

This CD recording covers my entire output of works for solo piano illustrating important aspects of my research into notation in relation to form and structure further exploring the relationships obtaining between notation and interpretation seen as form building elements. The earliest work on the CD, Genoi Hoios Essi, is a formative work which explores the interaction between rigorous pre-compositional processes and the resulting surface material, which often demands complex notational strategies, leading to certain performative decisions.

Pas au-delà is a technical re-working of some of the formal strategies, though not the materials themselves, used Genoi Hoios Essi. The title also refers back to the earlier work. Genoi Hoios Essi was one of the phrases considered by Nietzsche as a possible title for his auto-critique Ecce Homo. Pas au-delà is a phrase derived from Derrida's critical re-examination of Ecce Homo, Otobiographies. In a similar way the music might be seen as a critical 'deconstructive' reading of the earlier work.
Eidos and Beuys are both very short works, which were commissioned as such, and aim to present the performer with interpretative decisions, which are directly informed by the learning process. Beuys, in particular combines layered groups of grace-notes, arpeggiated chords, and large leaps over the keyboard, which are arguably impossible. However, the player is required to find practical solutions to these challenges, with a view to accessing a gestural world beyond the notated material.
The three short works trace-arc-écart, were commissioned by the ABRSM for their series of books Spectrum. The brief was to write works for amateur pianists without compromising the musical language. Given the complex and at times extreme technical demands of my music, it was a significant challenge to find a distillation of the music and compositional processes, which nevertheless captured something of the essence of this process. The two outer movements are interchangeable, as their titles might suggest, but arc must always be in the middle.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/8407