A Padmore Cycle for tenor and orchestra (2010–11, 2014)

24′
Texts: Hans Aschenwald, Alois Hotschnig
WP: 01.11.2014, London, Barbican (UK) | Mark Padmore (tenor), Edward Gardner (conductor), BBC Symphony Orchestra

  1. Ich schreibe heute durch
  2. Almauftrieb
  3. Hart am Herz
  4. Familie Numero drei
  5. Hunger nach Heimat, die keine mehr ist
  6. Los los
  7. Ferdl
  8. Und beim Weggehen schmilzt aus den Augen der Schnee
  9. Lange zögern die Steine
  10. Dein Wort mein Blindenhund
  11. Der Körper des Vogels am Weg

Orchestra instrumentation
3(2.picc, 3.bfl).3(3.ca).3(3.bcl).3(c.cbsn)-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-acc.hp.pno-str(14.12.10.8.6)

A Padmore Cycle – Video

Audio sample

Mark Padmore (tenor), Edward Gardner (conductor), BBC Symphony Orchestra | London, 01.11.2014

Programme note
Even while writing the original version for tenor and piano, I thought about the possibility of setting this piece for tenor and orchestra. I wanted to let the soundworld of the piano (the ‘reflections’) explode … just like projecting the thoughts and feelings of the inside of a human head on a very large screen, and thus sensing all the details and the dimensions of them.

On the one hand this new version remains utterly faithful to the earlier one. But still, I sense it as a totally different piece now. Indeed it was like composing this music again and so meditating on the substance and the text even more deeply. What came clearly to mind while doing this work is that, for me, the line ‘Hunger nach einer Heimat, die keine mehr ist’ [Hunger for a home that is no more] is the central idea of the whole cycle.

Thomas Larcher