When a twenty-minute piece takes two weeks to rehearse, is an audience robbed of some of the richness of their experience by not witnessing that creative journey?
For 48 Hours, we worked collaboratively with composer Tullis Rennie, together exploring the creative arc of the rehearsal process as we immersed ourselves in our most challenging work to date – Thomas Adès’s Piano Quintet.
The resulting album features our new recording of the Piano Quintet, and Rennie’s original work 48 Hours, a new piece conceived in response to our process of rehearsal and creative interpretation of Adès’s work. Recordings from rehearsals and interviews with players are woven through improvised interpretations of a new graphic score, combined with trumpet and electronics. The album plays with perspective, creative observation and interpersonal experience – we hope it gives listeners a unique insight into our creative practice, connecting us with them in a unique and enriching way.
This is our very first album, and is released by Amsterdam-based Moving Furniture Records. Originally conceived as a live and recording project, 48 Hours was intended as a celebration of our 5th birthday in May 2020 – sadly it had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Given all that has happened in the last year, we’re very excited to have been able to record these works and to share them with you now.
We performed the album in full in a special live-streamed performance on Tuesday 15 June as part of City University’s Summer Sounds Festival 2021.
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With huge thanks to everyone who supported our Crowdfunder campaign; Arts Council England; PRS Foundation; Caroline Sipos, Miguel Mera and the Knowledge Exchange fund (HEIF) from City, University of London and Research England; Naomi Tattum; Gavin Osborn; Alan Williams and the University of Salford.
This project is generously funded by Arts Council England and PRS Foundation.
