Melbourne Recital Centre: Australian Premiere 2023
Friday 10 February 2023 @ 7pm
Melbourne Recital Centre
Primrose Potter Salon
SHOW SOLD OUT
“An epic modern classical composition that pushes the boundaries of experimentation” (Melbourne Recital Centre)
About the concert
His performance in Primrose Potter Salon presents the Australian premiere of “Praeludium y Fuga”. Originally performed at the Moscow State Conservatory in 2019 to a sold-out audience, Skepper will reimagine and recontextualise his electro-acoustic audio-visual work as a site-specific performance artwork for local audiences.
An epic modern classical composition that pushes the boundaries of experimentation, this unique, multi-sensory performance is not to be missed.
PRAELUDIUM y FUGA: GENESIS OF THE WORK
Composed over the span of three years, this work premiered at the Moscow State Conservatory at Rachmaninov Hall 2019, with the generous support of Yamaha Music Russia. Building on two decades of classical music training, my intention with this work was not only to pay respect to my classical roots, but furthermore, recast the way in which classical music may be reimagined, composed and performed.
ABOUT PRAELUDIUM Y FUGA
“Praeludium y Fuga” is a modern play on the classical “Prelude and Fugue” form. The prelude may be considered a short introduction to a larger more complex piece, the fugue.
This composition is electro-acoustic and a structured improvisation, featuring multiple instruments and devices, both classical and electronic. The Fugue features a complex soundscape of field recordings over which I improvise live on electric cello and electronics. The field recordings are a compilation of sound samples that I have personally collected since 2006 on my world travels. I am particularly interested in sacred (religious and shamanic ceremony and rituals), natural landscapes and animals, and industrial and everyday sounds. In studio, I then engineer and blend these to create highly conceptual sonic landscapes. I treat each sound sample like a voice or instrument, as in an orchestral score, and thus combined, they form a modern polyphonic contrapuntal. The compoisition is also intended to invoke our memory of place, space and time, our collective lived experience, as I beckon audiences to travel into abstracted sonic and cultural landscapes around the world.
KEY INSTRUMENTS: Grand Piano, Electric Cello, Modular Synthesiser, Electronics, Field Recordings (Laptop), Human Heart Beats (the body as a musical instrument).
Link to 2019 Moscow Conservatory World Premiere
