RHAPSODY

for Piano & Orchestra 1987

David Hellewell

Although originally intended to be the the second, slow movement of the Micro-Concerto for Piano & Orchestra (1986), and indeed thematically linked, this work grew and deepened during composition into an independent, substantial work in its own right.

There are several musical elements: A lyrical baroque-like chorale (but with some modern syncopation); monumental block chords with piano, bells, tam tam, brass and percussion; a lyrical, intertwining folk-like melody; a powerful chromatic chordal motive; and Mozartian arabesques and variations.

The work was given its premiere by the Dorset Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor David John, with Kenneth van Barthold as soloist, in Bournemouth, England in 1989, and has since had performances in England and abroad, including performances (together with the related Micro-Concerto for piano & orchestra of 1987 and other works) in Beijing in 1990 at a festival of Hellewell’s music, conducted by the composer, with the Chinese pianist Zheng Yang and the Central Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, which was also broadcast on TV and radio to great acclaim. The Rhapsody is dedicated to the composer’s wife Monica.

“My compositional techniques I equate with natural, biological creative evolution. Species (motives, ideas, cells), are created, evolve, mutate and continually transform, and have no predetermined future; only post hoc is there a seemingly-discernable 'plan', 'pattern', or apparent evolutionary goal. The difference between natural and my own musical creativity is that I do have a goal, a specific compositional purpose (no matter how nebulous in the initial stages), and the composition is, in fact, the means by which I bring into being - create - the specific complexity of feelings that were mere shadows at the work's initial conception. I treat notes as living entities, which react and interact with others both individually and in communities, and the most difficult task for me in composition is in allowing these reactions to take place 'naturally' whilst at the same time coordinating, persuading - sometimes forcing! - these into the direction/form that I want. This is a two-way feedback process: I derive direction and new musical ideas from these accidental mutations - serendipity - but also push my own ideas at them, to see how they react and interact. This makes composing always agonisingly-slow for me. Each work is the creation of a new form and species of music, and is the further evolutionary extension of previous works (though each individual work has its own unique identity)”.