April 21st
horn and piano
2022
Duration 5’
Instrumentation horn, piano
First Performance 25 August 2023, Presteigne Festival, Presteigne, Powys LD8 2WF; Alexei Watkins, Ivana Gavrić
Commissioned by Alexei Watkins
Further Performances
8.07.24 Litchfield Festival, UK; Alexei Watkins french horn, Harry Rylance piano
Charlotte has a worldwide, exclusive publishing agreement with Birdsong
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This piece was written for Richard Watkins in celebration of his 60th birthday. The opening is calm and spacious. Both instruments hold an expansive, focused presence. To contrast, a lively, spirited section follows, the piano and horn musically ‘dancing’ around one another. Through-composed, the final section is slow, reflective and hopeful, with a dreamy, eternal quality. I focused on the beauty and lyricism of the sound of the sustained horn, accompanied by a delicate, pulsating and harmonically slow-moving piano part.