Red Note Ensemble and Matthew Hawkins’s new production and choreography of Vesalii Icones – available from Autumn 2018 onwards.
Written in 1969 this is one of Peter Maxwell Davies’s classic works of concert-hall music theatre. An extraordinarily dramatic, multi-layered fusion of dance and music, its shape superimposes the 14 stations of the Cross on a series of 16th-century anatomical drawings by Vesalius, with a dancer and a solo cellist as the protagonists. Scored for the classic Fires of London Sextet line-up the work is filled with unconventional percussion instruments, a honky tonk piano and much allusion to foxtrots as well as medieval and renaissance music.
In contrast to the vibrant sonorities of Vesalii Icones, this work can be presented with a first half featuring the atmospheric piano works inspired by Persia and written during the First World War by the prolific French composer Charles Koechlin.
Contact us for a full length video.
Choreographer / Dancer: Matthew Hawkins
Dancer: Soraya Ham
Red Note Ensemble:
Lionel Handy, cello
Tom Hankey, viola
Ruth Morley, flute
Emma Burgess, clarinet
Tom Hunter, percussion
Simon Smith, piano Pierre-André Valade, conductor
Music Director: John Harris
Designer: Calum Duncan
Lighting Design: Simon Gane
Costume for Ms Ham: Mr Pearl
Visual Artist: Brian Hartley
Production Manager: Kostas Christakos Producer: Jennifer Phillips
Film: Francisco Mallo at dotbot
June 2018
St Magnus International Festival, Orkney
