NEXT at Home #1 Thanks for joining us for this bite-size concert, featuring a short selection of videos from our NEXT musicians! First up, we’ll hear Gavin Stewart play Tristan Murail’s Unanswered Questions for solo flute. The title of the piece, which was written in 1995, bears reference to Charles Ives’s 1908 work The Unanswered Question, and Murail writes: ‘these questions remaining unanswered find a musical characterisation in the “modest, unfinished melodies” stemming from the flute harmonics’. We then move on to a duet performed by Maja Pluta and Rebecca Speller which was filmed pre-lockdown – back in September in fact, when the composer visited Birmingham for BCMG’s concert celebrating his 85th birthday! We were lucky enough that Sir Harrison Birtwistle was able to spend some time working with NEXT musicians on some of his music, including this flute and violin duet, Duet 4. Raddon Stephenson will then play for us a piece entitled Footfalls by emerging composer Benjamin Marrington-Reeve. This piece would have had its premier this evening in Manchester, as part of a concert by new contemporary music group Vanguard New Music. Though sadly that can no longer take place tonight, we’re delighted to be able to share this premiere with you online! Ending our short programme, bassoonist Edoardo Casali gives us a rendition of Giacinto Scelsi’s Maknongan. Based on a Filipino myth, Edoardo has also provided us with a fascinating insight into both the piece and its composer. Tristan Murail (b.1947) Unanswered Questions (1995), 5’ Flute Gavin Stewart Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934) Duet 4 (2014), 2’ Flute Rebecca Speller Violin Maja Pluta Benjamin Marrington-Reeve (b.1998) Footfalls (2020), 2’ Trombone Raddon Stephenson Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) Maknongan (1976) 4’ Bassoon Edoardo Casali Manage Cookie Preferences