Thursday 15 November 2012

Hind brings the accordion into the spotlight

Rolf Hind
Rolf Hind's new work for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Tiniest House of Time is a concerto for accordion and orchestra. The work will be premiered on Saturday 24 November at the Barbican Centre, with Jakob Hursa conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra with James Crabb playing the accordion. A suite from Janacek's opera The Cunning Little Vixen and Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherezade complete the concert.


Hind has said that in writing The Tiniest House of Time he was inspired by James Crabb's virtuoso performances on the accordion, as well as the instrument's use in folk and gypsy music. The four movement concert is Hind's first work for accordion, and it will cast the instrument as a shaman, magician or healer!

Hind is both a pianist and a composer; trained at the Royal College of Music he played the music of Xenakis and Messiaen to the composers themselves. He started composing again in 2000, after something of a silence, and has since them built up a reputation for throwing fresh light on music, much of his inspiration stemming from a love of the language and culture of India.

He premiered his piano concerto Maya-Sesha in 2008 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a performance which was described by The Scotsman as 'crammed full of unfamiliar sounds.. A percussionist wielding a toy whirly tube, pieces of paper being torn to shreds, members of the orchestra humming and whistling …. Hind's is music to be listened to, in the strictest sense'. His clarinet concerto Sit stand walk for Stuart King and Chroma was premiered at the Spitalfields Festival in 2011

Further information from the Barbican Centre website.

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