John Casken's 'The Madonna of Silence' premieres at the Halle

This year is composer John Casken's 70th birthday year and he has a number of performances coming up. This week, on 28 February 2019, the Halle and conductor Jamie Philips give the premiere of Casken's Trombone Concerto 'Madonna of Silence' with soloist Katy Jones.

Casken calls his new trombone concerto, a drama for trombone and orchestra, and the piece is inspired by a Michelangeo drawing in the Portland Collection at Welbeck Abbey. Depicting the Holy Family, Michelangeo gives the drawing the subtitle 'The Madonna of Silence', and Casken calls the drawing intriging and disturbing. You can hear more about his thoughts in his interview with soloist Katy Jones on the Halle podcast.

The programme also includes Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony and Mozart's Symphony no. 31 'Paris', full details from the Halle website.

Further ahead there are more performances of his melodrama for Sir John Tomlinson Kokoschka’s Doll at the Wigmore Hall (13 April), the Brighton Festival (15 May) and more in June/July, his song cycle Lines from a Wanderer by baritone Marcus Farnsworth, the world premiere of his piano cycle Six Wooded Pieces in Singapore by Kenneth Hamilton (13 April) and two November performances of his Clarinet Quintet ‘Misted Land’ with the Carducci Quartet and Julian Bliss.

Further details of other John Casken performances from his website.