Tavener on Mozart

1st November 2006

On 6th November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Nicholas Daniel and the Britten Sinfonia will give the world premiere of Kaleidoscopes, a tribute to Mozart, by John Tavener. The composer writes “I have always regarded Mozart as the most sacred and also the most inexplicable of all composers. Sacred, because more than any other composer that I know, he celebrates the act of Being; inexplicable, because the music contains a rapturous beauty and a childlike wonder. So, in my work Kaleidoscopes, I have attempted to pluck Mozart’s music from out of the harmony of the
spheres, so to speak, and to meditate on it through four main cycles. In a sense all the music has its source in Mozart, whether recognisable or not. Various rhythmic, harmonic and contrapuntal ideas are common to all the different essences, as is the ordering of the note patterns. The solo oboe should be placed in the middle of the performance space, with the four quartets spaced around him in north, south, east and west directions, as far apart as is practicable.” Further performances take place Thursday 9 November at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge and Friday 10 November 2006 at St Andrew's Hall, Norwich.