Tronie is a response to Rembrandt's astonishing portrait of his mother painted when he was in his early twenties and at a time when she would have been about sixty and therefore described as an 'old woman'. It may have been intended rather as a generic depiction of the ravages of old age - a 'tronie' or genre painting - but it strikes me as being a very moving and vividly characterised study of a real living individual, a penetratingly honest and unflinching portrayal at that. In Tronie I have attempted to make a musical statement about old age - not only the frailty, the loss of powers and the resignation, but also the pride and defiance of the old. The piece is dedicated to the memory of my mother-in-law, Andy Ginsborg, who died in February 2013.

© George Nicholson