University of York Music Press

The impetus behind Sadie's work has changed somewhat from initial ideas since she received a DVD from ethnomusicologist John Baily. Using Rzewski's groundbreaking politico-musical statements as a starting point, the piece will explore the ways that traditional Afghan material can be incorporated effectively and sensitively into the gamut of the piano's timbres and temperament. The photograph here was taken by Veronica Doubleday - two Afghan boys in Kabul after the expulsion of the Taliban (2004, Kabul Nanderi - Kabul Theatre which contained a music school). Along with the rose, the nightingale is one of the principal images used in classical Afghan poetry and song. Drawing on a still-vivid memory of Ian's staggering performance of Scriabin's trill-saturated Tenth Sonata at the Wigmore Hall (also in 2001), the new piece is conceived as a gradual accumulation of birdsong and trills interlaced with fragments of Afghan melodies, increasingly ecstatic and resonant - a tribute to Rzewski's important socio-historical works of the 1970s and to the resilience of the young Afghan musicians and their teachers, exploring our musical heritage and reclaiming their own. More information about the fantastic work being done at the Afghanistan National Institute for Music can be found at www.afghanistannationalinstituteofmusic.org. There will be a pre-concert talk by Frederic Rzewski, tbc, 6.45pm, 3rd August 2013, 7.30pm, at the Unitarian Chapel, York www.latemusic.org/august-2013