Based on Edvard Munch’s iconic painting, Thomas Simaku’s new work, The Scream, will receive its world premiere in Cambridge on 17 November 2017. It will be performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by King’s College Director of Music Stephen Cleobury.
Of this substantial piece lasting 20 minutes, Thomas Simaku writes:
‘The iconic painting by Edvard Munch was the main impulse for writing this piece - hence the title. Its “silent scream” whose echo spans (and can be heard) well beyond the painting's time and frame, struck a chord with me for its resonance with our modern times.
In no way programmatic, the music here focuses on the concentrated form of expression that emanates from the space, the colours, and the gritty intensity of the “deafening silence” in Munch's painting.