2020 | 18' | soprano and large orchestra

unde imber et ignes is a piece of unabashed physicality. A concert aria typified by craving between the soloist and the orchestra, who both show their vulnerability through accessing their dark sides. In this piece, the soprano – who plays neither a woman nor a man, but represents innate, dark cravings that conform to neither binary gender nor predisposed societal views of sexuality – and the orchestra are both represented as ‘bodies’ that yearn for physical intimacy. They clash and burn, trying to fuse into one.

The text I worte for this piece subverts some traditional genres - the renaissance French lai, but also old English ballads.

It was commissioned by the Nederlands Studenten Orkest, financially aided by the Dutch Fund for the Performing Arts, and was performed throughout February 2020 in the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg by Katharine Dain with the Nederlands Studenten Orkest conducted by Manoj Kamps.

An overwhelmingly good, wild chunk of violence for soprano and orchestra

- bas van putten, DE GROENE AMSTERDAMMER, 26 may 2021

Recorded 19 February 2020 at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht.
Recording distributed by Donemus Records.

Booklet on Issuu.

Instrumentation: [4.4.4.4. | 6.3.3.2. | Timp., 4perc., Hp. | Soprano | 16.14.12.10.8.]