This piece was written as a gift for Liz Larkin for her 60th birthday and was commissioned by her husband Chris Speller. The premiere performance took place at their home in Bristol as a surprise for Liz.

I am extremely grateful to Chris for commissioning the work which was composed in January 2018 after sneaky viewings of the paintings. My thanks too go to Mandhira De Saram and Richard Jones who worked with me on the pieces, gave the premiere performance and made the recording.

[ score for the second piece in this set is under revision - hence notation is not shown at the start ]

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This is one of the most striking paintings in the set. The quite drastically different, more impressionistic painting technique is exciting but despite its radically different style there is an uncanny consistency with the other pictures.
 
This inspired me to try to do the same! Exploring an unfamiliar process based on minimalist and ‘process’ techniques I dissected the picture and directly mapped colours of the clearly visible brushstrokes to harmonies. Working back and forth, this created blurry, impressionistic material that loops around a repeated phrase (a harmonic representation of the vibrant yellow in the centre of the picture). The shimmering, fading end is a nod to the eye following the yellow shimmer into the distance.

With this piece I hope to capture some sense of the scale, drama and movement of the painting. It begins in a sparse, atmospheric soundworld. As the piece unfolds the grandness of the implied landscape is mapped onto passages of rich double stops for each instrument. These combine in different ways and at the end grow to evoke something of the furiously rushing water.

This piece is split into mini-movements, portraying a fantastical narrative reflecting the eye’s journey around the composition of the picture.
I > Upon Entering
The big swirl bordering the painting from bottom to top is our secret entry to a fantastical garden. Upon entering one might feel a little spooked…
II > Nocturnal
The garden itself, bathed in moonlight is a beautiful nocturnal scene and the music here flits between cascading phrases based on three beats and other, arced phrases, based on four. Some trepidation returns though as they join uneasily together (perhaps the large bushes hide some malice!).
III > Sanctuary
Finally, reaching the potting shed with warm, cosy lights feels like sanctuary. The lights imply human presence (perhaps… almost certainly… of a loved one) and the violin and viola return short, romantic themes.