Bára Gísladóttir is nominated in the category 'Classical composer of the year - small ensemble' with her work Animals of your pasture, and in the category 'Classical composer of the year - large ensemble' Martin Stauning is nominated with Concerto for Harp and Orchestra.
Bára Gísladóttir's Animals of your pasture was premiered by RIOT ensemble at the Belgian contemporary music festival TRANSIT in october 2021. Afterwards the piece was performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where an enthusiastic critic described the work as "elemental, eternal and indominable."
Bára Gísladóttir writes in a note about the work:
"Animals of your pasture is based on the thought of all kinds of animals existing together in a flock that functions as an organism on its own. The piece plays with the idea of following this flock from various angles and views (close up, extreme long shot, in focus, out of focus, in fragments, slow motion, fast forwards, through different textural filters, etc.) on various occasions (running over endless miles of prairies, fighting, dancing, napping, singing, etc.) This concept is intertwined with an unclear thought where wild chaos is allowed to be wild chaos, with no parts stepping in to take or gain control, with no attempts to structure or systemise something that just is."
Recently, Animals of your pasture was featured in BBC3's New Music Show. Listen to the programme and Gísladóttir's piece here >>
Martin Stauning's Concerto for Harp and Orchestra was commissioned and premiered by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra with harpist Zachary Hatcher as soloist.
In a press release from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Hatcher stated: ”I have played music by Martin once before, and he is a very special composer. His music seems to express every feeling or atmosphere extremely precisely. There is an amazing power and a very clear intention in everything he writes.
In an interview with Magasinet Klassisk, Martin Stauning explains some of his ideas behind the work. “The strings are actually bars, that the harpist is caught behind. He is trapped – physically trapped. At the end of the concert, he literally pulls and tugs on the strings, but he still can’t get out even though he pulls them like a maniac.”
Concerto for Harp and Orchestra was premiered by the Danish National Symphony Orcehstra in May 2021. The work will be released as a digital EP by Dacapo Records.
The winners of Carl Prisen 2022 will be announced on 13 June. Find more information about Carl Prisen and all nominated composers and song writers here >>