Recently we had the pleasure to premiere with Diphonon Duo “Breathing Space” by Lewis Murphy.
This composition was commissioned for the Wigmore Hall Learning Festival which main theme was “Sense of Home”. The commission was generously supported by the Arts Council of England and Mrs. Anna Weeks.
We had a great time learning and rehearsing Lewis’ piece with Iñigo. Our meetings with Lewis (the composer) were really inspiring as he communicated to us very clearly his vision about the composition.
I found the viola part very intriguing as I have the melodic part and it felt like I was floating calmly on top of the soothing harmonies of the accordion.
The most characteristic element of this work are the common “breaths” the two instruments are taking at the same moment throughout the duration of its performance, breaths which represent our temporary sanctuaries from the stress of the world.
I would suggest that the whole composition has a general calm character woven by the two instruments from warm threads of light and warm at the same time sound. For the more dynamic middle part we used completely different performing mentality and techniques (sound projection, articulation, musical direction, etc.) in order to express this amalgam of classical-gracious / contemporary / folk character the composer created.
The final motive in the end is repeated again and again, fading, until it just disappears in the listener’s melodic and mental horizon.