Alexander Hawkins

Thanks! And yes...I know that feeling!

Wow - thank you! That's really interesting - the Convergence Quartet album? I hadn't thought of that...I need to relisten...fascinating!!!

Thanks so much for listening, Adrian! The Resonances and Rhapsodies session was really fun...one of my last trips abroad to play before the lockdown! (And in fact, we recorded the Dolphy concert only the week after R&R, if I remember correctly...)

I'll take it! I don't have the heart to look at the competition, which could even put me in the relegation zone.

That's really kind of you - thanks so much for listening!

If anyone is interested, I have a new album out next week - although available now to preorder, and there are some copies out there already. It's called 'Togetherness Music', and is an extended composition for 16 musicians, featuring (among others) Evan Parker and the Riot Ensemble - an amazing UK-based contemporary music ensemble, who commissioned the work in its original form. There is a full personnel on the Intakt website, and it's available to buy there, or via the Intakt Bandcamp page (it comes in their great new cardboard sleeve). Liner notes by James Fei. Miraculously, there was a window here in the UK last summer where it was safe and legal for us to get together in the studio to work on this music, and I'm thrilled with the results, so please do consider checking it out if you're curious!

To be fair, I spend so much time listening in awe to Louis on those gigs that I sometimes forget *I* was there!

I really enjoyed the programme too...some amazing playing from everyone. Sons of Kemet in particular I loved - live, they're really something. (Yes - Shabaka, Tom Skinner, and I are the same generation - although maybe Tom and I are a couple of years older? - so we've played on each others things, and indeed - Shabaka and I have also played together in Louis Moholo-Moholo's group)... I also saw that stream from Church of Sound, and agree - Nathaniel sounded phenomenal. Great gig!

I don't know Andre too well at all, but did work with him in a large Braxton ensemble in Berlin last Autumn, and he seems like a fascinating guy...and a hell of a player. I really enjoy his work on the Braxton Tristano-school stuff...he also has some very extreme explorations of the saxophone. I feel like I've heard some amazing solo stuff, but can't quite place where/when just now! But anyway, as I say: IMHO he's fantastic throughout this: https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/quintet-tristano-2014

Wow, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy them! I'm definitely working on some new things, one of which is indeed a sextet...hopefully some news soon!

Thanks so much for checking them out!

I love those you mention too. My personal favourite would be Pollini (n.b. to the curious - there are, as of a couple of months ago - new Pollini recordings of 109/110/111). Richter I'm intrigued by in this one...his second movement is SO slow it's very odd; so I couldn't say it was a favourite, but I like it because it's challenging in some way... Solomon and Annie Fischer I also love.

I'm curious now - I can't wind back that far. According to the list I was sent, those repetitions should be Wayne Marshall!

If I remember correctly, I played the ten repetitions beginning at repetition 488! I'm not sure if it's part of the concept as such, but the score is fascinating, and the way it's written is definitely one of the piece's many 'vexations'. If you take a look, you can see some of what I mean: https://images.app.goo.gl/BkkqQFk96GoqTM457 For example, Satie has seemingly deliberately written the notes in unhelpful ways - flat/double flats/etc. used for the sake of it, rather than grammatically, or at least conventionally (although of course with so much of the harmony being augmented or diminished, what would be 'grammatical' or 'conventional' is up for debate!)...so if you look at the 7th and 8th beats of the second system, a melody which appears in print to fall actually rises. Notice also that the structure is written totally unhelpfully - there would be a much easier solution. I think part of the process of the piece is mind games with the performer - how awkward can he make this apparently simple little thing, and how badly is this going to mess with your head as you attempt to repeat it all those times. I haven't checked, but IIRC I made a slip on my 7th repetition: as you can see, the notes aren't tough as such, but after a while, they really play tricks. (I played it for a long time yesterday, just to see how it felt to go for many more than the 10 repetitions of this performance: the answer is, stuff gets *weird*, and indeed, there are plenty of tales from people who have attempted extremely long stints in the past...) So I think that playing it with the music is arguably part of the point. For sure, it wouldn't be that hard to memorise (although again, there are tales that people who have done long stretches of this piece have just had a complete 'block'.) I would also guess that some performers have simply rewritten Satie's notation into something much simpler to read. This would virtually guarantee no errors, and I toyed with it, but it didn't quite seem to capture the full 'vexatiousness' of the piece to me personally..! Also the little text at the start: 'Pour se jouer 840 fois de ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer...' - 'To play this motif 840 times, it would be a good idea to prepare'...I always think that 'would' is significant...he doesn't seem to be *telling* the performer. And it's a 'motif' rather than anything more concrete: so although most people play the notes 'as written', on some repetitions that I saw as I've dipped in and out during the day, there is the occasional octave transposition etc. (Also - the instrument itself appears to be up for grabs - so I think at the least any keyboard instrument would be valid!). Sort of incredible to think this was probably written in the 1890s!

Ha - I did a shift in this performance a few hours ago!