Fantasy for piano & orchestra
Description
I began writing Fantasy for Joonas Ahonen around the same time as I learned my wife and I were expecting our first child. Overjoyed by these news and excitement about the future, lead to a boost in creativity I had never experienced before. The piece began to almost write itself and musical ideas came to me faster than ever. Spontaneous and fantastical in character, much of the work was written in a matter of weeks. Suddenly however, our son was born very prematurely, spending many difficult months at the Neonatal Intensive Care. During those months the music began to take a different shape, reflective of our exhaustion and anxiety. Yet, what underpins the whole work, is a sense of adventure and of course, hope.
Fantasy is dedicated to my son and wife.
Instrumentation
3333 4331 12 1, str, pno solo
Premiere
Joonas Ahonen, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov, cond. October 29, 2025 at Musiikkitalo, Finland
Commisioned by / dedicationsCommissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
