Work of the Week – Richard Ayres: No. 57 (K's Strange Day)

From the background to the limelight: Richard Ayres' work No. 57 (K's Strange Day) for solo timpani and orchestra will be premiered in Helsinki on 4 September 2024. The YLE Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform at Musiikkitalo under the baton of its chief conductor Nicholas Collon.

Ayres wrote his new piece for the orchestra's principal timpanist, Kazutaka Morita. The composer generally uses consecutive numbering for the titles of his pieces, in this case No. 57. The addition (K's Strange Day) can be seen as an allusion to Franz Kafka’s The Trial and the protagonist Josef K. The peculiar thing here is the emergence of the timpani from the background of the orchestra into the limelight. Questions arise: Does the imaginary figure do this voluntarily? In what situation does it find itself? Is she acting or is she subject to the circumstances?

No. 57 (K's Strange Day) by Richard Ayres: Grand entrance for the timpani

For long stretches, Ayres attempts to create a kind of ‘film without images’ in the audience's imagination. The composer has repeatedly been influenced by early cinema and artists such as Charlie Chaplin. There is often a central character around whom the story revolves.

When I was still playing in orchestras, this person seemed to be a mysterious figure sitting alone behind a wall of huge magical cauldrons. He often seemed to lean over the instrument as if he were talking to it. Half musician, half magician. (Richard Ayres)

No. 57 (K's Strange Day) will be performed again in the same place the day after the premiere. The German premiere can be experienced in May 2025 with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz. The next world premiere by Richard Ayres will follow on 13 September 2024 in Amsterdam, where the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble will present Ayres' homage to the current Anton Bruckner year, which is logically entitled No. 58 (Bruckner). 

Further Reading:

Richard Ayres: Composer Profile

No. 57 (K's Strange Day): Work Details and Online Score 

Website YLE Radio Symphony Orchestra

photo: Miguel Chamorro / Adobe