Tracks:
- Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods is inspired by the ruins of the ‘Odeion (concert hall) of Agrippa’, constructed in about 15 BC in the Agora just below the ancient Acropolis in Athens. This hall had an auditorium shaped like an amphitheatre and had a seating capacity for about 1,000 people, although the size was reduced in a subsequent re-build in AD 150. It was adorned by colossal figures of Giants and Tritons and was close to the “Altar of the Twelve Gods” and Temples of Hephaestus, Ares, Apollo and Aphrodite. It was destroyed by fire in AD 267.
The piece takes the form of a suite of movements imagining being part of a concert in 15 BC, but linking this to music of today, and taking into account the virtuosity of Jill Kemp and Aleks Szram.