Berlin Music

With Berlin Music, Brett Dean wrote a threefold homage: to the classical duo combination of violin and piano, to the violin virtuoso Midori, for whom the piece was written, and to the city of Berlin, where he lived from the mid-1980s until 2000 and to Berlin's rich cultural life which played an important role in his development as musician and composer. The first four, relatively short movements of the five-movement work form a suite of character pieces that are followed by a lengthier final movement. In fact, this final movement turns out to be the 'main movement' which serves as a wellspring and summary of all motifs and harmonies. This includes the down-tuning of the G side by a whole tone - a seemingly small adjustment, but one that has a significant effect on the sound, colour and resonance of the instrument, suddenly making hitherto impossible interval sequences playable. In addition, in the third movement (a "moto perpetuo" in which Dean doffs his hat to Ravel's Violin Sonata), the violinist is required to play with a practice mute while the pianist changes instruments and plays with a muted practice pedal while seated at an upright piano set up next to the concert grand: the nervous energy emitting from closed university rooms now takes centre stage.