• Judith Weir
  • On the Palmy Beach (2019)

  • Chester Music Ltd (World)

Commissioned by Kings Place, and first performed there on 24th October 2019 by Ruby Hughes (soprano), Natalie Clein (cello) and Julius Drake (piano)

  • pf/vc
  • Soprano
  • 13 min
  • Wallace Stevens; Kathleen Jamie; Norman MacCaig; Emily Dickinson
  • English

Programme Note

On the Palmy Beach comprises four idiosyncratic views of life in the sea and on the beach. ‘Fabliau of Florida’ (Wallace Stevens) is a complex sea view with powerful, ever-changing textures. ‘The Glass-hulled Boat’ (Kathleen Jamie) reveals a phantasmagorical jellyfish, represented musically by the cello. ‘Basking Shark’ (Norman McCaig) relates another personal encounter with a sea-creature, provoking reflections about pre-history and evolution. ‘I started Early – Took my Dog’ (Emily Dickinson) is a gripping account of the waves on a beach, and their almost sexual pursuit of the poet (who, it is thought, never actually saw the sea in her lifetime.)

Programme note © 2019 Judith Weir

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