3(II=picc,III=afl).3(III=corA).3(I=Eb,III=bcl).3(III=dbn)-
4.4.3.1-perc(4):glsp/vib/t.bells/tgl/large susp.cym/sizzle cym/small
& large cyms/tam-t/maracas/jingles/tamb/bell tree/claves/2wdbl/
2cowbells/anvil/ratchet/SD/TD/BD(2BD)-cel-harp-strings
Abreviaturas (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
One of Holloway’s finest and most atmospheric works, this was commissioned by the Feeney Trust for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and is dedicated to their then Music Director, Simon Rattle. During the American tour that followed the premiere in Birmingham, Holloway was described in the New York Magazine as a "brazen Romantic" and he has admitted that these Two Pictures for large orchestra are another of his tributes to High Romanticism. The pictures that inspired the work are Caspar David Friedrich’s The Monk by the Sea and the elder Bruegel’s The Harvesters: the first a study of solitude and loneliness, the second a study of communal conviviality. The work abounds in exquisite orchestral touches such as the percussion’s evocation of the sounds of the sea on the shore and there are many references and allusions to the great composers of the 19th century.
Repertoire Note by Peter Marchbank