Listen & Watch

An excerpt from Richard Causton's Pheonix, which features on the 4th CD in the London Sinfonietta's Jerwood Series.

Richard says: "The music hinges on the relationship between the piano - the only instrument in the ensemble whose notes die away as soon as they are played - and the four other instruments (flute, clarinet, violin, cello). The title refers to the mythical bird which was said to rise from the ashes of its own funeral pyre every five hundred years - a bright image of rebirth which kept coming to mind as I worked on one of the final passages."

This piece was recorded live on 8 November 2006 at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

Pheonix was comissioned by the London Sinfonietta with the generous support of Henry Greenfield, and was written in memory of his wife Joanna (1940-2005).