In Memoriam Thomas Kakuska
Written for the memorial concert for Thomas Kakuska at the Konzert House in 2006.
Premiered on 8th September 2006 in Bunka Centre, Takefu, Japan as preparation for the memorial concert for Thomas Kakuska at the Konzerthaus in Vienna on 29th October 2006. Both performances were given by Irvine Arditti.
Written in the Summer of 2006 as a tribute to our dear friend Tommy as he was known to his friends. For those who did not know him, he was the viola player with the Alban Berg Quartet for almost two decades. When I started working on the piece I wanted to portray Tommy’s cheerful spirit and I did this by means of working on short contrasting motivic ideas. But I also wanted to express his profoundly melancholic soul, which I try to portray harmonically, mostly explored in the last section of the piece.