Kenneth Hesketh

Les Grandes Plaines du Jour

Taking his starting point from 17th century philosopher-poet Cyrano de Bergerac's 'Grandes Plaines du Jour', Hesketh powerfully fuses a huge range of performing and compositional techniques into this 12 minute work for solo violin. Inspired by Bergerac's imaginations of other worlds and utopian societies, the work explores extreme ranges and timbres whilst using techniques such as left hand pizzicato and natural harmonics. Open-fifth material, which is natural to the instrument, is prominent and short duets alternating between arco and pizzicato figures add yet another dimension.