Issue link: http://floodesign.uberflip.com/i/727458
The beguiling novelty is An Italian in Madrid. In the 1720s, Domenico Scarlatti was court musician to the Portuguese Princess Maria Barbara, who was to marry the Spanish Prince Ferdinand of Asturias and— sublime luggage —take her harpsichordist with her to Spain. Alston employs a selection of the hundreds of sonatas written for the princess by Scarlatti, vividly realized here by pianist Jason Ridgway, exploring them to contemplate this incident and also play the most artful of creative cards. For Maria Barbara he has recruited Vidya Patel, an exquisite young Kathak dancer from Birmingham, whose grace, beauty, and vivid technique colour the choreography. Costuming and the dizzying turns and delicious shapes of their dance pay tribute to the Kathak style, yet amid the fiorituri of the action the narrative of betrothal is touchingly shown. And how well it all sits on its score, and how cleverly the dance suggests ritual and the breath of emotion. —The Financial Times (UK) Praise For An Italian in Madrid Praise For Mazur Chopin's piano compositions seem to rise from a lake of silence, and once played, to sink back into that silence. It's as if they've been summoned from the past, which is perhaps why they touch us with such a precise edge. In Richard Alston's Mazur, set to seven mazurkas, Liam Riddick demonstrates an affinity for Chopin's music which absolutely embraces its silences, echoing them in a vibrant and profound stillness. To be still, Riddick shows us, is not to stop dancing. The piece, created in 2015, is a duet for Riddick and Nicholas Bodych, also a strong presence. There are flurries of movement, softly sprung cabrioles, unforced lifts and linkings of arms. —The Observer (UK) Richard Alston describes Mazur, set to a sequence of Chopin piano mazurkas, as "a dance for two friends sharing what they love and what they feel they have lost. For Chopin and his friends what was lost was Poland, the country to which they could not return. Mazur is another Polish word for the Mazurka in which Chopin again and again expressed longing for his beloved homeland." Liam Riddick and Nicholas Bodych Photo: Chris Nash " " " " " www.peakperfs.org 31