Psathas’ Leviathan: steel, drums and determination
Percussionist Alexej Gerassimez, soloist in John Psathas’ Leviathan
“Leviathan” says composer John Psathas, “is as mega as they come.” He’s referring to his second percussion concerto with Orchestra Wellington for 2022, programmed for New Zealand premiere this month. In May, the delicacy of The All-Seeing Sky for double percussion and orchestra, featuring virtuosic Swiss percussionists Fabian Ziegler and Luca Staffelbach, enchanted audiences in Christchurch and Wellington.
What’s the difference between the two concertos? Leviathan, for German percussion soloist Alexej Gerassimez, is, says Psathas, “a sledgehammer to the sumi brush of The All-Seeing Sky. It’s ambition is to be vast, high-impact, visceral, exploding with colour, and confronting. The All-Seeing Sky is introspective, modest in its palette, and subtler in expressive and dynamic range.”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Leviathan was commissioned as part of the Beethoven Pastoral Project
Leviathan was commissioned for Gerassimez as part of the intriguing Beethoven Pastoral Project, timed for Beethoven’s 250th birthday by UN Climate Change with BTHVN2020. The project’s Declaration included the following statement: “We, musicians, artists and creatives of planet Earth, offer our artistic and musical creativity, and our own actions, as signs of our determination to be part of the solutions to current planetary challenges.”
While composing, Psathas had with him a portrait of Beethoven seated amongst nature. He wonders what the composer of the Pastoral Symphony would make of the current state of our natural world. “The opening movement – Hightailin' to Hell - evokes the human race’s out-of-control race to disaster,” he wrote in Leviathan’s programme note. “There’s almost a party-like atmosphere, as if we’re dancing at the end of the world.”
Composer John Psathas
…international reputation.
Psathas’s global connections with virtuosi like Gerassimez combine in this work with his resolve to make a difference through music. Leviathan was premiered in several concerts in Germany in 2021. The final movement’s title, A Falcon, A Storm, or A Great Song? comes from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke which includes the lines “I live my life in widening circles//that reach out across the world.”
Psathas returns in Leviathan to the driving, percussion-soaked music that has contributed to his international reputation. He believes the positive, hopeful finale is “true to the spirit of Beethoven in its strength and purpose. Music of steel and drums and momentum - and determination.”
Leviathan Orchestra Wellington, Marc Taddei (conductor) Alexej Gerassimez (percussion) Music by Wagner, Psathas and Schumann Wellington 17 September 2022, recorded by RNZ Concert for later broadcast
This concert preview was first published in the NZ Listener issue September 10, 2022