DESCRIPTION:
This is the London premiere of composer Geoffrey Gordon's FATHOMS: Five Impressions of Shakespeare's The Tempest (with Prelude) for cello and piano, from St. John's Smith Square, on 8 May 2017, featuring Toke Møldrup, cello and Steven Beck, piano.

From the program notes by Anna Ferro:

In six captivating and contrasting movements, FATHOMS (commissioned for Møldrup) presents a musical consideration of the magic and drama in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Upon its premiere at Carnegie Hall (December 2015), the New York Time said, "the engaging and colourful FATHOMS links to the past with unabashedly programmatic, extroverted storytelling... Mr Gordon vividly sketches characters and scenes from The Tempest. Caliban's gruffness, Ariel's quicksilver curiosity, the glowing romance between Ferdinand and Miranda all came alive in Mr Møldrup and Mr Beck's intense playing. The final movement imagines Prospero drowning his book, with Mr Møldrup gradually tuning the bottom string of his cello downward, creating the unnerving sensation of something sinking, slowly, to ever darker depths."

Preceding its release on CD, two of the world's most exciting soloists, Danish cellist Toke Møldrup, hailed as "without question among the most prominent musicians in Scandinavia" (Politiken) and Steven Beck, described as "exemplary" and "deeply satisfying" (the New York Times) and praised by the New Yorker as "one of the city's finest young pianists", give the UK premiere of acclaimed American composer Geoffrey Gordon's fabulous cello and piano sonata FATHOMS.

FATHOMS:

Prelude and Storm 0:00

I. Ferdinand and Miranda 5:32

II. Ariel and all his Quality 10:50

III. Caliban (and Sycorax) 15:43

IV. The Isle is Full of Noises 19:45

V. Prospero Drowns his Book 24:46