Presence of Absence (Excerpts) - Oscar Bettison (Ensemble Klang, Matangi Quartet & Michaela Riener)

Excerpts from the world premiere of Oscar Bettison's Presence of Absence, at Festival Dag in de Branding, in the Nieuwe Kerk, The Hague on 15 October 2016.

Presence of Absence is a work for soprano (Michaela Riener) and ten instruments (Ensemble Klang and the Matangi String Quartet), spanning 55 minutes, and divided into five movements:

1) Shrines or Satellites
2) In Shards
3) The Ruin
4) Eigengrau
5) Lichtenberg Figures

The central movement sets, in its original Anglo-Saxon, "The Ruin", a poem that describes the decaying edifices of the Roman Empire. The text of the poem itself, due to a fire some centuries ago, is itself fragmentary – in other words a ruin.

Sections from the first, third and final movements feature in the video above.

The work was commissioned by Ensemble Klang and Festival Dag in de Branding with funds from the Eduard van Beinum Stichting.

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