Song of Pan

For flute and piano, sonata in three movements

The composition is about the goat god Pan from Greek mythology.

This first movement concerns Pan as a mischief-maker, as a mischievous dweller in the woods.

He also came to be looked upon as the God of ‘woodland jollity’, of herds and flocks, of fertility and country life in general.

2. “Song of Syrinx”

Syrinx is the nymph that fled from Pan and turned into a reed. Pan consoled himself at his loss by cutting reeds to make a musical instrument – panpipes.

3. “The Shepherds’ Deity”

Pan was also a shepherds’ Deity, protector of flocks who made goats and ewes fertile.

‘Within Reflecting Echoes’

Concerto for piano and orchestra

I started writing music as soon as I started to learn the violin when I was 8 years old. Ever since, composing has accompanied me throughout my life.

This composition is a personal reflection of the past and of tales my mother told me, of her life and courageous activities as an anti-fascist.

Many of my compositions especially these last years are dedicated to my parents in loving memory.

I am writing a book to date about their life and experiences.

My latest musical compositions are part of this book.

In this piano concerto I have told their tale in a musical way, as well as my experiences in the previous GDR, and the devastating experiences we had under that Stalinist dictator regime.

In the first movement I have expressed particularly the life of my parents as anti-fascists,- fleeing from Nazi terror and their successful escape to Prague 1933

The second movement reflects our time back in Dresden 1965-82 and the happy tranquil times we had there back in my mother’s hometown and place of birth – her love and desire to see her beloved Dresden again after so many years of emigration. This movement also reflects my time I spent there after my musical studies in Dresden in a state theatre orchestra as a professional violinist.

But my future as a professional orchestra musician was destroyed by the Stasi in their devastating efforts to destroy my mother’s artistic reputation and caused the death of my parents under strange circumstances.

The third movement reflects my return to Britain 1984, my own longing to return home to the place of my birth, Maidenhead. Regrettably I never got there.

This movement also reflects good times here as well as reflecting thoughts of past times in Dresden.

This composition also reflects the feelings of restlessness and the longing to belong somewhere.

Our ancestors lived for centuries in the beautiful Saxon Switzerland – in Bohemia on the Czech border.

Devastating wars and haunting victimization from Nazis and also the Stasi in the previous GDR caused many families to break-up, lose contact and caused many families to scatter around the world.

I have lost contact with my own sister as a result of Stasi intervention.

For material I have used parts of two of my piano sonatas and a piano trio; ‘ For Spring,’ ‘ Remembering Dresden’ and ‘Sound, City Silence’.

It is hardly possible in today’s world to live on creative art, - composing music. You have to be addicted and as in my case, feel the urgent need to write and create, no matter whatever the outcome. This composition is a very personal one and I would also like to thank Michael Sackin, the University of Leicester Sinfonia and Duncan Honeybourne for this wonderful opportunity to get my piano concerto performed.