The title for this work is taken from a passage in the collected letters of Katherine Mansfield in which she writes to a friend, ‘I think of you often. Especially in the evenings, when I am on the balcony and it’s too dark to write or to do anything but wait for the stars. A time I love. One feels half disembodied, sitting like a shadow at the door of one’s being while the dark tide rises.’ I love the images that her words evoke, and these have shaped this work for solo oboe, woodwind, timpani, percussion and strings. While it is written as a single unbroken movement, it contains contrasting thematic material organized into distinct sections, with opening and closing passages for solo oboe that are intended to sound improvisatory. The work was commissioned by St Matthews Chamber Orchestra for a 2023 performance by Thomas Hutchinson and SMCO.
Robert Orr (oboe), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Hamish McKeich
2024 NZ Composer Sessions, recorded in Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre, 4 October, 2024 by RNZ Concert in partnership with the NZSO and SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.
David Houston, producer & engineer
Marc Chesterman, assistant engineer
