Toshi Ichiyanagi - Time Sequence (1976) Richard Beaudoin - Chopin Desséché (2009) Ruth Crawford Seeger - Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930) Martin Iddon - Mönch (2024) Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre - Suite No. 1 in D minor (1687) Conlon Nancarrow (arr. Ben Smith) - Study No. 11 for Player Piano (1965-1969) — interval — Nicholas A Huber - Darabukka (1976) Olivier Messiaen - Ile de feu II (1949) Ryuichi Sakamoto - hibari (2009) Iannis Xenakis - Evryali (1973)
Pianist Ben Smith explores the intricacies of rhythm and repetition in a programme that - amongst other things - investigates dance forms of the French baroque, middle-eastern drum patterns, phasing, and microtimings of rubato and swing. //grooves// considers what happens when numerical abstractions collide with the physicality of performed music. That is, what happens when rhythms become grooves.
Presenting old and new work with radically different formulations of rhythm, the programme is bookended by two ultra-virtuosic works from the 1970s avant-garde: Ichiyanagi’s very rarely performed Time Sequence, and Xenakis’ monumental Evryali.
Ben Smith is a London-based pianist, composer, and occasional conductor specialising in contemporary and experimental music. Hailed as one of “the finest new-music pianists in London” (TEMPO) and a player of “extraordinary precision and insight” (The Guardian), he is in demand both as a soloist and chamber performer (An Assembly, Explore Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Uproar Ensemble). Known for daring and virtuosic performances which traverse the extremes of the contemporary repertoire, he has given dozens of world premieres across the UK and Europe (BBC Total Immersion, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, inn:pust festival, Ny Musik i Birkerød, Transit: Festival voor nieuwe muziek, and at London venues Ambika P3, Barbican Hall, Hackney Round Chapel, Kings Place, Milton Court Concert Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Wigmore Hall). In recent years he has conducted premiere performances of Sarah Angliss’ Giant (Royal Opera House, Aldeburgh Festival), Alastair White’s RUNE (Tête-à-tête Opera Festival), and regularly works as deputy MD on Operation Mincemeat (Fortune Theatre). Ben was a Junior Fellow at Guildhall School of Music & Drama from 2020-2022, where he previously studied with Laurence Crane, Rolf Hind, and James Weeks. His recording of Evan Johnson's complete piano music was released on all that dust in November 2021.
