Concerto for: 
4 percussionists, 
amplified orchestra (playing with in-ear clicks), 
pre-recorded backing track, 
live electronics (played by soloists)

ORBITAL

Call of the Wild 2 He Can Worship It Without Believing It

Call of the Wild 1 She Stands at the Edge of the Incomprehensible

Call of the Wild 3 Tramontane

Excerpts demonstrating the desired instrument sounds for the Shekere, Stones, and Tome (with sticks and with mallets), used in this piece

Realbadnow Shekere

Realbadnow Stones Audio

The world premiere performance of Leviathan (an epic concerto for percussion and orchestra). Soloist Alexej Gerassimez, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Markus Poschner.
1. Hightailin’ to Hell (0.00)
2. The Final Brook (7.50)
3. Soon We’ll All Walk On Water (16.25)
4. A falcon, a storm, or a great song? (20.15)

More about the work here:
https://www.johnpsathas.com/catalogue-1/2020/3/28/leviathan-percussion-concerto-2020

Leviathan (World Premiere 10/10/21) Berlin

The All Seeing-Sky
Concerto for two percussionists and orchestra
by Ioannis John Psathas
2021

Duration 22m

Written for - and dedicated to - Fabian Ziegler and Luca Staffelbach.

Commissioned by Orchestra Wellington (New Zealand), the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (New Zealand), and City Lights Concerts (Switzerland)

In resistance to the fireworks-driven mega-spectacle of recent percussion concertos (some of which I’ve written myself), I’ve scored this work for a Mozart-sized orchestra and limited the solo parts to no more than marimba (soloist 1) and vibraphone (soloist 2).

There are three movements:
1. The Portals of Dis
2. The Upper World
3. The All-Seeing Sky

This concerto is inspired by a number of interwoven concepts. The phrase The All-Seeing Sky refers to both the omnipresent technological surveillance of the 21st century, and the ‘other’ omnipresence, God in his/her/its/their myriad historical chroniclings. 

Gustave Doré’s spellbinding illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy inspired the first two movements. The Portals of Dis depicts the (imagined) inner realisation that one is actually being ferried across the river Styx, to arrive – with a great welcoming fanfare – at the gates of Dis. The musical language of this movement is evocative of antiquity, particularly ancient Greece.

After having traversed the many levels of hell the travellers in Dante’s Inferno find the hidden road that provides the way back to The Upper World – and emerge back into our world, the bright world. The unsettled nature of the ending of this movement suggests that the world we live in now has more than a passing resemblance to hell as we imagine it.

The role of the two soloists in this concerto is fluid. At times the soloists play in virtuosic unison, and sometimes their two instruments are treated as one ‘meta-instrument’. Often the two soloists are foreground drivers of the music, other times they are equal partners with the orchestra. And sometimes they take on a background role of accompanying the orchestra (at the end of second movement, for example, the two soloists are providing a warm, quietly supporting and loving minimalist underpinning for the orchestra’s final utterances).

The All - Seeing Sky 3 The All - Seeing Sky

The All - Seeing Sky 2 The Upper World

The All - Seeing Sky 1 The Portals Of Dis

04 Breathe_Body_Audience_Africa

Dreams of Twilight

Once More, My Heart

Pharoah 3 Planet Damnation

Pharoah 2 The Great Pageant Of Thee And Me

Pharoah 1 Pharoah

Infinite Mind 2 NOAM

Infinite Mind 1 TERMINAL

Written as a study for pianists to work on wide leaps in both hands. At the invitation of Rae de Lisle, for her Fit4Piano publication.
https://www.raedelisle.com/fit-4-piano.html

Idlewild (solo piano study)

Next Planet

A new work for solo timpani and digital audio

Buyan (Solo Timpani and Digital Audio) LISTENING Mix 24fps 20170501

a new work for 8 percussionists and piano

Cloud Folk (8 percussionists and piano)

Midi performance of 2019 work for Alexej Gerassimez and Signum Saxophone Quartet.

John Psathas

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