The Last Dance? was commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Dunedin Consort as a new piece to conclude Bach's  Orchestral Suite No.1 in C major, BWV 1066, for the 2019 season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts.

The work was premièred at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 11 September, played by the Dunedin Consort.

Adding a movement to another composer’s work highlights the relationship between them and encourages comparison. Relating the new work to the old in some way means they can be performed together without a “disagreeable mixture"; but, equally, the new composer must express an individual voice.
Wishart has met these desiderata by adding a modern dance to Bach’s Bourrées, Passepieds, etc.: a tango — or rather two tangos – No.I preceding and following No. II, as Bach does with his. The scheme also matches that of Argentine tangueros of the last century, enhanced by Wishart’s distinctive voice and contrapuntal language. At the same time, Wishart – in line with her long-held ideas — makes use of the Baroque orchestra both to say new things in old sounds, and trusts the players to make their own contributions within the blueprint of the Baroque; there are opportunities for cadenze, and part of the piece uses the improvisatory short-hand of figured bass (the sort of idea Wishart transports into contemporary idioms) to allow the harpsichordist — within limits- to invent his/her own part.
Wishart sees concern for the environment as a natural extension of her creativity and shortly before starting this Tango, she was commissions such as those for Ex Cathedra have given her the chance to study with song-birds as a way to learn music and train her ears in unwritten forms of complex sound. 
On watching the videos of Paula Webster (who kindly gave me permission to use her recordings) and discovering that the Argentinian Hooded Grebe performs a tangoesque mating ritual, I wondered if its call might work in the music and made musical sketches notating its call variants which revealed fourthing and fifthing trilling figurations which are even quite Baroque and in the same tonality as the Bach. It seemed only natural therefore, to use its raw and impelling calls as my theme, and now on the “critically endangered” list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and of BirdLife International my work's title draws attention to its plight. 
The piece has an optional sound-track supplied for the performance and cued from their transcription in the top line of the score. The bird-calls are heard around the same time as they are introduced by various instruments in the orchestra, indicating affekt rather than direct imitation and should sound joyously timbral rather than overly precise: they should be listened to as part of learning the piece even if not used in performance.
Instructions in the score include “Try a short flashy cadenza to end: harpsichord playing the brief grebe-call melodies in the RH, I hear a ruffle of continuous trills interfering with the sky-line pitches in the C/Bb region above and below, crossing the hands and overflapping the second manual if there is one”
Paul de Lusignan  © Stevie Wishart

Azeruz (with Sinfonye)

stevie wishart

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