Commissioned by: London Mozart Players with Turner Sims Concert Hall
Duration: 22:30 minutes
Instrumentation: 1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, & strings
Performance Details: First performance at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton
Date: October 10 2006
Performers: London Mozart Players
Conductor: Alexander Shelley

Programme Notes:
Taking it's title from Thomas Hardy's "The Dynasts", this piece attempts to describe the wide range of feelings experienced at any stage in life, but with a special emphasis on the problems of youth. The various sections broadly follow the "Seven of Ages of Man" speech from "As You Like It", exploring: infanthood; the young child; the young lover; the aggressive adult; the emotional troubles and reawakenings of middle age; old age leading to dotage; ending finally with an intense feeling of well-being and hope, revisiting the romance of youth, now seen through the eyes of experience. The work begins with a "raging", driving, introduction which lays out some of the thematic material, based on rising and falling fourths.

BBC R3 Interview 1:42

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