Little Cataclysms (2022)
for piano trio // 17'
commissioned by Graham Lovelock and Steven Singer with Musica Viva Australia for the Z.E.N. Trio
Score and parts are currently under review for publication, but a sample score and recording can be made available on request.
Performance history
ZEN Trio
Musica Viva Australia tour, August 10-27 2022
Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Newcastle, Hobart, Canberra, Dubbo
About
Little Cataclysms, a collection of five small pieces, plays on ideas of scale and proportion, and a little bit on the melodrama typical of romantic era works, probably the piano trios greatest era. Piano trios naturally lend themselves to large scale works so I wanted to recreate that, just in small timeframes hence the paradox Little Cataclysms.
Little Cataclysms are 5 snapshots of intimate personal disasters, portraying deep seeded memories awoken, reimagined changed or unchanged, then gone, where the reimagining informs the memory in the silence that follows.
Reviews
Sydney evening, Sydney matinee, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart
Z.E.N. Trio - Little Cataclysms, national tour August 2022
"Little Cataclysms brought writing for the piano trio well up to date... Laing is obviously an intelligent, effective composer. He displayed in this world premiere a high level of solid, calm, modern expressionism and the ability to create simple, simply beautiful and fresh ways for the piano trio voice to touch us deeply." - Sydney Arts Guide