Composer Luke has the Power!

Composer Luke Bedford.

WHEN the Scottish Ensemble asked award-winning composer Luke Bedford to write a new piece of music for the company, he might have been forgiven for hesitating.

This was not just any new piece, but a new work designed to be a companion piece to Mozart’s much loved "Sinfonia Concertante".

So no pressure there then.

Not that Bedford allowed himself to think about the weight of having to write a piece of music that stands up to comparison with Mozart.

"If you did that, you’d never get any notes written," he added.

However, the 33-year old composer already has an impressive track record in his own right.

Recently named one of the three recipients of the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Foundation Composers’ Prize 2012, since graduating from the Royal College of Music Bedford has written works ranging from chamber groups to ensembles and full orchestras and last year debuted his first opera, "Seven Angels".

Like the Mozart piece, Bedford’s new commission is written for solo viola and violin, string orchestra and horns.

Titled "Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale", the new work receives its world premiere at Eden Court’s OneTouch Theatre this evening.

World class viola player Lawrence Power will perform the solos in both Power’s and Mozart’s pieces and the solo violin will be played by Scottish Ensemble artistic director Jonathan Morton.

Bedford took his title from a 19th century poster advertising singing conjoined twins Millie and Christine McCoy. Born in slavery in North Carolina, they were able to gain their freedom after arriving in Britain and were able to build relatively normal lives for themselves as stage performers.

Bedford revealed that before writing the piece, he had spent a lot of time listening to Mozart and though it does not quote directly from any of Mozart’s work, it does have something of the great composer’s influence.

The Berlin based composer is now looking forward to coming to Inverness to hear the piece for the first time with an audience — among them his Black Isle resident brother-in-law — though by now he knows how "Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale will sound played by a full ensemble.

"The first time you hear it in rehearsal is probably the strangest time," Bedford said.

"In a year it goes from being in your head to coming back into your head and obviously everyone else is hearing it too. It’s a slightly odd process, as a composer, to adjust to that."

Unlike child prodigy Mozart, Bedford does not come from a musical family, however.

"I had to persuade my parents that I had to have music lessons, first on the guitar and then the piano, but I think that helped me a bit," he said.

"I had to find my own way of doing things rather than being taught them."

Even so, when he began working as a composer, it took Bedford some time to develop his own style.

"That’s something every composer has to do," he said.

Viola soloist Lawrence Power.

"You grow up surrounded by a certain type of music and then you go to music college and a certain type of music is taught there too. It took me a while to realise that you have to go beyond that. It’s much more interesting to try and do things your own way.

"With every piece you write, you start out on a bit of a journey and that occasionally takes you into some unexpected places and that can be quite exciting."

His audience can also be take on a journey, especially if some of them are already wary of modern orchestral music’s reputation as inaccessible to the general listener.

"You come across that, but in unexpected places you find people who are open to things," Bedford said.

"I think it very much depends on the listener. Some people listen with closed minds and just want a certain type of thing. When you compare it with the books people read or the films they see, people can be reasonably broad-minded, but musical taste often ends up being quite narrow.

"I suppose it’s part of my job in a way to try and lead people into places where they may not have been."

A new area for Bedford himself is opera, and having worked on the John Milton inspired "Seven Angels", he is looking forward to working on his next operatic project.

"One of the nicest things about writing a piece and having it performed is rehearsing with the musicians," he explained.

"Often that is quite a short period of just one or two days, but what was nice about the opera was that I was working with the singers and you would have six weeks of rehearsal. It really is a collaboration. As well as the lyrics, you also have the musicians and the scenery and the design, which makes you feel you are more part of a team. That whole process of collaboration I find very exciting."

• The Scottish Ensemble featuring viola soloist Lawrence Power, is at the OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, at 8pm on Friday 17th February.

There will also be a pre-show talk with Power at 7.15pm.

The Ensemble moves on to Aberdeen Music Hall the following evening, followed by appearances in Edinburgh, Dundee, Perth, Glasgow and London.

Tickets are £10 for adults and £5 for students with under-16s free with a paying adult.