Live from Brisbane Music Festival's 'Old Worlds Meets the New'

Performance at Salvation Army Brisbane City Temple on 2.7.22.

World Premiere Performance

Alex Raineri | Piano

Jai Farrell | Audio Engineer and Videographer

"Younger Alex used to compose quite a lot. It's a creative dimension of my practice that i've shelved for quite some time while I focus on other things. Now, I am very slowly starting to pick it up again. This work is more of a re-composition rather than an original work. It takes one of my absolute favourite pieces of music, Dido's heartbreaking lament from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and subjects it to a twisty timbral and harmonic re-rendering. I like Purcell's 'Dido' so much that it almost feels like a guilty pleasure. In writing ...after Dido..., I aim to conquer that silly sentiment. It is a work for live + absent pianist, meaning, it is for live performer and pre-recorded tape. Every wondrous and strange sound you hear in the tape part has been created on the piano, by using fishing wire, metal chopsticks and plucking the strings like a harp. This piece does not have illusions of grandeur, it serves as a vehicle for my re-entry into the world of composition, and I hope you enjoy it." A.R.

The commission of '...after Dido...' has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.