University of York Music Press

Catena II (2019-2000) is part of a series of works for piano, which began with Catena I premiered at the 2019 Nijmegen Moderne Muziek Festival in the Netherlands by York alumnus now living in Berlin Joseph Houston. The piece is included in the CD released by the Swedish label BIS Records in 2020, which received international acclaim.

As the composer writes in his programme note, ‘the extra-musical idea of a “chained” sequel is applied at both macro-structural and local level throughout the work by establishing various relationships between and within the individual movements.’ Catena II ‘explores in detail the expressive and virtuosic potentiality of the piano – an ideal instrument for ‘spiraling’ the sounds in a variety of ways, covering a wide spectrum of colours, dynamics, textures and sonorities.’

The full programme can be found here.