Ben Smith: //grooves//

Toshi Ichiyanagi - Time Sequence (1976) Richard Beaudoin - Chopin Desséché (2009) Ruth Crawford Seeger - Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930) Martin Iddon - Mönch (2024) Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre - Suite no 1 in D minor (1687) Conlon Nancarrow (arr. Ben Smith) - Study no 11 for Player Piano (1965-1969) — interval — Nicholas A Huber - Darabukka (1976) Olivier Messiaen - Ile de feu II (1949) Ryuichi Sakamoto - hibari (2009) Iannis Xenakis - Evryali (1973)

Pianist Ben Smith explores the intricacies of rhythm and repetition in a programme that - amongst other things - investigates dance forms of the French baroque, middle-eastern drum patterns, phasing, and microtimings of rubato and swing. //grooves// considers what happens when numerical abstractions collide with the physicality of performed music. That is, what happens when rhythms become grooves.

Presenting old and new work with radically different formulations of rhythm, the programme is bookended by two ultra-virtuosic works from the 1970s avant-garde: Ichiyanagi’s very rarely performed Time Sequence, and Xenakis’ monumental Evryali.