Brett Dean - Electric Preludes, for electric violin and strings (2012)
00:00 I. Abandoned Playground: Wide, reverberant arpeggios open onto furtive dense textures in the strings, slowly growing more frenzied (1:43) before returning to a solemn, open sound (2:21) 04:00 II. Topography - Papunya: The electric violin sneaks out of an eerie "spectral drone". The solo and orchestra gradually assert themselves more on a harsh downward motif, before the solo flies off into the extreme upper registers (6:41) 06:59 III. Peripeteia: A rapid frenzy of irregular rhythms in the solo electric violin, opposes an unrelenting beating drive in the orchestra 08:21 IV. The beyonds of mirrors: The electric violin, with an otherworldly theremin-like sound, sings over a kaleidoscope of descending lines. 10:43 (Really this part is just awesome!) The movement ends violently with heavily distorted, overdriven electric violin ("sound hack"). 11:20 V. Perpetuum mobile: A hard-edged unrelentless drive 13:20 Cadenza: An open space is left as the "Perpetuum mobile" cuts out, allowing the solo to fill it with reverb and various electronic effects 17:08 VI. Berceuse: Contrapuntal lines rise out of the very depths of the orchestra, leading to a stratospheric lullaby over hauntingly beautiful string chords (18:43, 19:50). The electric violin slowly descends to its very lowest note (21:09) in a gorgeously bittersweet ending.