Experience

Next to the Lighthouse of Cape Vilán (Cape Villain) that marks the dangerous dramatic cliffs of Costa da Morte (Death Coast) lies Camariñas. A town where the many historical shipwrecks claimed by the fierce storms and dangerous rocks lining the length of its coast did not prevent it from being an important fishing centre in Galicia (Northwestern Spain).

This piece was played once in the concert hall of a luxurious British vessel as it was departing from the “Death Coast”. It was tense to imagine how only an experienced fisherman, immune to the risky waters, could frequently sail away to battle the elements to make his living. However, it was fascinating to realize how mankind challenge nature in order to, funnily enough live in harmony with Nature.

Northumbria was the name of a Medieval Kingdom that lies in what is now south-east Scotland and northern England. The land was highly influenced by Celtic culture and traditions not found elsewhere in England. These include its own tartan or the Northumbrian small pipes; Northumberland music has similarities to Lowland Scottish and Irish music which inspired the creation of this work.

After some driving across its lands, roads, hills, castles and coastline, the work suddenly started to emerge in Bedlington (Northumberland). It was while waiting to catching a train back to London, improvising on a piano, that it felt as if the ruins and traditions left by its natives over the centuries came into our modern times through the keys of the instrument.

Barcelona, the city of: Gaudí’s Cathedral and a Gothic Cathedral, the Tibidabo Mountain and the Barceloneta Beach, the centre of Mediterranean trade in 13th Century and the centre of the Mobile World Congress, the 1988’s Universal Exposition and the 1992’s Olympics Games, Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury, Maradona and Messi, the residents who welcome and newcomers who are welcomed.

It’s the contrast of its traits that makes the place exciting.

Inspired by this, the composer wrote the work while in London; each time he plays it, he takes himself back to the lively city where he grew up.

“All teams need a miracle when they’re heading for the drop.” This is what football opera “MIRACLE” is about. (…) “It shows how Heaven comes to Earth, and how a team on the brink of darkness is brought back into the light.” “An angel sent from Heaven falls in love with an ordinary town and its ordinary streets – an angel who is swept off his feet by a lovely local lass”*.

*David Almond

The score, written by Marcos Fernandez, let the city of Sunderland experience a story by librettist David Almond where miraculously hope starts to rise…

So atrocious was the deluge of 1989, the main streets of Malaga (Spain) became rivers and cascades that swept away everything in their path towards the coast; including some of the instruments of the famous Spanish piano maker “Lopez y Griffo”. The story, currently mentioned in the Museum of Music in the city, says one particular piano reached Mediterranean waters at the port of the city.

It was not hard to imagine the last notes of the instrument sailing along the streams of water flowing like fountains in the streets, to finally find a peaceful destiny under the sea.