Spring Masque (Violin/Viola duet) by adriansutton

This is the first of a suite of pieces I’m writing for this duet combo which focuses on technique and harmonic colour out of only two instruments.

I’m looking to get this played, so any performer duos out there (or even two members of a quartet) – if you want to programme it in a concert, get in touch!

Here I am with Chris Shutt at the Tony awards last month – War Horse took the award in all five categories it was nominated, including the coveted Best Play – and there was a bonus in the form of a special award for Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of Handspring Puppet Company.

I was 15 when I spent just about all of my saved cash on this – a Sony TC366 three-head tape machine from the 1970s. I bought it from the husband of one of my schoolteachers in Johannesburg, and I was obsessed with the thing; it was on for hours every day for several years as I experimented with layering sound, bouncing stuff between it and a cassette deck. And the delay effects you could achieve using feedback on the separate record and playback heads were marvellous. It had three speeds too, so double- and half-speed recording was a world of fun in itself.

Its motors have pretty much burnt out now. But it still sits on the top shelf overlooking my studio – like some kind of benevolent granddaddy keeping an eye on all those whipper-snapper computer thingies. Don’t know they’re born..

The lovely Edith Wilkins was our neighbour for many years. When she died, her relatives came to us and asked what they should do with her 7ft10″ Bechstein grand piano, that had been bought by her husband Ted in the 1940s and that had been in her first-floor flat ever since.

This piano has a gorgeous French-polished burr walnut case, and the serial number showed that it had been made in 1892. Carl Bechstein played every piano before it left his factory, so he would have played this one.

Edith’s piano still had all the original features – the ivory keys, the old-style action mechanism.. but it would need serious work. In particular, the wrest-plank would need to be replaced if it was going to hold its tuning.

In the end, I decided to buy the piano from Edith’s relatives and have a full restoration done.. it was just too beautiful an instrument to let go to waste. Some three months later, here was the result – a stunning instrument back to factory condition, pretty much as good as it left the factory nearly 110 years ago.

It’s now my main working instrument.