LABYRINTH
"Set to Szymon Brzóska’s original score, performed live by the Holland Symfonia led by Jurjen Henpel, with Barbara Drazkowska on piano and Tsubasa Hori on koto, the hourlong opus soared on all counts."
- Los Angeles Times
Labyrinth was my third collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and first opportunity to work with remarkable Het Nationale Ballet. The score, written for piano solo and small orchestra was performed live by Barbara Drążkowska and Holland Symfonia, with an accompaniment of koto and taikos, performed by Tsubasa Hori.
Together with Larbi we have had numerous conversations about certain emotions, constructions and ideas for the score, but we would always get back to the very source: the visual image of a labyrinth. I recreated this image into my musical language, translating it’s graphic references and using the imagery in a strict metaphorical sense.
I focused on creating layers, successively adding them in the timeline to build up a more complex structure until I reached the heart of the maze. At that moment I would let the music guide me through the curves and obstacles until the inevitable need of deconstructing the strata could only lead to finding a way out, a clear answer.
Choreography: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Music: Szymon Brzóska
Conductor: Jurjen Hempel
Set Design: Rikke Juellund
Costumes Design: Tim van Steenbergen
Lightning Design: Dominique Drillot
Het Nationale Ballet, Amsterdam 2011