Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood Announces World Premiere of New Piece "Water"

Photo by Erez Avissar

In December, we wrote that Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood had collaborated with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) on a new piece called "Water". Now, it's been announced that the piece will debut this fall when the ACO tours Europe and Australia.

The world premiere will take place place on October 2 in Dublin. Following that, it will be performed in London on October 4, and Birmingham on October 5. It will be played alongside material from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Haydn. After the ACO's European tour, it will be performed in Melbourne on October 26.

"Water" is a work for strings, piano, and the South Asian instrument the tambura.

In a press release, Greenwood said, “I loved every second of being around these players. They were enthusiastic, patient, energetic and enormously musical. Just overhearing them rehearse a Shostakovich string quartet really floored me: nothing beats being in a small room with a bunch of players like this. And they really do go surfing afterwards!"

He added, "I wrote and rehearsed about twice as much music as there is in the final piece. It's a great feeling being able to edit things down like that. And as often as the workshops showed up ideas as not working, they also rescued promising half-ideas. The whole experience was very inspiring."

ACO artistic director Richard Tognetti said that Greenwood's publisher approached the orchestra with the idea of collaboration. "He obviously loves music so much," Tognetti said of Greenwood. "I believe he’s the first celebrated pop musician who has been able to straddle the world of classical music. In terms of the cross-fertilisation of ideas, it’s a great time to be a musician."

There are currently no plans to record the performances, which means international fans should scoop up a ticket. All the performance details can be found at the ACO's website.

Below, you can watch a video in which Tognetti discusses working with Greenwood. His comments begin just before the two minute mark.

Watch Greenwood play an excerpt from Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint" last year with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

via Jeremy Gordon