The Hunt by Night

Boyce’s The Hunt By Night is the final piece in his wide ranging set of 21 Etudes. More than abstract music, it is an aesthetic, poetic conversation with the painting by Paolo Uccello (1470) and the poem by Derek Mahon that shares its name.  This “modern caccia” is vibrantly alive. Along the way, roles change, instruments group and regroup, but the energy of the chase cannot be contained. The heat of the pursuers and the pursued is there, along with the sudden quiet moments of suspenseful waiting. Tempo markings “ill-advised” ahd “fully-fanged, target oriented” intensify the atmosphere.

All of Boyce’s Etudes assume virtuosity on the part of the players, and this is no different. These players swing us between the stylized dimensionality of the painting and the smooth space of the chase, all switchbacks and takeovers and leaps through the rhythmic patterning of the forest.