A new work after Balzac by Neil Kelly (2025),

Michael Kieran Harvey, piano

Michael Hewes audio processing

Balzac’s Gambara (1837) follows a demented composer, his long suffering wife Marianna, and their scheming patron, Count Marcosini. This performance, a prototype for a larger theater/dance work, explores the novella’s vision of ‘music’—from ‘the sublime chorus of angels’ to a ‘hideous cacophony’—played on piano and a panharmonicon, a proto-synthesiser.

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