Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Filters: All / Opera & Music Theatre / Orchestra & Ensemble / Solo & Chamber / Vocal / Installation

My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations

Video of the world premiere (live performance), KLANG Festival, Konzertkirken, Copenhagen, 30th May 2021. Video by Klavs Kehlet Hansen, sound by Mikael Tobias.

Programme Note

My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations is based on interviews with Susanne Borregaard (mother of accordionist Andreas Borregaard) conducted during the summer lockdown of 2020. 

Andreas approached me about writing a piece involving extended performativity beyond simply playing the accordion. I was drawn to the idea of the accordionist as storyteller, almost in the troubadour sense. We met with writer Ted Huffman in Berlin to speak about Andreas’ own life and work, which in turn led to interviews with his mother over Skype. 

My work with Ted often uses verbatim text and this piece continues our exploration of queer histories. From this interview material, we formed twelve snapshots of a life over seven decades. 

The piece is dedicated to Susanne Borregaard with great appreciation for her contribution. 

Music Video, released online by Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway, on 20th March 2021 (in lieu of the live premiere, due to Covid-19). Video by Pierre Martin, sound by Tommy Vestergaard. (Music Video Supported by Borealis Festival and Augustinus Fonden)

Details

My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations was commissioned by Andreas Borregaard as part of his research project Just Do It, with funds provided by the Norwegian Academy of Music.

My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations is dedicated to Susanne Borregaard with great appreciation for her contribution. 

Published by Ricordi Musikverlag GmbH

Duration: 23 minutes

Set-up: Solo accordion who also speaks and sings. Amplification of the accordion and the voice is usually required.

Text: Ted Huffman, after interviews with Susanne Borregaard.

Text is in English, with French and German versions also given in the score.

The first performance of My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations was scheduled to be given at Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway, on 20th March 2021.  However, the live concert was cancelled due to Covid, and instead the piece was recorded (audio) by Andreas Borregaard and Tommy Kamp Vestergaard (sound engineer / producer), set to a film made by Pierre Martin, and released online in lieu of the concert.  

The first live performance of the piece was at KLANG Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark, on 30th May 2021, given by Andreas Borregaard.  

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Press

“In Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, Borregaard tells his mother’s life story, while faded home videos flicker in the background and his dramatic accordion playing at the same time counteracts and supports the narrative. It is the accordion that makes a banality like “I felt better with him around / he was always holding my hand” sound like a hard-earned life experience, and which highlights the crushing melancholy in the children’s song “The mountain in the forest”. With few, well-chosen means, Borregaard conveys in the most beautiful way a tale of love and loss, of duality and loneliness. It is an exquisite sensitization of everyday life.” — Seismograf.org (machine translated from Danish)

“My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, an intimate and moving work in which accordionist Andreas Borregaard accompanies the story of his mother, which he declaims, full of emotion: in 12 stations that are so many snapshots of existence, he takes us into the life of this woman within a touching, humanist and queer parable, which seems to focus the composer’s intention to explore certain pathologies from which our societies suffer.” — DNA Magazine, France (machine translated from French)

“Created on a text by Ted Huffman around the story of the accordionist’s parents, told during the twenty minutes he plays the piece, My Favorite Piece is the Goldberg Variations finds in Andreas Borregaard an exceptional artist, capable of drawing tears in a Shostakovich-like lamento, and then at the appearance of the theme of the Bach variations.” — AltaMusica (machine translated from French)

Recent News about My Favourite Piece…

Recent Performances of My Favourite Piece…

  • Saturday, 20 March 2021, 19:00
    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations (world premiere, film version)
    Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway

    performed and commissioned by Andreas Borregaard.
    Film by Pierre Martin
    Text by Ted Huffman

  • Sunday, 30 May 2021, 18:00
    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations (world premiere, live performance)
    Klang Festival, Esromgade 15, 2200 København N Denmark

    Performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman

  • Wednesday, 08 September 2021, 18:00
    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations
    SPOR Festival, Aarhus, Denmark

    Performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.

  • Friday, 01 October 2021, 18:00
    Talking Music: a portrait of Philip Venables, at Musica Festival
    Cité de la Musique et de la Danse, 1 Place Dauphine, 67000 Strasbourg, France.

    A concert mixed with a talk show, about the music of Philip Venables. Conceived and performed by Collective Lovemusic, featuring guest artists Andreas Borregaard, Grace Durham and Romain Pageard.
    Venables: Klaviertrio im Geiste; My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations; Numbers 81–85, Numbers 91–95, Numbers 96–100; Illusions. Rzewski: Coming Together. A co-production with Festival d’Automne à Paris, Musica Festival and Lovemusic.

  • Tuesday, 26 October 2021, 18:00
    Talking Music: a portrait of Philip Venables in the Festival d'Automne à Paris
    Espace Pierre Cardin 1 Avenue Gabriel, 75008 Paris, France

    A concert mixed with a talk show, about the music of Philip Venables. Conceived and performed by Collective Lovemusic, featuring guest artists Andreas Borregaard, Grace Durham and Romain Pageard.
    Venables: Klaviertrio im Geiste; My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations; Numbers 81–85, Numbers 91–95, Numbers 96–100; Illusions. Rzewski: Coming Together. A co-production with Festival d’Automne à Paris, Musica Festival and Lovemusic.

  • Saturday, 30 April 2022, 18:00
    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, in the Only Connect Festival
    Munch Museum Tøyengata 53 0578 Oslo Norway

    performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman. http://onlyconnect.no/

  • Sunday, 20 November 2022, 22:30
    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, at HCMF
    Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

    performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.

  • Friday, 02 December 2022, 18:30
    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo.
    Norwegian Academy of Music, Slemdalsveien 11, 0369 Oslo, Norway

    performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.

  • Tuesday, 02 July 2024, 19:30
    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, at Aarhus Academy
    Institut for (X) Skovgaardsgade 5C 8000 Aarhus C Danmark

    performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.