Dan Thorpe on Cat Hope’s New Concerto: Lampi

“I had a teary moment on my first zoom call with Cat Hope looking at the new piece” says pianist and composer Dan Thorpe. “I can’t get over how good it is!” 

Thorpe will be premiering Melbourne composer Cat Hope’s newest concerto Lampi (Italian: ‘Lightning’) for piano and ensemble at Forest Collective’s Emo Phase later this April. Hope has written the work specifically for Thorpe to premiere with Forest Collective, and has dedicated the work to him.

Hope has been a friend and mentor to Thorpe ever since he contacted her after playing her 2011 ensemble work Longing. The piece - an 8 page fold-out graphic score for 5 wind instruments - left a huge impression on Thorpe, who at that stage was just beginning to find his compositional voice.

“It was amazing. It really changed my art practice.” Thorpe says. “Cat’s aesthetic is so concrete and so graspable. It just made sense to me.” 

Since then, Thorpe has been a champion of Hope’s work. His performances of Chunk: For Disklavier and Grand Piano, where a human pianist and a computerised mechanical piano compete for maximum volume, have shaken audiences around the world. One epic performance in Wesleyan, Connecticut, featured Thorpe pitting himself against a pipe organ the size of a small church. “It was so upsetting!” Thorpe chuckles.

Lampi, however, couldn’t be further away from this maximalist aesthetic. 

“Cat’s new work is tender, with beautiful subtle textures” Thorpe says. Scored for solo piano, low strings, low winds, low brass, harp, accordion, percussion and electronics, the sound palate of Lampi is deep and sensual. 

Taking inspiration from the ardent poem of the same name by 1920s Italian poet Antonia Pozzi, the piece examines the contrasts of light and dark, sharp and blunt, dream and wake, sickness and wellness, action and stasis, which form the cornerstones of the poem.

Hope’s use of traditionally non-classical materials is also particularly inspiring for Thorpe, given his own background in Adelaide’s hardcore and metalcore scene.

“Cat had a band in the early 2000s called Gata Negra; their music was like a beautiful slow dive, like really slow rock music. A lot of her chamber music is like that too. I hadn’t heard anyone who had managed to marry that non-classical aesthetic I was so enamoured with, and chamber music with a substantially Avant Garde sensibility.”

“Most of all, hearing her music gave me permission.” Thorpe explains. “I had been playing a lot of insanely ‘notey’ music that I could really shred on the piano. But Cat’s music was so perfect, so minimal and entrancing - it was a revelation.” 

To have Lampi written for him and to give its world premiere performance is a dream come true for Thorpe.

“I still can’t believe this piece is mine,” he beams, adding, “...well, it’s mine and Forest Collective’s! I am a lucky, lucky pianist.”