The Theatre Miniatures are a set of five pieces that can be combined into a suite or played on their own. Ever pragmatic, Adrian had in mind their use as light programme-fillers, prêt-à-porter pieces for any occasion. The orchestra can select their own wardrobe.

Some of the set are theatre cues that have been repurposed and given a new lease of life, expanded and rearranged for symphony orchestra.

---

Programme note

Polperro Beach> comes from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2016 play adaptation), and was originally composed for a studio combination of electric guitars, vocal humming, strings, piano and digital sounds.

The scene this accompanies from the play is when Christopher, a gifted teenage mathematician with Aspergers, remembers the happiness and freedom of his holidays with his mum on a beach in Cornwall. It is a rare moment of peace when his mind isn’t systematising, fretting or reimagining the world in mathematical relationships. On that beach in Polperro, safe in his mother’s love, he feels free.

Over a slow rise and fall in the strings, clarinets overlap in a wave-like motif. The beach feels empty but graced with sun. As if basking in the specialness of that, the violins play the main theme. It is one of most beautiful, most felicitous melodies in all of Adrian’s repertoire, fourteen bars of sheer happiness.

The waves build and crest briefly before slipping back into the calm. It makes you want to be there, in Polperro, feeling the sun and knowing that all will be well.

- Words by Jon James

---

(extract perf. BBC Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Michael Seal)