DIRTY BEASTS

Music by Benjamin Wallfisch

Text adapted by Donald Sturrock

For narrator and symphony orchestra

30 minutes

Published by Peters Edition

"Ben harnessed the orchestra’s facility for storytelling and showed it off to a spellbound audience of schoolchildren."

Dan Stevens, The Telegraph

Dirty Beasts was first performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2013. Its composer Benjamin Wallfisch is most well-known for his work in films, for which he has been nominated for Golden Globes, EMMY, GRAMMY and BAFTA awards.

Described as a “a major new name on the new music horizon" by Humphrey Burton (BBC Radio 3), Wallfisch’s response to these extraordinary Roald Dahl tales is epic and cinematic. His setting of the rhymes bursts with wit and humour, but also revels in the thrilling power and majesty of a symphony orchestra at full throttle.

1. The Porcupine
2. The Pig
3. The Anteater
4. The Toad and the Snail

ORCHESTRATION

1 Narrator

Symphony orchestra:

2.2.2.2 – 4.2.3.1 – timp.perc – hp.pf/cel - strings.

For more about Roald Dahl's Dirty Beasts:

http://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/stories/1980s/dirty-beasts

PERFORMANCES

WORLD PREMIERE

London Philharmonic Orchestra/Wallfisch 2013

Royal Festival Hall, London

On June 12th 2013 the piece was performed twice, reaching an audience of nearly 5,000 school children as part of the Deutsche Bank BrightSparks series.

Subsequent performances have taken place at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the London Philharmonic Orchestra's FUNharmonics programme.

The piece has recently been performed in Tasmania, Wellington, Edinburgh and Glasgow

The Toad and the Snail - London Philharmonic Orchestra/Wallfisch 2013

Royal Festival Hall, London