CHRISTIAN DREW

AQUARIUM DRIFTER 2024
symphony orchestra [12’30”]

I. Freedive Gigue Lente (excerpt)


II. Rocococeanarium (excerpt)


III. Subtropicali Antiquarium (excerpt)


IV. Sunset Over the Super Sewer (excerpt)

“If the programme notes suggested we were going to get nothing but similar textures at greater length thereafter – the dreaded ‘sound world’ always suggests the triumph of atmosphere over substance – Christian Drew’s Aquarium Drifter offered an immediate corrective. Though Drew is fond of terms like “noodling” and “woozy”, there was a clear structure to this life aquatic, which took the shape of a continuous sinfonietta, and far from all the music of the past lying at the bottom of an iridescent lake, one particular neobaroque specimen seemed to break the surface in full sail. Bewitching and original “sound world”, too; the brass did Drew proud, and the woodwind managed to sound at times like a saxophone ensemble. I smiled from start to finish, and would happily have listened to the whole work again.” 
– David Nice, The Arts Desk

“Drew’s Aquarium Drifter lived up to its name. Sounds blurred and rippled like water, conjured by bending pitches, woozy glissandos and pizzicato droplets. There was a joy in its laid-back warmth and an appealing freshness to the orchestration” 
– Rebecca Franks, The Times

Read programme notes by Tim Rutherford-Johnson

Commissioned for the London Symphony Orchestra through the LSO Discovery Panufnik Composers Scheme, supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust