De Profundis

Work for speaking pianist composed in 1992, setting passages from Oscar Wilde's long prison letter 'De Profundis' (1897), written to Lord Alfred Douglas during Wilde's imprisonment in Reading Gaol. The pianist speaks or recites the text while simultaneously performing increasingly demanding piano music. The work is structured in eight sections, each preceded by a purely instrumental prelude. It stands as one of the most powerful and unusual works in the 20th-century piano repertoire: a melodramatic meditation on suffering, guilt, love, and spiritual transformation.