Walker - Homecoming (PianoTeq, Petrof Mistral)

Orchestral/classical composition can be a bit abstract sometimes, so I thought I would include some of the composer's notes to help explain what is going on in the piece:

"This was my attempt at depicting the story of The Prodigal Son in music. It follows the protagonist along his journey from coming to his senses on a pig farm to his joyful reunion with his father, concluding with a nostalgic reflection on his youthful mistake. The work takes the approach of composing from a motif, and the two motifs used (representing the father and the son) are taken through several transformations before culminating in a full orchestral climax. The piano part includes a short cadenza towards the end for the soloist.

00:00 It opens with the prodigal son waking up in a field that is part of the pig farm where he works. He drifts in and out of sleep, and then descends into a dream about how he left home. In this episode, you can hear at the end of the Cor Anglais solo the motif from which the son's "theme" is constructed.

00:59 The start of the "dream". We can hear the son's theme taken on flutes and oboes in the upper register, and his father's theme is played concurrently on the trumpet. These two themes are set against an ominous background of pizzicato cellos and a steady beat on the timpani.

01:21 The conflict between the father and son escalates, and we can hear them arguing - the son's theme is taken in canons by the violas (doubled with flutes and oboes) and the cellos (doubled with one horn), while a distorted version of the father's theme is played by violins in the upper register.

02:05 The son awakes from his dream and comes to his senses, deciding to return home to his father. The piano makes its entry at this point, taking up the material presented earlier by the cor anglais. It wends through a short discussion of the son's theme, before finally revealing the tender-hearted father's theme (taken initially by solo horn, then continued on strings)

03:08 The son bids all his friends farewell, and they plead with him to stay, tempting him with the many seductions offered by the nearby town. However, the son has made up his mind to return home (03:39 onwards).

03:39 Here you can here a fleshed-out version of the son's theme

04:15 The son is once again remembering his father's parting words, wondering what he will say to his father, wondering about how his father will receive him, if at all

04:31 The son stops at a river to grab some water and clean off some of the dust from his journey. Once he crosses the river, he will be back in his home country, with a short journey to his father's house.

04:49 Nearing his father's house, his excitement grows. In this episode, you can hear the piano taking the son's motif at a slow pace, while in the background the violins and violas are taking the same motif in double time. The woodwinds, horns and basses are quietly playing a fragment of the father's theme.

05:13 The excitement has built, and the son reaches the front gate of his father's house. He opens the gate, climbs up the first flight of steps, turns the corner and to his great surprise, the father has lined up all the servants, who break into cheers and applause when they see him (the repeated high notes on the piano right hand, with the descending octaves in the left hand)

05:22 The happy reunion and joyful celebrations at the son's homecoming.

06:41 The violin solo is meant to represent a nostalgic and much wiser look back at a youthful mistake. The piano here is using material from earlier where his friends tried to persuade him to stay on. It leads to a short cadenza for the soloist (which isn't really part of the story, but was fun to include..)
"

Another gorgeous production!

Hey there Stephen

Thanks man, much appreciated.

hey there budo "nature boy"

Thanks man, glad you enjoyed it. Thanks also for your feedback about the sound - I'm not a sound engineer, so trying hard to learn how to mix/master these recordings