An energetic and virtuosic work written for Canadian cello duo VC2, Ho's Heist 2 fuses expressive solo material with a pulsating groove.
A year ago I had the pleasure of listening to VC2's album Beethoven's Cellists, a collection of new works by various living composers inspired by Beethoven's music. Hearing their phenomenal playing motivated me to sketch out an energetic riff that later developed into a continuous motorik line. This material was shaped into a standalone piece for solo cello that I titled Heist.
With the opportunity to write a version for two cellos – Heist 2 – I felt it would be great to highlight each cellist's virtuosic abilities in some way by adding an expressive counterpoint. To capture the essence of their musical spirits, I sent a sound file of my original cello line to VC2 and asked its two members – Bryan Holt and Amahl Arulanadam – to record themselves improvising over top of it. This would give me insights to their natural, signature gestures. Using the recordings they sent back to me, I sketched out material that would serve as counterpoints to the continuous riff. So, as one cellist plays the motorik riff, the other performs over top of it with a line that was specifically tailored to their abilities. They then switch roles, giving the other cellist an opportunity to shine. The title and character of the work were influenced by two crime noir books I was reading at the time, The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy, and The Killer by Matz and Luc Jacamon.
