Ian Pace presented the world premiere of Michael Finnissy' sThe History of Photography in Sound at The Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music in London on 28th January 2001 in three concerts spread out over the afternoon and evening. The History of Photography in Sound is probably the longest non-repetitive piano piece in the repertoire at approximately 5 1/2 hours on continuous music. Ian Pace has subsequently performed the piece at the Transit Festival in Leuven (part of the Flanders Festival) and at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow.
Since Ian Pace performed the (then) complete piano works of Michael Finnissy in 1996, Finnissy's output for the medium has grown from a staggering 6 full concerts worth to include this single piece lasting 5 1/2 hours. History of Photography in Sound has taken 4 years to complete, having been written in individual books and chapters for pianists around the world, in particular Ian Pace for whom 2 chapters were written and premiered by him in London and Cheltenham. Pace has performed other sections of the work on many occasions, giving over 10 country premieres in USA and Europe.
Ian Pace is known for his titanic virtuosity and vast repertoire and has recently appeared at festivals in Huddersfield, Strasbourg, Flanders, Vienna, Warsaw and Berlin. He is particularly associated with Finnissy's music and his series of the complete works to celebrate the composer's 50th birthday in 1996 has become a landmark in recent contemporary music history. It was described in Classical Music as "one of the great piano marathons of our time" and in a series of rave reviews The Sunday Times wrote "his phenomenal skills were at the service of innovative musical thought" and The Independent noted "tackling this difficult corpus requires a will of iron, and Pace has clearly mastered it note for note."
It was after hearing this series of his complete piano works that Finnissy first conceived ideas for the History of Photography in Sound. It was an opportunity to take stock of his life's work, to reconsider many earlier preoccupations with hindsight, and to explore new ideas. Finnissy has long been intrigued by the medium of film and has exploited musical equivalents of cinematic perspective, montage, fades, dissolves and jump-cuts in many works. A further interest in still photography has inspired several pieces, often reflecting upon the idea of fading snap-shots of lost worlds. The History of Photography in Sound takes as its basic concept no less than the whole history of both still and moving images, as explored in different 'settings' in the 11 chapters, as well as the ideas about photography of Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and others.
Pace's recording of Finnissy's Gershwin Arrangements received top press accolades, International Record Review declaring "Pace is clearly so conversant with this music as to be a constituent part of it... This disc is unique and remarkable"; it was a CD of the Month in BBC Music Magazine and Classic CD and a CD of the Year in The Sunday Times and The Wire. Recently released is a double CD of Finnissy's Verdi Transcriptions together with Snowdrift and Piano Concertos No. 4 and 6 and a CD of Folklore. He is in the process of recording the complete History.