The Bearded Lady

This version of The Bearded Lady for clarinet and piano was first performed by Stuart Stratford and Richard Ormrod in 1994. Anderson's inspiration comes from Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress - an absurd, vexing, and tragic figure. The 9-minute piece begins with mechanical and polyrhythmic games of imitation between clarinet and piano, before becoming a lament. The clarinet ends the piece offstage in a melancholy conclusion.