Kurt Masur - conductor
(Birmingham Symphony Hall Collection)

This painting was made in 1991 on the occasion of a concert-series of all the Beethoven Symphonies with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, of which Kurt Masur was then Music Director.

When he saw my work he suggested we take it on tour. As it turned out, the first port of call was to be New York, where Maestro Masur had meanwhile become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic.

His tall, commanding presence towers and sways above the orchestra as his hands, without a baton, shape the music. In contrast to the powerful blacks, the clouds of chameleon-like ochres, muted greens, greys and browns were chosen to convey the infinitely subtle range of musical expression given form by this great man.