To mark  Stephen Pratt's fiftieth year of teaching at Liverpool Hope University, a concert of his works was held in June 2021 as part of the University’s Angel Field Festival, to which Stephen was honoured and delighted to contribute a new piece, In Hope. The premiere was given by the outstanding Pixels Ensemble — musicians, friends and colleagues with whom the composer has enjoyed many past collaborations and to whom the piece is dedicated. Within the overall context of the pandemic, and especially as we find ourselves emerging from a global health crisis, the choice of a backward- and forward-looking title, with its multiple resonances, has quite naturally given rise to a fast, short movement that is largely bright and breezy in character — in essence, a scherzo … 

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 Music example (pdf)