pieta

Written for Georg Hamann of the Aron Quartet, this large scale, five movement work is an in memoriam for my parents. The Pietà statues of Michelangelo have remained a haunting memory from a trip to Italy many years ago - perhaps especially the almost god-like, all encompassing "knowing" on the face of Nicodemus (a self portrait of the sculptor - Bandini Pietà in Firenze). This image was ever in my mind during composition.

The opening Berceuse lulls the departed to sleep, but with an intensity that speaks of deeper underlying currents. This is succeeded by a somewhat schizophrenic movement called Enigmas, with alternating stabbing chords and arabesque-like, ethereal cadenzas The Elegy that follows is simple, haunting and melancholy - numb in its solitary loss. As a result the fiery and extended, protesting 'plaint' in Seven Roads comes as a brutal shock (the title from a poem of Avraham Ben-Yitzhak - A Few Say) - it is fiery, spitting, angry but periodically exhausts itself in moments of despair. A slow Reminiscence completes the work with a sense of at least partial resolution, the figuration throughout like a flickering candle. Towards the end a small quotation from Janáček's little piano piece Good Night is heard.

The first performance was given in Boulder, Colorado USA by Erika Eckert and Margaret McDonald. Another was given in 2018 at Rome's Museo Napoleonico by Henrietta Hill and Alessandro Viale and was repeated in Nov 2019 in Reutlingen, Germany.

PLEASE READ: THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC DOMAIN WORK. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. PRINTED COPIES ARE FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY

Live performance from Boulder University 2014 by Erika Eckert and Margaret McDonald.

Many reviews of Hamann/Akari CD including BBC Music, Musical Opinion, Österreichisches Musikstiftung, The Strad etc...

"Peter Seabourne's Pietà, recently released by Sheva Contemporary, is a powerful work that casts a real spell over the listener revealing him to be a composer of immense emotional clout."
[Bruce Reader - The Classical Reviewer] full review here.

"A finely wrought new addition to the viola repertoire"
[Carlos María Solare - The Strad] - full review here.

"Seabourne's expressive and accessible score chimes well with Britten's lyrical works, and the rich tonal palette of Hamann's playing is beautifully showcased in the demanding viola line."
[Kate Wakeling - BBC Music Magazine]

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