Threads - for solo violin - 2016
duration 15 minutes
I. Nervoso - II. Berceuse - III. Shimmering-fragile-restrained - IV. Song in Olden Style - V. Vivo
Threads was written jointly for two friends: Alberto Bologni and Litsa Tunnah, both of whom have played works in the past. Alberto gave the premiere in Carrara in June 2017, repeating it in Prato and The Estorick Collection, London in 2018. Litsa gave the UK première in St. Alfege's Chruch Greenwich in 2017. Alberto subsequently recorded the work for Sheva Contemporary (next page).
Threads is a suite of five pieces which makes quite a substantial work. The first movement has a somewhat nervous, anxious, questing quality; the second is a three-variations berceuse with alternating pizzicati and harmonics; the third is a virtuosic, arpeggiated, study-like piece of great energy, yet somehow constrained and veiled; the fourth is a song "in olden style", mixing lyricism with a heavy descending chromaticism; the finale is a "scherzo-serioso" - playful but with a stern face.
PLEASE READ: THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC DOMAIN WORK. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. PRINTED COPIES ARE FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY
You can hear Threads on this playlist (via Naxos from Sheva SH184 - opens in YouTube)
Video of live part-performances by Litsa Tunnah and Alberto Bologni.
III.Shimmering-fragile-restrained
Litsa Tunna - Greenwich |
movements 2, 3 and 5
Alberto Bologni - Carrara |
REVIEWS (take your pick!..):
"Notable especially is "Threads" by Peter Seabourne. This, cast in the form of a suite it combines archaisms, influences from folk music and the great repertoire. An unsettled electricity winds through Seabourne, alla Britten, beneath the polished surface."
[Giorgio Moppi - La Repubblica]
"This strange yet wonderful disc introduces a new work by superb composer Peter Seabourne as well as six other new pieces by lesser-known writers.. Bologni shoots right out of the gate with the exciting and brilliant Threads, a five movement composition that exploits the full range of the instrument."
[Lynn Bayley - Art Music Lounge]
[...or this (cloth-ear), for the sake of completeness.]
"Threads carries over its five terse movements a level of agitated nervousness which, with few moments of respite can quickly pall. It's a work which revolves around a limited emotional core - anxiety, nervous energy, stress - and exhibits the more aggressive and pointed aspects of violin tone."
[Music Web International - Marc Rochester]
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