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Richard Whitehouse

'r'\ orn in 1960 near Devizes, PeterbSeabourne studied at Clare CollegeCambridge with Robin Holloway and YorkUniversity with David Blake. In 1984 hewas joint winner of the Overseas LeagueComposition Competition then camesecond in the Benjamin Britten Prize for1986, with works performed at variousfestivals and at London's South BankCentre.Around 1989 he abandoned comp-osition, citing a growing dissatisfaction withthe new music milieu and the wish to re-evaluate his musical aesthetic. Only in2001 did he resume composition, sincewhen he has received awards from severalinternational competitions. Seabourne'swork has been commissioned by num-erous European organisations, and hismusic has been broadcast in Norway, theCzech Republic, Finland, Germany and the

United States. His now extensive cata-logue comprises symphonic and chamberworks, song cycles and an ongoing large-scale piano cycle entitled Steps.The Italianlabel Sheva Collection has so far issuedfive discs of his music, and it is the threemost recent releases from this label whichare considered here.

Earlier releases of piano music fromSeabourne had given notice of acomposer wholly (and perhaps unusuallyin the present day) at ease within themedium of solo piano. The composerspeaks of having 'a romantic sensibility ...my art is a lyrical one', though the writingis of a technical and expressive range thatindicates a wide knowledge of twentieth-century pianism (latter-day British exam-ples include Nicholas Maw's Personaeand Colin Matthews's Studies in Velocity).

MUSICAL OPINION QUARTERLY JULY-SEPTEMBER 2016

Studies of Invention (Sheva SH065) takes E8its inspiration from Leonardo sketches g!

across a series of 15 pieces, whereas gArabesques (Sheva SH088) is a ~~sequence of nine pieces that embodies *Seabourne's responses to aspects of the ~Alhambra as seen through paintings by 1the composer's aunt. The first disc under ~consideration here comprises the fourth €.volume of Steps - written with the artistryof Giuseppe Modugno in mind andunfolding along the lines of an 'Italiansong-book' where such disparate facets asthe village of Bertinoro, the life and workof Amedeo Modigliani, and the pianist'sown playing all combine to leave theirmark.

Libra di Canti Italiano (2010) is a coll-ection of 19 pieces - 'cameo snapshots'as Seabourne calls them - such as

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embody many of those qualities whichmight be thought innately Italian. To take(not entirely at random) just six of thesepieces - Canto dello Vito (No.1) launches proceedings witha harmonic piquancy and Cl I S brhythmic agility that are ear Y ea ournemainstays of this opus as awhole. Piccolo Cantod'Amore Tremente (No. 4)constitutes an unansweredlove-song, its rippling mel-ody shot-through with anacute poignancy. Coril/onTriste (No. 10) offers a deftassemblage of bell soundsand metrical patterns thatevokes demonstrably powe-rful emotions as it inten-sifies. Canto di Ammultino-mento (No. 11) takes itscue from a visit to the hidingplace of Giuseppe Garibaldi

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as is embodied in music accruing detailover a distinct rhythmic ground-plan asstealthy as it is resourceful. Canto Lontono

(No. 14) constitutes the raptheart of this work - itsthree, subtly differentiatedverses being marked offby ominous trills in thebass. Canto Gioioso (No.19) concludes the coll-ection with its dance-likeverve and energy.

The fifth volume ofSteps, entitled SixteenScenes Before 0 Cruci-fixion (2014), seems lessof a collection than alinear sequence taking asits point of departure thePassiontide canvases byCaravaggio; translatedinto music that thecomposer has described

is a composer withwhom to reckon, hismusic combining ademonstrablyRomantic rhetoricwith an alwaysaudible and yetnever facileapproach to tonality.

as ... overwhelmingly pessimistic andbleak". This is evident from the outset of 'I(Numb - tolling - distant)" akin to aprocessional in its sombrely tolling chordsand a halting rhythmic tread such asemerges gradually into the foregroundbefore retuming into the distance. Amongthe pieces that follow, 'IV (Flighty -enigmatic - delicate - fragile)' offers adegree of affirmation with its ecstatic trillsand arabesques, though this proves short-lived in context. 'VIII (Troubled -rhapsodic)' summons a melody out of itstexture to diverting effect, but this isoutfaced by the restless manner of themusic overall. 'XII (Meandering -lamenting - increasingly crushing), is themost complex in its meshing ofantagonistic elements towards a brutalclimax. 'XVI (Very still - spacious -questioning)' is an ending of stark importas betrayal anticipates crucifixion.

Turning to the Viola Dolorosa album

JULY-SEPTEMBER 2016 MUSICAL OPINION QUARTERLY

The performances

on all three discs

and a work conceptually even moreintegrated, Heto (2007) is a large-scale 'inmemoriam' to the composer's parentswhose title was inspired by the statues ofMichelangelo. Certainly an often sombreintrospection is evident throughout thefive movements, the first four of whichunfold as gradually intensifying pairs -from the soulful eloquence of 'Berceuse'(1) to the rapt inwardness of 'Elegy' (3),or from a quixotic juxtaposition offractured rhythmic and sustained melodicwriting in 'Enigmas' (2) through to thecombative interplay of antagonisticelements that characterise 'Seven Roads'(4). Much the longest movement, thislatter justifies its high-flown rhetoric as itsurges to a violent close - after which,'Reminiscence' (5) concludes this piecewith a tendemess and repose that feelsthe more affecting given what wentbefore. At over 37 minutes Pieta has few

parallels in the viola liter-ature for its formalambition and emotionalbreadth, but the composerhas ensured that cont-inuity goes hand in handwith diversity in what is anotable addition to itsrepertoire.

The performances onall three discs underlinethe advocacy which Sea-bourne enjoys amongseveral notable European exponents.exponents. Ongoing com-mitments have also meantthat Giuseppe Modugno has not yet beenable to perform Libra. .. but the artistry ofFabio Menchetti is its own justification,while Alessandro Viale seems no lessinside the more fraught expressive sound-world of Sixteen Scenes.... Georg

underline the

Hamann (violist of the AronQuartet, whose cycle of theSchoenberg quartets onPreiser is among the bestavailable) similarly has themeasure of Pieta, not leastthrough his close accordwith pianist Akari Komiya inwhat a formidable duopartnership. This latter discalso takes in the twoprincipal viola pieces byBritten - the smoulderingpathos of the early Elegy(1930) and the stylistically

more mature Lochrymoe(1950), whose varied 'reflections' (ratherthan variations) on a Dowland melodypresage the climactic emergence of thattheme. Britten's later transcription forstrings may yield greater expressivenuance, but this original version has itsown potency when so skilfully rendered.

Clearly Seabourne is a composer withwhom to reckon, his music combining ademonstrably Romantic rhetoric with analways audible and yet never facileapproach to tonality. Recent years havewitnessed an expansion of his thinking -with three symphonies (and a fourth inprogress), three chamber concertos anda song-cycle after Rainer Maria Rilke'sSonnets to Orpheus reaching fruition.Whether his music gains widerdissemination in the UK remains to beseen; should this fail to happen, it is likelyto be less through antagonism from whatremains of a new music 'establishment'than his refusal to emulate the facilethinking which nowadays too often passesmuster for tonal composition. Ambitious,questing and pointedly European inoutlook, the music of Peter Seabourneavoids easy answers in its search for anidiom such as embodies the past while itembraces the future: those coming to itafresh will find these discs a persuasiveway into a compositional voice asdistinctive as it is compelling. •

advocacy whichSeabourne enjoysamong severalnotable European

MUSICAL OPINION QUARTERLY JULY-SEPTEMBER 2016

Seabourne: Steps, Volume 4Sheva SH104 (48'58")Seabourne: Steps, Volume 5Sheva SH136 (53'42")Seabourne: Viola DolorosaSheva SH137 (58'02")

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