The Journey of a Soul:
The Music of Sofia Gubaildulina |
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 Sunday 14 January
11.30am Film, Cinema 2, Level 4
Soviet Music - The Fire and The Rose
See Saturday 13 January 11.00am for details.
2.00pm Concert, St Giles Cripplegate
The Complete String Quartets II
GUBAIDULINA String Quartet No. 3
HAYDN String Quartet in G minor Op. 74 No. 3 'The Rider'
GUBAIDULINA A String Quartet No. 4
Royal String Quartet
Inspired by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land , the distilled intensity of Gubaidulina's Third String Quartet reflects her 'shattering' response to the poet's work. In the String Quartet No.4, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet in 1993, the composer blurs the boundaries between the real and the imaginary by juxtaposing live and pre-recorded sounds. "Composition does not come easily to me," observes Gubaidulina. "In order to write music, one needs not only spiritual power, but also a great deal of soulful power."
 Listen to an extract from Gubaidulina's String Quartet No.4
5.00pm Concert, LSO St Luke's Jerwood Hall
Hour of the Soul
GUBAIDULINA Introitus
GUBAIDULINA Hour of the Soul
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra
Guildhall Wind Ensemble
Mikhael Agrest conductor
Nicolas Hodges piano
Mezzo-soprano to be announced
Poetic imagery and religious symbolism drew Gubaidulina to the work of the strikingly original Moscow-born writer Marina Tsvetaeva, not least to her disturbing poem of 1923, Hour of the Soul. Tsvetaeva, officially ostracised following her return from exile to Russia in the late 1930s, committed suicide following the outbreak of war in 1941. Gubaidulina's interpretation of Hour of the Soul translates the poem's evocation of the soul stripped bare into music of spine-tingling drama.
 Listen to an extract from Introitus
Listen to an extract from Hour of the Soul
7.00pm Talk, Fountain Room, Level G
Sofia Gubaidulina discusses the music in tonight's concert with writer and broadcaster Christopher Cook. This event is only open to Weekend Pass-holders due to the size of the venue.
7.30pm With One Accord,
Barbian Foyer The climax of a community event involving musicians from the BBC SO as they give the first performance of a work inspired by Sofia Gubaidulina's bayan concerto, Under the Sign of Scorpio. Free
8.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
Alleluja
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA The Light of the End
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA Under the Sign of Scorpio (UK premiere)
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA Alleluja
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev conductor
Friedrich Lips bayan
BBC Symphony Chorus
After many years writing for the accordion and its close relative, the bayan, Sofia Gubaidulina crafted a majestic concerto for the latter, entitled Under the Sign of Scorpio . Friedrich Lips gave the 40-minute work's premiere in 2003. Lips shares the scorpion's zodiac sign with the composer, hence the concerto's title if not its character. Alleluja was written soon after the Berlin Wall's fall and bears witness to what Gubaidulina views as a reawakening and triumph of faith over oppression. |
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