Paganini at the Library of Congress A word of explanation. I am deepening my interaction with the collections of the Library of Congress, Washington. This will have a particular focus on the Paganini holdings-both instruments and documents, in the collection. As this builds, I will use objects in the collection to look at ideas [...]
December 8, 2011
Music for the Enlightenment Gallery Live at the British Museum May 27th 2006 Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Stradivari 1709 ‘Viotti’ Giovanni Battista Viotti-Ranz des Vaches 1792 Giovanni Battista Viotti-Suonata ? Jean Hasse-Collections Considered (World Premiere) Lars Bagger-Chorale plus Pythagoras (World Premiere) Dmitri Smirnov-Amore Sola…(World Premiere) plus Erasmus Darwin Jim Aitchison-Dance Reflection (Original version) World Premiere plus Addison Michael [...]
October 22, 2011
Revolution LINK to Viotti in Washington The French revolution depended on music, and musicians, to spread its message, like no political movement before. For hundreds of years, the Church had relied on music for its propagandising; choir schools had trained generations of young singers and instrumentalists. With the early Revolution, the Church and the officer [...]
October 22, 2011
Viotti & the Revolutionary Violin in Washington Lecture Recital given at the Library of Congress- May 9th 2009 Peter Sheppard Skaerved playing Violins by Stradivari (Castelbarco, Betts), del Gesu (Kreisler), & W E Hill and Sons Click on the ‘play’ arrows to hear the lecture recital in sequence, or the highlighted links in the boxes for related [...]
October 7, 2011
Kreutzer Quartet at Malmö CONNECT Festival 2011 (In preparation)
September 19, 2011
Dances from Møn Work on the ’358 Danske Folkdansemelodier’ continues, here in Nashville . Here are dances from Møn. 198. Dronningedans (Moen) 199. Prinsesens Polka (Moen) 200. Skraedderns Hopsa (Moen) 201. Bumpe-Skotsk (Moen) 202 Sekstur (Moen) 203. Firspring.(Moen) Go to THE FOG IS LIFTING for the whole project
September 6, 2011
Paganini and Ketch Secor at the Hollywood Bowl I am fascinated by the legacy of Paganini’s posture, depicted again and again, with enormous consistency by Landseer, Maclise, Ingres, Delacroix, Edouart and many others, not to mention countless contemporary caricatures. In 2006 a George Grosz drawing A Paganini of the Gutter came up for sale at [...]
July 27, 2011
Carl Nielsen and 358 Danske Folkedansemelodier (Bind 1) I am fascinated by the link between the late Nielsen sound and the music of the Danish Soil, the tradition of the ‘Spillemaend’, which, I believe, underpins all his music, but most particularly the late instrumental revelations. So there is only one thing to do, to [...]
July 25, 2011
Sadie Harrison – Ballare un passacaglia di ombre (August 2011) World premiere performance. Nashville, 19 9 11 Notes from E mails-towards a piece: 6th June 2011-Inspiration for the solo pieces: E-mail workshop-with sketches-begun 24th July 2011 Sadie Harrison is a visionary, whose music marries extraordinary rhythmic poise with a jeweller’s eye for light. Yesterday (July [...]
July 23, 2011
These pictures were taken during a series of workshops which Nigel Clarke and I gave in Pristina in 2007 . Typically, we like to work from a ‘no score basis’ beginning with listening exercises and gradually moving towards notation and agreed structures. When working with musicians who have not played so much new music, it [...]
December 22, 2011