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- Edward Gregson
Serenata Notturna (1998)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Programme Note
As the title suggests, the piece evokes the atmosphere of night music. Following a reflective opening where the pitch material outlines a twelve-note series, the music becomes more agitated, developing into a quasi danse macabre, which eventually reaches a powerful climax. The music then subsides into a more tranquil atmosphere, where the previous dissonant material transforms itself into a simple diatonic melody (‘like a lullaby’), the basic outline of which has already been present in the music from the beginning. Thus the dark turmoil of the first part of the work becomes transfigured – hence the quotation at the beginning of the score: out of darkness cometh light.
After finishing the Serenata, a substantial part of the same music became an outline sketch for the slow movement of a Violin Concerto that I had just started to compose. The concerto was premiered by Lyn Fletcher and the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano, at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, in February 2000. It has since been recorded on the Chandos label by Olivier Charlier, with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
Edward Gregson, 2017
Media
Reviews
Serenata Notturna, for violin and piano (1998) is a deeply personal interpretation of the time-honoured musical trajectory of darkness into light. Beginning in uneasy quietude, the music curdles into a shadowy danse macabre, which builds to a barbarous climax, before transfiguring into an artless, lilting lullaby signalling, perhaps, the arrival of dawn, or, who knows, something more numinous. The score is prefaced by the quotation, 'Out of darkness cometh light' and some listeners may detect a spiritual quality in the way the tenebrous music of the central section evolves into the gentle berceuse. The closing bars revisit the arpeggiated figures of the opening section, giving the piece a satisfying, cyclical feel. This is a substantial, big-boned piece of considerable range and expressive variety.
Discography
Edward Gregson: Instrumental Music
- LabelNaxos
- Catalogue Number8574224
- SoloistSoloists of the Halle and BBC Philharmonic
- Released9th April 2021