World premiere performance of a fantastic new spiritual work Monk’s Music by the Russian Composer Alexander Raskatov.
Monk’s Music will be performed by the Carducci Quartet and Gordon Jones of the Hilliard Ensemble.The performance will take place on Friday 8 February 2013 in St. Nicholas’ Church of Ireland Dundalk (The Green Church).
Raskatov’s composition Monks Music is based on seven brief texts by the Russian Orthodox monk Elder (“Starets”) Silouan, who was described by Thomas Merton as the “most authentic monk of the 20th century”, and declared a saint in 1987. Loosely modelled on Hadyn’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, Raskatov has scored the work, by turns mystical and dramatic, for solo bass and string quartet. It was written in memoriam Alfred Schnittke.
By inviting international composers and musicians to perform and educate in Louth, Louth Contemporary Music Society (LCMS) has been at the forefront of contemporary music in Ireland. The long list of composers including Arvo Pärt, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, John Zorn to Sofia Gubaidulina and Valentyn Silvestrov demonstrates the quality and stature of LCMS events. LCMS has exposed Irish audiences to unfamiliar yet current music and composers in a manner that is universally praised by audiences and critics alike.
Monk’s Music will be the first time the music of Alexander Raskatov has been presented in Ireland. The composer, fresh from his success with the opera A Dog’s Heart, a De Nederlandse Opera/ENO production, which will be presented in La Scala del Milano in March 2013 conducted by Valerie Gergiev, will come to Ireland for the premiere of his beautiful mystical work Monk’s Music.
Raskatov whom Alfred Schnittke once called “one of the most interesting composers of his generation” has received commissions for new works from Gidon Kremer, the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Schoenberg Ensemble, among others. He received the composition prize of the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1998. Raskatov was born in Moscow in 1953 and finished his studies at Moscow Conservatory in 1978. In 1990 he joined the Russian Contemporary Music Association. His interests centre especially on vocal and instrumental chamber music and symphonic sonorities.
The Carducci Quartet is recognised as one of today’s most successful young string quartets. Based in the UK, the quartet holds residencies at Cardiff University and Dean Close School and is visiting quartet in residence at Trinity Laban in London, Repton School and the Cork School of Music in Ireland. Regulars at London’s Wigmore Hall, they perform throughout the UK, including their own festival in Highnam, Glos.
Gordon Jones is a baritone, best known as a member of the world-class Hilliard Ensemble. As such he has divided his energies between the Medieval and Renaissance vocal masterworks — such as those of Ockeghem, Gesualdo, Frye, Perotin, Dufay, Lassus, Palestrina, Victoria, and Brumel — and the works of contemporary composers, as represented by Arvo Pärt, Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, James MacMillan and Ivan Moody.
Monk’s Music is funded by the Arts Council and financially supported by Create Louth.