The second of the Villiers Quartet’s Late Schubert Series pairs the great Austrian composer’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ with three recent pieces by women composers. St Hilda's music student Ariana Pethard’s ‘The Dance of Persephone’ has been commissioned especially for this concert as a response to ‘Death and the Maiden’, with the composer playing the piano part. It's also a rare opportunity to hear Alisa Dixon's fascinating song cycle 'The Spirit of Love'; her strikingly dissonant harmonic language, reminiscent in places of Fauré, Bartók and Britten, is used to convey dark and conflicting emotions.
Program:
Vivian Fung, String Quartet No. 1 (2004)
Ariana Pethard, The Dance of Persephone for piano and string quartet (wp)
Alisa Dixon, The Spirit of Love — 3 Songs for soprano and string quartet (2020)
Schubert, String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 (Death and the Maiden)