This Saturday, July 26, Corbridge Chamber Music festival presents a spiritually enriching programme ranging from early Beethoven to a brand new work from Piers Hellawell celebrating St. Wilfrid and the very building that now stands in Corbridge on the site of his ancient monastery.
The Rising of Sirius is written for piano trio and clarinet, and invites the audience to intone short phrases led by the performers. Celebrating the life of St Wilfrid, the work is based on the tangible aspects of his life—his journeys and his buildings—rather than on speculation about the Saint himself.
Based on the church where the premiere will take place, Hellawell describes how the work adopts and embodies the building:
The ‘geography’ of my quartet is accordingly shaped by it (St Andrew's Church): we progress, along a ‘nave’ and, in parallel, aisles – places of greater activity, I imagine – before meeting at the Crossing, the cruciform central point. This is an actual meeting place in the piece: I feel that early bishops and their works were not remote figures, and nor should works of music be remote, as too often they are, from listeners. Therefore at this point, in some performances, the audience can be invited to intone short phrases, led by the performers, as the piece stands at its central point, in an act of communal music-making. The work then ‘explores’ the Transepts before we move on into the Choir for the final section..
Find out more about the festival and get your tickets here.
