• Bent Sørensen
  • The Lady of Shalott (1993)

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
  • str4tet
  • 6 min

Programme Note

In February 1987 I saw in the Tate Gallery in London a painting by the Victorian English painter John William Waterhouse. The painting kept haunting my memory, and as I at the same time planned to write a piece for solo viola, my ideas for the music and the memory of the painting fused more and more. I decided, then, to let my piece borrow the title of Waterhouse’s paint-ing: The Lady of Shalott. The picture of a mad-like, pale, and perhaps singing woman alone in a boat without sculls, which calmly slips out from the rush growth of the river is an illustration for the ending of Alfred Tennyson’s poem by the same title, which again plaits into the old English legends about King Arthur.

My piece tries to meander - like the river at Camelot - among these sources. As suggested above the piece was originally written for viola solo. The version for string quartet is from 1993.

- Bent Sørensen

Discography

Bent Sørensen: Mignon

Bent Sørensen: Mignon
  • Label
    Da Capo
  • Catalogue Number
    8.226134
  • Conductor
    John Storgårds
  • Ensemble
    Lapland Chamber Orchestra
  • Soloist
    Katrine Gislinge, piano; John Storgårds, violin
  • Released
    1st November 2016

Birds and Bells

Birds and Bells
  • Label
    ECM
  • Catalogue Number
    1665
  • Conductor
    Christian Eggen
  • Ensemble
    Cikada Ensemble

Night Windows

Night Windows
  • Label
    Edition Wilhelm Hansen
  • Conductor
    Christian Eggen
  • Ensemble
    Cikada