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John Woolrich Sestina (1997)
For piano quartet
12 minutes
I borrowed the title of this Piano Quartet from Monteverdi's great Madrigal Sequence of 1610: Lagrime D'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata. There are six main sections, behind each of which hovers the ghost of another piece - songs by Debussy, Schubert and Beethoven, a piano piece by Schumann, a little Stravinsky, and finally and most openly, a fragment of Monteverdi's own Sestina. The work ends with a gentle lullaby.
© John Woolrich
Sestina was commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble with funds provided by the Schubert Ensemble Trust and first performed at the Lichfield Festival on Wednesday 9th July 1997.
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