Programme Details
Daphne Delfas conductor
Luca Zucchi composer/baritone
Isokon Ensemble
LUCA ZUCCHI Quasi una Fuga (version for chamber orchestra)
ROBIN HOLLOWAY Fantasy-Pieces on the Heine 'Liederkreis of Robert Schumann, Op 16’
R SCHUMANN Liederkreis, Op 24
Based on Robert Schumann’s (1810-1856) Liederkreis, Op 24 (1840), the ‘Fantasy Pieces’ (1971) epitomises Robin Holloway’s (1943-) penchant for reworking pieces by older composers, particularly those of the 19th- and early 20th-centuries. In the words of a recent critic, ‘quotation has become such a compulsive game for Holloway that it is often hard to say where ‘he’ stops or where ‘others’ begin’. Indeed, despite being predicated on Schumann’s music, it is unmistakably Holloway, displaying his quintessential blend of humour, beauty and historical awareness.
Heavily inspired by Holloway’s approach to music of the past, Luca Zucchi’s (2002-) recent composition Quasi una Fuga (2025) is inspired by the work of English Baroque composer Henry Purcell. The piece is split into two movements and takes the form of a prelude and fugue, the latter of which starts ‘in the style of’ Purcell and gradually, bit by bit, goes off the rails. Join Isokon Ensemble and conductor Daphne Delfas to hear this unusual programme that puts these three works, written over the last three centuries, in conversation with one another.
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