Georg Hamann & Akari Komiya - Viola Dolorosa (2017)

This beautiful CD pairs an important work by the living composer Peter Seabourne with two by Benjamin Britten. Seabourne's Pietà, like many of his works, takes inspiration from the other arts: in this case the statues of Michelangelo, and in particular the haunting face of Nicodemus in the Firenze Pietà. On the death of the composer’s parents it offered a suitable stimulus for a piece in their memory. This large scale, five movement work takes one on a powerful journey, from a melancholy "rocking to sleep", though doubting questions, a song of mourning, and a violent protest. It eventually reaches a kind of resolution, with a poignant "Good Night" (quoting Janacek) laying the music to rest. The two Britten pieces span his lifetime. The childhood Elegy, reconstructed after the composer's death, and the much later Lachrymae based round a set of variations on a lute song of John Dowland; both intense works. Georg Hamann, the widely respected Viennese professor, along with rising star Akari Komiya, give here extraordinary performances of immense emotional power. This disc is a true journey of the soul!