Lamento della ninfa (2024) | Lei Liang (b. 1972)

String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465 | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756—1791)

I. Adagio — Allegro

II. Andante cantabile (F major)

III. Menuetto and Trio. Allegro

IV. Allegro

~ break ~

Reminiscences | Hanna Havrylets (1958-2022) 

Neverlands | Kian Ravaei (b. 1999) - World Premiere

This program explores how a backward glance might provide the strength, wisdom, and inspiration to propel us forward. We open with Lei Liang’s arrestingly beautiful Lamento della ninfa (“The Nymph’s Lament”), based on a work of Monteverdi from 1636. Liang had long admired the Italian Master’s wild innovations of 400 years past, many of which, though not all, have long become commonplace to our modern ears, yet it was on a trip to Venice when Liang witnessed the daily placement of fresh flowers on Monteverdi’s centuries old grave, that he was deeply moved to create this work as his own offering.

Next, we are delighted to share Mozart’s joyful String Quartet No. 19 in C major ‘Dissonance’. This work was written in homage to Joseph Haydn, his friend and mentor, and despite its spicy nickname, owing to the very forward looking sounds of the opening 22 measures, it is a work of classicism - full of great tenderness and sunshine. The third work, Reminiscences by the Ukrainian composer Hanna Havrylets, whom we lost during the early days of the full scale invasion, looks back with wistful poise in a work of nostalgia and longing that is as evocative as it is powerfully original.

Closing our program is a major new piece written just for this moment. Neverlands, by rising star composer Kian Ravaei, was commissioned by Sheffield Chamber Players and we are ecstatic to share these world premiere performances with you. The work is a series of ten short movements, with connective tissue based on Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ Quartet from earlier in the program, and takes us on a journey through imagined places - some literary, some religious - before ending at the final location titled Epiphany of Epiphanies. Ravaei (just 26 years old), has garnered international acclaim for his voice blending the past with what lies ahead. 

~ Leo Eguchi

Neverlands by Kian Ravaei has been made possible through the CMA Classical Commissioning Program with funding from the CMA Endowment Fund.