Peter Sheppard Skærved - violin

Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved returns to The Shoe Factory, on 29 November 2012, for recital with Bach’s Partitas and Sonatas interspersed with premieres by contemporary composers Lars Bagger and Sadie Harrison.

Peter Sheppard Skærved is the dedicatee of well over 300 works for solo violin. His extensive discography ranges from cycles of sonatas by Beethoven and Telemann, the complete quartets of David Matthews, Michael Tippett, and cycles of concerti from Haydn to Henze. He has won awards from the BBC Music Magazine, been nominated for a Gramophone Award and was nominated for a GRAMMY for a concerto recording in 2007. Peter Sheppard Skærved is the director of an acclaimed series of concerts at Wiltons Music Hall, London, and has performed as soloist in over thirty countries.

He is the only British violinist to have been invited to play on Paganini’s violin il Cannone more than once – five times – and regularly gives recitals on the prestigious collection of historic instruments at the Library of Congress, Washington. He presently plays on a 1698 Stradivari owned Joseph Joachim.

It is a great pleasure for him to return to the Shoe Factory, as collaborating with museums is a major part of his work. He has curated an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, and has ongoing projects with the Library of Congress, Washington DC, the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. He is the leader of the Kreutzer Quartet, and Viotti Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He is also the author of a number of books ranging from a monograph on 19th century painting, to a major work on music in post-revolutionary Paris and London.

Of his recital programme for The Shoe Factory, Sheppard Skærved writes:
“One of the ways that I return to Bach, again and again, is with the help of the living composers with whom it is my privilege and joy to work. Poul Ruders and David Matthews have shone light on the fugues for me. George Rochberg showed me new aspects of the Chaconne. Evis Sammoutis has forced me to listen with more care to the surface and colour of monadic lines. I have brought four tiny miniatures by two very different composers, Lars Bagger and Sadie Harrison. Lars Bagger has taught me to hear the meaning in the smallest gesture – his Chorale is his distilled response to a ‘prayer-ring’ in the British Museum. Sadie Harrison is writing series of pieces based on my paintings – these are two of them.”

PROGRAMME:
Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001
Lars Bagger – Chorale (2006 – Cyprus Premiere)
Partita No.1 in B minor, BWV 1002
Sadie Harrison – Coffee with Aphra Behn: Westminster Abbey Cloisters (2012 – Cyprus Premiere)
Sonata No.2 in A minor, BWV 1003
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Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Lars Bagger – Proprior Deo (2012 – World Premiere)
Sonata No.3 in C major, BWV 1005
Sadie Harrison – Same Strand (2012 – World Premiere)
Partita No.3 in E major, BWV 1006

Tickets: €15 Adults / €10 Members of the Foundation, Concessions, Students
Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org