Far from home

A Greek folk song is the inspiration for a meditative viola concerto

CELLISTS OF THE WORLD UNITE: Nicolas Altstaedt conducted an ensemble of 16 world-renowned cellists in a rendition of Pablo Casals’ Sardana at the climax of the Dresden Music Festival’s ‘Long Night of the Cello’. The music marathon featured 29 cello works performed over five and a half hours. ‘There was a sense of unity in the air, an atmosphere of assurance that the great tradition of cello playing will be carried forward through the generations of cellists,’ said festival director Jan Vogler after the concert. Pictured left to right are: Miklós Perényi, Ivan Monighetti, Mischa Maisky, Jan Vogler, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Anastasia Kobekina, David Geringas, Johannes Moser, Harriet Krijgh, Daniel Müller-Schott, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Pablo Ferrández, Zlatomir Fung, Santiago Cañón-Valencia, Friederike Herold and Edgar Moreau. Photo: Oliver Killig

COMPOSER Cassandra Miller

WORK Viola Concerto

ARTISTS Lawrence Power (viola) BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Omer Meir Wellber

DATE 18 July 2022

PLACE Royal Albert Hall, London, UK bbc.in/3a48Z0Y

Cassandra Miller

Lawrence Power

MILLER PHOTO ANDREW PARKER. POWER PHOTO JACK LIEBECK

Canadian composer Cassandra Miller will bring the folk music of Greece to the Royal Albert Hall in her new, one-movement Viola Concerto. British violist Lawrence Power will perform the work alongside the BBC Philharmonic as part of the BBC Proms. ‘He has such a rich musical personality, it was inspiring to compose something that resonates with his style,’ she says of the soloist, with whom she has previously worked.

The concerto is based off a recording of Greek violinist Alexis Zoumbas, in which he plays a moiroloi – alament-style song from the north-west of the country, which honours those who have passed on. ‘I visited the region in 2009, became obsessed with the music and then came across the recording,’ Miller says. The composition process began with a transcription of the source recording. Then, while meditating, Miller recorded herself singing it back. She layered this track into a canon, sang it back and layered it again several times over. The transformed version forms the basis of the piece. ‘I went in two directions with the final recording: an over-simplified one for the orchestra, and very detailed one for the viola, which also includes ornamentations from the original recording,’ Miller explains. The heavily notated viola part is ‘an invitation to mimic the singing on the instrument’. For the orchestral part, Miller was influenced by the image of a still lake, which came to her in a dream. ‘It’s a slow morphing of colours: a vast space of stillness. I wanted to create a space in which the audience can stay.’

In Zoumbas and Miller’s case, the moiroloi style also serves as a lament for their home countries of Greece and Canada respectively. ‘Even more than usual, our lives are fused with the idea of being separated from home or loved ones,’ she says. The composition’s meditative style gives space for the audience to explore their own relationship with loss and separation.