JOHNSON TO PREMIERE HIS LATEST WORK
CONTINUING to juggle his career as a writer / broadcaster with music composition, Stephen Johnson’s latest work tonight (Thursday) receives its world premiere at Coventry’s Warwick Arts Centre, performed by the renowned Brodsky Quartet.
“The Brodsky are absolutely front rank amongst British quartets,” Stephen enthuses. “They combine power, precision and sheer class in a way few could rival. Their playing is absolutely the kind I would want for my music.”
Entitled simply Quartet No.1 the work has been inspired by the lives and works of Beethoven and Shostakovich.
“The music of Beethoven and Shostakovich tells us a lot about how they found strength to face both personal and political trials, and nowhere more so than in their string quartets,” Stephen notes, observing how Beethoven continued to create incredible sonatas and symphonies despite his deafness, and how Shostakovich succeeded in working without official scrutiny, despite the tough political regime.
“I love their intense, impassioned expression, but also how they are able to fuse this with gripping power of development, so gripping that the music seems to tell stories, even if we can’t find the exact words for what they tell us.”
For the premiere, Stephen’s work will be aired alongside Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.7 and Beethoven’s String Quartet No.15 in A minor Op. 132 – both selected by the writer.
“They were both huge influences on my own quartet writing. The Shostakovich is tiny in length, but not in effect. It’s full of wicked black humour, but in the background you sense there’s something deeply serious going on. The
Beethoven is a profound and complex spiritual journey, with surprises and riddles along the way.
“I’m very proud of this quartet, yet I’m aware that putting it beside Shostakovich and Beethoven might be asking for trouble,” continues Stephen. “They’re hard acts to be sandwiched between.”