Jonathan Dove

In Damascus

Sacconi Quartet

Label: Signum Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0635212048726

Catalog number: SIGCD 487
Releasedate: 07-07-17

- Premiere Recording of new work by Jonathan Dove

- In Damascus – featuring world-renowned tenor Mark Padmore.

- The Sacconi’s present this new work alongside his string quartet work Out of Time, and his Piano Quintet – performed with pianist Charles Owen.

Even though Jonathan Dove is best known as a vocal or choral composer, with operas and works for children forming the backbone of his output, his chamber music reveals similar predilections for narrative, drama, atmosphere and a sense of the personal.

His new commission from the Sacconi Quartet In Damascus was inspired by the violinist Hannah Dawson’s suggestion for a work that should reflect aspects of the conflict in Syria; not because music can offer any political solution, but simply as an expression of empathy, sorrow, even outrage at those terrible events. Featuring a performance by tenor Mark Padmore, the text is taken from prose-poems by Ali Safar that draw on his first-hand experiences in Syria, eloquently translated by Anne-Marie McManus.