The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

4pm, £17.50/£12 Disabled & Unemployed/£5 Students & Under 35s

Ensemble 360
Roderick Williams BARITONE
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in E minor, Op.59 No.2 Razumovsky
SKEMPTON The Rime of the Ancient Mariner * for baritone and chamber ensemble

We are delighted to present a major new piece by award-winning composer Howard Skempton, based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic tale of tragedy and salvation. In the composer’s words, “the aim has been to be true to the character of Coleridge’s haunting, sometimes visionary poem. The piece proceeds at a steady pace, and lasts about thirty-five minutes.”

The violinist Mark Steinberg has noted that the abruptness in the opening of Beethoven’s Op.59 No.2 quartet mirrors the stark and compelling opening lines of Coleridge’s poem, transfixing the listener as resolutely as the wedding guest stopped by the mariner who “cannot choose but hear.”

“Skempton’s music is elegant, British, civilised, with a touch of anarchy. I see him as a gentleman in a bowler hat, a briefcase – and sandals.” BBC Music Magazine

*commissioned by Maurice and Sheila Millward

Pre-concert talk, 3.00pm
FREE to concert ticket holders

Howard Skempton talks about The Rime of the Ancient Mariner