Lawrence Power performs the World Premiere of Thomas Adès' 'Three Berceuses' at the Verbier Festival

Rencontres Inédites, Eglise de Verbier, Sunday 21st July.

This set of Three Berceuses was arranged for viola and piano by Thomas Adès from his opera The Exterminating Angel. They are based on some of the opera’s most exquisite and memorable music – the first two drawing on the yearning melancholy duets of the doomed lovers Beatriz and Eduardo, the last a version of Silvia’s eerie berceuse macabre from Act III, in which she cradles a dead lamb, thinking she is rocking her son to sleep (‘It’s very late now, Yoli, it’s bedtime’)

The concert brings together Lawrence Power, viola, Daniel Hope, violin, Marc Bouchkov, violin, Sheku Kenneh-Mason, cello and George Li, piano and celebrates British music and its sometimes opposing styles of dance and romantic lyricism. Bridge introduces lightness, Clarke's Dumka impresses with melancholy that which the violin, viola and piano can best transcribe, leaving room for Elgar's immoderate, unbridled and dreamy romanticism. The Reel Gow brings his Scottish touches and playful dance set to music.

Three Berceuses was commissioned by the Verbier Festival, BBC Radio 3, Moritzburg Festival, UKARIA Cultural Institute, South Australia and was underwritten by the Viola Commissioning Circle. The Viola Commissioning Circle is a new charity formed to broaden the repertoire of new works for the viola.