Still Sorrowing

Commission

Commissioned by the Park Lane Group with funds from the London Arts Board

Programme notes

Following the example of Romantic piano pieces or Leider involving sentiments of loss, this piece presents its material in a series of refrains; the opening material acquires deeper resonances on each appearance, revealing itself in a transfiguration at the very end. This aspect of the piece, a recurrent ache, is reflected in the title, as in an allusion to the Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland, whose ‘Semper Dowland semper dolens’ occasionally informs the harmonic and timbral world of this piece. The central range of the piano is dampened until the coda, when a certain expressive veil is finally lifted. The broad structure of the piece is also hollow-centered: two large ‘wings’, each essentially describing a number of descending arcs, separated by a silence.

© Thomas Adès

Reviews

'This early Adès piece was both mournful and magical, the calling card of a composer with a formidable aural imagination.'

The Times (Geoff Brown), 26 April 2001

'A most delicately calculated and imaginative work for "prepared" piano, with ambitions well beyond a clever exercise.'

Financial Times (David Murray), 26 July 1994

Availability

B3 facsimile 0571552463 (fp) on sale

Scores and publication

• Publisher information
• View score

Upcoming performances

No performances found.

Previous performances

• 26 November 2014 — St Paul's Hall, University of Huddersfield (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 3 October 2012 — Salle de la Bourse (Strasbourg, Alsace, France) — France — Composer
• 3 November 2009 — Konserthuset (Stockholm, Sweden) — Sweden — Composer
• 25 February 2007 — Salle Olivier Messiaen, Maison de Radio France (Paris, France) — France — Composer
• 19 July 2006 — No Venue (Cordes-sur-Ciel, Midi-Pyrénées , France) — France — Composer
• 21 May 2006 — Kettle's Yard (Cambridge, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 22 September 2005 — No Venue (Brussels, Belgium) — Belgium — Composer
• 3 September 2005 — Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 5 August 2003 — No Venue (Delft, Netherlands) — Netherlands — Composer
• 29 May 2002 — Salle Cortot (Paris, France) — France — Composer
• 19 April 2002 — Arnold Schönberg Center (Vienna, Austria) — Austria — Composer
• 10 February 2002 — No Venue (Paris, France) — France — Composer
• 20 July 2001 — Festival Tent (Bridgehampton, NY, USA) — USA — Composer
• 21 April 2001 — Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre (London, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 12 November 2000 — Buntrock Hall, Symphony Center (Chicago, IL, USA) — USA — Composer
• 10 November 2000 — No Venue (Odense, Denmark) — Denmark — Composer
• 10 November 2000 — Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA) — USA — Composer
• 19 September 2000 — Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church of Pasadena (Pasadena, CA, USA) — USA — Composer
• 3 June 2000 — No Venue (Ojai, CA, USA) — USA — Composer
• 17 March 2000 — No Venue (Seoul, South Korea) — South Korea — Composer
• 16 March 2000 — No Venue (Daegu, South Korea) — South Korea — Composer
• 22 October 1999 — Blackheath Halls (London, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 2 October 1999 — Miller Theater, Columbia University (New York City, NY, USA) — USA — Composer
• 29 March 1999 — Finnish Radio (Finland) — Finland — Composer
• 7 March 1999 — Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland) — Finland — Composer
• 6 January 1999 — Purcell Room, Southbank Centre (London, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 17 October 1998 — No Venue (Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 25 May 1998 — Keio University (Tokyo, Japan) — Japan — Composer
• 11 February 1998 — Gueston Hall, Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings (Stoke Heath, Worcestershire, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 13 June 1997 — St Peter's Church (Staines, Surrey, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 6 January 1997 — Purcell Room, Southbank Centre (London, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 25 September 1996 — No Venue (Strasbourg, Alsace, France) — France — Composer
• 23 February 1996 — No Venue (Nottingham, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 21 February 1996 — No Venue (Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 21 January 1996 — No Venue (Lillehammer, Norway) — Norway — Composer
• 20 January 1996 — No Venue (Sandefjord, Norway) — Norway — Composer
• 16 January 1996 — No Venue (Oslo, Norway) — Norway — Composer
• 23 August 1995 — Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA, USA) — USA — Composer
• 26 January 1995 — Tinity Theatre (Tunbridge Wells, Kent, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 5 December 1994 — Royal Holloway, University of London (London, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 14 August 1994 — No Venue (Dartington, Devon, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 18 April 1994 — BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer
• 11 January 1993 — Purcell Room, Southbank Centre (London, United Kingdom) — United Kingdom — Composer

Recordings

• Thomas Adès: Piano Solo Works — 2020 — Naxos (8.574109)
• Illuminating from Within — 2015 — La Buissonne (005)
• Catch; Darknesse Visible; Five Eliot Landscapes; Life Story; Still Sorrowing; Traced Overhead; Under Hamelin Hill — 2001 — EMI Classics
• Life Story — 1997 — EMI Debut (7243 5 69699 2 6)