Scenes from Schumann
(1970, rev.1986) 133(I,II,III=picc,III=afl).2(II=corA).2(II=bcl).2(II=dbn)-2.2.1.0-perc(1):tgl/susp.cym/tam-t-harp-pft-strings(min:8.6.4.4.2, max:12.12.10.8.6)
This is the work that brought Holloway to the attention of music-lovers. It’s also the work that the composer thinks ought to be his Opus 1. It is the first of a series of works composed throughout his long career that owes its inspiration to his love of the music of earlier composers, rather in the manner of Stravinsky’s Le Baiser de la fée, using musical quotations, references and allusions, all absorbed into Holloway’s own personal musical language. Each movement is based on a song by Schumann in which Holloway has attempted to amplify and intensify the images and emotions of the original. The result is, he hopes, an affectionate homage to the spirit and style of that period of early French and German Romanticism.
Repertoire Note by Peter Marchbank
