Pre-Order: Peter Seivewright - With A Million Songs [CD]

Metier Records is delighted to present, With a Million Songs, featuring the premiere complete recording of Cornelius Cardew's 1976 Vietnam Sonata alongside compositions by two of Cardew's associates: Michael Chant and Hugh Shrapnel, and performed by pianist Peter Seivewright.2026 marks the 90th anniversary of Cardew's birth, and the 45th anniversary of his untimely death in a hit-and-run accident at the age of 45. Cardew, Chant, and Shrapnel occupy a unique niche in British music, all three progressing from the experimental music scene to being part of the movements of the working-class peoples across the world for their rights, and writing music accordingly.Cardew's Vietnam Sonata celebrates the victory of the Vietnamese people in liberating their country from US aggression in 1975, and also acknowledges the international movement against the Vietnam War. With revolutionary songs as it's source material, it's not a sonata in the classical or romantic sense but is episodic in nature, at times skittish and turbulent. The songs are ingrained in the pianism of the work: in the first movement, one is heard in it's original form then in fragmentary or transformed guises; the second features a complex interplay of three songs; in the third, a line from a song is embedded within the texture of the work, making the movement a call to action. Some five pages of the second movement were written by Cardew's fellow activist, the composer Dave Smith, whose romantic and often dramatic treatment of the themes is a symbol of the democratic spirit in which the work was written.Chant's Piano Sonata: Transformations, composed especially for Peter Seivewright, is an extended work founded on the idea that to be human is to make claims on society. It takes it's inspiration from the line 'transform the world with a million songs'.Shrapnel's Climbing to Heights Hitherto Unknown is a piano version of his original solo violin work, suggesting the call to move on which inspires people to scale the heights with all the twists and turns that entail. Kevin Barry is a version for piano of the song paying tribute to the young Irish patriot hanged by the British in 1920.Cornelius Cardew was at the forefront of expanding the boundaries of music-making in Britain and internationally, and was widely recognised by the mid-60s as Britain's most distinctive and individual compositional voice. His early works, while he was an assistant to Stockhausen, placed him in the front ranks of the European avant-garde, which he later rejected, focusing on music's place and purpose in society and becoming a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Michael Chant, born in 1945, has been associated with Cardew since 1968, when he took the organ part in the first performance of Paragraph One of Cardew's The Great Learning at the Cheltenham Festival. He is the Secretary of the Cornelius Cardew Concerts Trust, which encourages composers to follow Cardew's path. Hugh Shrapnel, born in 1947, studied with Cardew at the Royal Academy of Music, and was active in the Progressive Cultural Association, of which Cardew was Secretary. Peter Seivewright is known for his wide-ranging repertoire, and has enthusiastically dedicated himself to promoting the work of these three composers, whose music he believes transcends their political convictions. He has performed extensively around the world, from the USA to central Asia, and has held senior positions at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), the University of Trinidad and Tobago, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul, and leading music schools in Cambodia and Thailand.