Announcing the Premiere Recording of Cornelius Cardew’s Vietnam Sonata

British pianist Peter Seivewright is this month (October 2021) recording a significant new album for Divine Art, the label to which he has been signed since the mid-1990s.

The album is focused on the premiere recording of the 1976 Vietnam Sonata by Cornelius Cardew, and also includes recent compositions by two of Cardew’s comrades in music: Michael Chant and Hugh Shrapnel.

The recording represents a tribute to Cardew following the 85th anniversary (in 2021) of his birth and the 40th of his untimely death at the age of 45. Cardew, Chant and Shrapnel occupy a unique niche in British music. All three progressed from the British experimental music scene to being part of the movements of the working class and peoples for their rights, nationally and internationally, and writing music accordingly.

This recording was originally scheduled to be recorded last summer for release in December 2021, to coincide with those anniversaries, but had to be postponed due to a tragic bereavement; Stephen Sutton, CEO at Divine Art, is hoping now for a release to be achieved in February or March 2022.

Cardew’s Vietnam Sonata celebrates the victory of the Vietnamese people in liberating their country in 1975 from US occupation and aggression. It also refers to the support provided by the people world-wide in organising against the Vietnam War.

Chant’s Piano Sonata: Transformations is an extended work based on the conception that to be human is to make claims on society, and is inspired by the line, “transform the world with a million songs”. It was composed specially for pianist Peter Seivewright.

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 entails. 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 well-known as being at the forefront of expanding the boundaries of music-making in Britain and internationally, and then taking this quality into music which was inspired by the modern enlightenment movement. Michael Chant, born 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 1947, studied with Cardew at the Royal Academy of Music, was active in the Progressive Cultural Association, of which Cardew was Secretary, and has retained fidelity in his life and work to the path to society’s progress. Cardew, Chant and Shrapnel have all acknowledged the leading role of Marxist-Leninist Hardial Bains in pointing cultural workers in a positive direction, towards the world of the New.

Peter Seivewright is known for his wide-ranging repertoire, and has enthusiastically dedicated himself to promoting the work of these three composers, which transcends their political associations not necessarily shared by artist or label. He has performed extensively around the world, from the USA to central Aisa, and until retirement from Academic life held senior positions at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, the University of Trinidad and Tobago, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul and at leading music schools in Cambodia and Thailand. His recorded output is extensive including the complete piano music of Carl Nielsen (Naxos), works by Victor Bendix (Rondo), and for Divine Art music by Louis Glass, J.S. Bach, four volumes so far of keyboard sonatas by Baldasarre Galuppi, and the first of a series of recordings of modern American piano sonatas. 2022 will see the release of Seivewrght’s recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and music by Max Reger.