Lee Bradshaw composer | The Ties That Bind
Chamber Works for Strings
Recorded November 2021 at Emil Berliner Studios in Berlin, Germany
Performers
Baiba Skride violin
Ivan Vukčević viola
Harriet Krijgh violoncello
Listening to the first track of Lee Bradshaw’s CD The Ties That Bind, the violin solo Via Crucis the listener is immediately drawn into a soundworld where the composer is completely comfortable with all the technical aspects of composition and is able to allow a free-flowing monologue that calms the soul. I have listened to this track multiple times over the last two months and it grows on me each time. And it helps so much that a wonderful soloist Baiba Skride is telling the musical story. Each note comes across as having meaning and that is a rare skill from both composer and performer. Bradshaw is a composer to take seriously.
His string trio Trigon intrigues from beginning to end and Skride is joined by Ivan Vukčević on viola and cellist Harriet Krijgh. Delightful playing from all. The music seems to inhabit a world that comes from middle and eastern Europe and particularly a music that is from the Romantic period of music history. Without being even a bit derivative the music puts me in mind of that which Brahms, Dvorak and others could have written if they were to have lived on into the early 20th century.
There are several other string works for solo or duo and this is a CD to savour.
I had not come across this composer until recently and more the pity as he has a lyrical and intelligent voice and clearly states his artistic intentions with emotional power. Bradshaw was commissioned by Wilma Smith to compose the set string quartet piece for the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and so Melbourne audiences heard his new work several times.
