British composer Rebecca Saunders was this week awarded the €250,000 Ernst von Siemens Music prize, becoming the first female composer to win it in its 45-year history, and only the second woman overall after Anne-Sophie Mutter in 2008.

This 2013 work was described in The Strad’s review of Séverine Ballon’s recording as a ‘study in how a scordatura C string might re-tint the natural grain of the cello’.

‘Solitude is an apt description: shadowy, isolated, low-register drones are cut into by angsty double-stopped melodic material as the structure is in a constant state of thrilling near-collapse.’

This video was made on 28 March 2016 at Zipper Hall, at the Colburn School, Los Angeles.

Topics