Steve Elcock
COMPOSER
String trio No1, op. 8a & 8b
(op.8a for 2 violins and viola;
op.8b for violin, viola and cello)
playing time : 12 '
"Elcock's String Trio No. 1 takes a different tack. The work begins in dissonance and gradually works towards consonance. To my ears, the opening reminded me of Bartok -- though the resolution is pure Elcock."
Ralph Graves, wtju.net, (September 2019); read full review here
This one movement work confronts two extremely different worlds: a violent, rhythmic motive first spat out by the violin, and a broken, almost useless fragment of chorale. To this unpromising material is added more flowing music which acts as a kind of mediator at two points in the piece. But there is to be no reconciliation: the violent music becomes ever more aggressive, turning into a drunken dance at one point, while the chorale fragment seems as if paralysed by fear, frozen almost to nothingness, then knocked out by the cruel ending.
The String Trio No 1 was recorded in May 2018 by the Veles Ensemble for the Toccata Classics label.
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World premiere. St. Margaret Pattens Church in London on 1 March 2017 by the Veles Ensemble: Hartmut Richter, violin; Ralitsa Naydenova, viola; Evva Mizerska, cello.