Composed: 1980
Duration: 5 minutes
First Performance: January 1987 by Anthony Gammage (Cello) and Andrew Wadsworth (Piano) at St Martin's in the Fields, London
Ian Venables' Elegy for Cello and Piano was written in 1980 for the Cellist Anthony Gammage, to whom the work is dedicated. It was given its first performance at St. Martin in the Fields Church in London in the same year and is regarded as one of the composer's most profound works, combining lyricism with a passionate intensity.
Strong, uncompromising chords open the work, leading the way to a plaintive dialogue between cello and piano. After a central chorale of intense beauty, the opening material returns as a passionate outpouring, ending the work in an unresolved and questioning mood.