Page 774 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

5. Sofia Gubaidulina: Seven Words for Cello, Accordion and Strings

Sofia Gubaidulina has written extensively for strings throughout her career. One of her earliest
works to gain widespread recognition was her violin concerto, Offertorium, composed in 1980. In
1999, her work Two Paths for two violas and orchestra was premiered by the New York
Philharmonic.

Religion is a prominent theme throughout Gubaidulina’s compositions. The violas in Two
Paths represent the voices of the Biblical sisters Mary and Martha, and her piece On Love and
Hatred, composed in 2016, sets psalms and prayer text to music.

Last year, a new recording of her works for cello and accordion was released on Sarton Records,
performed by cellist Marcin Zdunik and accordionist Klaudiusz Baran with Sinfonia Varsovia. The
album includes Seven Words, a composition drawing on biblical stories with each movement named
after a passage from scripture.