Peter Seivewright

Peter Seivewright (born 1954 in Skipton, England) is a British pianist. After music studies at Oxford, he was a post-graduate student at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he studied piano with Ryszard Bakst.cite web
url = http://www.divine-art.com/AS/seivewright.htm
title = Peter Seivewright (Divine Art biography page)
accessdaymonth = 25 May
accessyear = 2007
work = Divine Art website]

Work with Galuppi's sonatas

Although he has released several recordings, including discs of Carl Nielsen, Victor Bendix, and Louis Glass,cite web
url = http://www.divine-art.com/AS/seivewright.htm
title = Peter Seivewright (Divine Art biography page)
accessdaymonth = 25 May
accessyear = 2007
work = Divine Art website] he is perhaps most known for his current endeavor to record all 90 of the keyboard sonatas of Baldassarre Galuppi for [http://www.divine-art.com/ The Divine Art] record company. This has involved him in personally researching manuscripts of Galuppi's sonatas in Venice, and reportedly in editing and publishing them in due course as well.cite web
url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/oct99/galuppi.htm
title = Baldassare GALUPPI (1706-1785): "Complete Piano Sonatas Volume 1"
accessdaymonth = 25 May
accessyear = 2007
last = Wright
first = David
date = 1996-07-16
work = musicweb-international.com - Review of the first volume; page also includes a separate review by Peter Grahame Woolf.]

Reviews of Seivewright's Galuppi have been varied. Some have been impressed by Galuppi's sonatas themselves, using Domenico Scarlatti as a benchmark with one reviewer calling them "far more appealing that Scarlatti sonatas,";cite web
url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/oct99/galuppi.htm
title = Baldassare GALUPPI (1706-1785): "Complete Piano Sonatas Volume 1"
accessdaymonth = 25 May
accessyear = 2007
last = Wright
first = David
date = 1996-07-16
work = musicweb-international.com - Review of the first volume; page also includes a separate review by Peter Grahame Woolf.] others have made the same comparison to Galuppi's detriment ("the individual pieces lack the character and sparkling invention so typical of Scarlatti").cite web
url = http://www.divine-art.com/CD/rev25007.htm
title = "REVIEWS: divine art 25007 Galuppi piano sonatas, vol. 2"
accessdaymonth = 25 May
accessyear = 2007
last = Crankshaw
first = Geoffrey
date =
work = Musical Opinion - Also contains reviews of the second volume from "Fanfare," "International Piano Magazine," etc., compiled by The Divine Art and republished at their site.]

Seivewright's playing has also been evaluated variously, with many reviewers applauding it. Reviewer Gerald Fenech terms him "an enthusiastic and technically accomplished pianist" who "plays with great conviction and flair in all the sonatas presented here."cite web
url = http://www.divine-art.com/CD/rev25007.htm
title = "REVIEWS: divine art 25007 Galuppi piano sonatas, vol. 2"
accessdaymonth = 25 May
accessyear = 2007
last = Fenech
first = Gerald
date =
work = Classicalnet - Reviews compiled by The Divine Art and republished at their site.] Kevin Sutton, however, complains that "The halting playing, lack of line tension and the image that I was listening to a pianist playing over, rather than through a composer continually disturbed me. (Glenn Gould would have been proud.)"cite web
url = http://www.divine-art.com/CD/rev25007.htm
title = "REVIEWS: divine art 25007 Galuppi piano sonatas, vol. 2"
accessdaymonth = 25 May
accessyear = 2007
last = Sutton
first = Kevin
date =
work = Musicweb - Reviews compiled by The Divine Art and republished at their site.]

Nevertheless, it is clear that Seivewright is performing an important service in renewing interest in Galuppi's long-neglected keyboard output, and one that should help broaden our knowledge of the composer.

Work with modern composers

Seivewright has also been a champion of music by living composers, having performed Rory Boyle's piano concerto and "Moduli" (a series of piano pieces),cite web
url = http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/members/rory_boyle/home/full_biography/
title = "Rory Boyle (b. 1951) - Full biography"
accessdaymonth = 2 June
accessyear = 2007
work = [http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/ Scottish Music Centre website] ] and commissioning "A Saltire Sonata" from Robert Crawford.cite web
url = http://www.britishacademy.com/index.php?option=com_memberprofile&task=view&id=31&Itemid=84&pContactID=194
title = "Robert Crawford - Biography"
accessdaymonth = 2 June
accessyear = 2007
work = [http://www.britishacademy.com/ British Academy of Composers and Songwriters website] ] He also performed Martin Dalby's score for the ten-minute film for schoolchildren "Let's See: Winter."cite web
url = http://www.impulse-music.co.uk/dalby/dalbcat7.htm
title = "Martin Dalby - Catalogue of Works"
accessdaymonth = 2 June
accessyear = 2007
work = [http://www.impulse-music.co.uk/ Impulse Classical Music Website] ]

Use of music therapy for surgical recovery

According to Britain's "The Daily Telegraph," Seivewright underwent a quadruple-bypass operation in 2000, and used a work by Johann Sebastian Bach for purposes of music therapy. The "Telegraph" reported that Seivewright

:"was determined that if he didn't wake up, the last music he listened to would be the 'greatest music ever written': the opening orchestral movement [sic] of Bach's St Matthew Passion."

(The opening movement "Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen," actually a chorus with orchestra, is evidently meant.) However, the operation was successful, and though Seivewright attributed this to his surgeon, the "Telegraph" commented that "Bach's music floating around in his subconscious was certainly a contributory factor."cite web
url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2006/08/11/hlefanu11.xml
title = "Doctor's diary: unwanted and inescapable noise"
accessdaymonth = 2 June
accessyear = 2007
last = Le Fanu
first = James
date = 2006-11-08
work = [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ The Daily Telegraph (UK)] ]

Forthcoming recordings

Seivewright's reverence for Bach may also be judged by the fact that his record label has announced that in 2008, they will release a recording of four of the composer's keyboard concertos by the pianist with the Scottish Baroque Soloists, as well as another disc including works by Elliott Carter and Miklos Rozsa.cite web
url = http://www.divine-art.com/forthcoming.htm
title = Divine Art future CD releases
accessdaymonth = 2 June
accessyear = 2007
work = Divine Art website]

References