Petrov Ye. De profundis. Suite G-dur BWV 2005. For viola solo

The Suite G major BWV 2005 is the glance to the Baroque out of the contemporaneity. Those were the cello sonatas by J. S. Bach (very often performed by violists) to have become the models for this composition. The strict Bach-suite construction represents actually the most popular dancing genres of that age (Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Minuet I, Minuet II, Gigue).

That was the Petersburgian violist Andrey Penyugin — a skillful musician, performing the compositions of the 20th–21st centuries to have lent me the brilliant idea of the quasi-baroque suite including fashionable dances of nowadays. Later he was the first to present my suite. Thus I managed to combine strict Bach’s structures (tonal correlation, music syntax, intonational unity of the material, visual Urtext graphic) with favourite and most popular tango, samba, blues, waltz and rock-n-roll. Hence the same music is possible to be interpreted now in authentic manner, now in pop style with all kinds of improvisations inside each style. The baroque music was known for varied reprises, so as the modern dances of our time.

The violist is welcome to create the dialogue between two epochs, finding his individual stylistic association, thus making for both interpretation and authorship of the composition. 

De profundis clamavi” (“Out of the bottom I appeal…”) — these are the beginning words of the 129th Psalm used in the catholic service, having become the symbol of repentance and cavernous spiritual sorrow throughout the ages. The sinister viola timbre in this composition depicts the state of the human mind, plunged in stern contemplation, evoking simultaneously the sense of irreparable, instantaneous passion and the hope of the Light. “My soul is expecting for the God more, than the prisoners for the morning, more than the prisoners”.