In the Adriatic is a cycle of six short songs, the texts
selected from a larger ensemble of work by the poet Chris Agee. Agee’s
collection of thirteen short poems, written in 2004, deals with the aftermath
of a family bereavement three years earlier and is set in and around the house
they lived in on the Dalmatian island of Korcula, north of Dubrovnik.
Each song features a different combination of instruments.
In the Adriatic was commissioned and performed by Concorde in
2006 in Galway and Dublin and at the 2008 Unicum Festival in Ljubljana,
Slovenia.
Andrew Johnstone, Irish Times:
“Agnew's piece, in contrast, is a setting of six elegiac poems by Chris
Agee. A counterpoint of coincidences, where tension and release,
freshness and frustration, mingle unpredictably, amplifies the mood of
inconsolable distraction.”
Michael Dungan, Irish Times:
“Antrim-born composer Elaine Agnew treads warily amidst the raw emotions of
American poet Chris Agee’s In the Adriatic, poems composed
following the death of his young daughter Miriam in 2001. Whether or not
Agnew actually adds anything to the cruel reality of Agee’s blunt, grieving
lines, her settings for soprano, clarinets, accordion and cello find voices
which complement and empathise with the poet’s various different angles and
vignettes. The result is as sad a piece of art as you’ll ever
encounter.” |
