My story so far…
Lawrence Rose was born in England in 1943. He studied violin there from an early age and very soon developed an enthusiasm for composition, leading to the creation of some juvenilia.
Other factors intervened, however, and Rose pursued a career in law. This did not completely prevent music studies and composing and some seeds for later completed works were sown.
Rose left the law in 2001 and took up composition apace. Apart from some discarded works, he has since completed twenty-nine pieces, most of them after emigrating to Chicago. Some are large-scale works including four symphonies, three violin concertos, a concerto for orchestra, a piece for double string orchestra and “Planetary Conjunctions” for large symphony orchestra. There is a body of chamber music including four string quartets, a piano quartet, a clarinet trio, a brass quintet, a piano fantasia, a string trio, a piano trio, a cello sonata and a violin sonata. As an antidote to Covid isolation he also completed a short work for two solo cellos in 2020. Additionally, following a call for compositions from the Kodaly String Duo of Vienna, he composed “Jeux, Danses et Fetes” for them in 2022. Not forgetting the human voice he also completed “The Glory and the Dream” for soprano and orchestra, “Whimsical Profundities”, a song cycle for bass-baritone and chamber ensemble and “Missa Pro Pace” for double choir, organ and piano.
Performances of some of his chamber music have taken place in England to considerable acclaim. There has been a particular association with the renowned cellist, Katherine Jenkinson, notably her participation in the string quartet, “Danses Pour Quatuor”, the commercial recordings of the cello sonata and the piano trio, and an informal recording of “Dualing Cellos.”
From learning the cello sonata “it became apparent to me that Rose keeps his own individual style but also enjoys being influenced by some of the greats including Shostakovich, Stravinsky and even Elgar.”
“I have always been a great admirer of baroque and classical forms and genres which are often incorporated into/adopted in my music but I adapt them to suit my own particular style to produce characterful and accessible compositions. I am particularly concerned with organic growth and development (largely inspired by the symphonies of Brahms and Sibelius), with rhythm (largely inspired by Beethoven, Stravinsky and Hindemith) and with powerful expression (largely inspired by Nielsen and Shostakovich).”
“I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Lawrence Rose for well over a decade now. I hope our collaboration continues to flourish.”
The music writer, Mike Wheeler, considered “Danses Pour Quatuor” to be “expertly scored, witty and compellingly argued. If it occasionally nods in the direction of other music – Shostakovich-with-a-dash-of-Hindemith in the first movement, Ravel in the fifth – it does so without sounding in the least bit derivative.”
Of a performance of the piano quartet (“for DSCH”) he said that “although there are places where the spirit of Shostakovich is clearly present, the work is far from being any kind of pastiche. The players kept a taut rein on its knotty, closely argued material and often abrupt changes of mood. Contrapuntal textures were lucid, from both composer and players, and the dance elements in the third movement were nicely springy.”
Wheeler said of a performance of “Transformations for String Trio”: “Its continuous twenty-minute, rondo-like structure begins with an apparent glance back to early twentieth century Vienna (Richard Strauss and Korngold, specifically, came to mind), continuing in a confident tonal style all of its own. The nicely varied textures include ear-catching passages of expansive violin phrases over high-energy pizzicato viola and cello, and the three players each have good solo opportunities. The moment when the big central meditative passage flips with nonchalant ease into something more playful was an amusing subversion of expectations, from both the composer and the performers.”
