Heartfelt

Heartfelt by Roxanna Panufnik is an 11-minute string quartet inspired by pulse and heart rate. In two parts the first movement, Uzbek Processional, imagines a grand and regal caravan of camels and carriages, travelling down the Silk Road in four dances, with the tempo of the first dance being set by the pulse of one of the players, as the court musicians of 17th century Uzbekistan used to set the tempo of their performances. The second movement, Lament for a Bulgarian Dancing Bear, was inspired by Witold Szablowski’s evocative and sometimes harrowing book Dancing Bears, which describes rescues of maltreated animals from their exploitative owners, when bear dancing became illegal in Bulgaria. The slow rhythm of an Eastern European brown bear’s heartbeat on just one note runs all the way through the piece.

Commissioned by the Sacconi Quartet with support from the Friends of the Sacconi Quartet and the Vernon Ellis Foundation. The world premiere was presented on-line on the 20th of July 2020.