Six Sketches for an Unwritten Opera

These six short movements are all perfectly formed vignettes, descriptive and colourful, capturing beautifully the characters or action they are written for. The Ouverture has a marvellous sense of drama, and introduces a theme which is then possibly 'sung' by the young female character of the second movement over lively accompaniments which move the action forwards. The sublime Romanza feels very much like the central movement to the set, with its earnest melody and beautifully twisting harmonies. (Editors Mel's favourite piece of 2022!)

The busy little Police counterpoint breaks the spell and leads us into the serene and somewhat hypnotic music of a more mature female character. The work finishes with In the rain, where the low flutes melody is set against a delicate musical depiction of a rain shower. This work will be hugely rewarding to an advanced quartet who take the time explore the intricacies of Roberto Ventimiglia's musical landscape.

From the composer: "Six Sketches for an Unwritten Opera is a collection of six short pieces originally conceived in September 2015 as simple operatic piano sketches, but then reconstructed into a concert suite when the operatic project was cancelled. As the years passed by I still found them rather satisfying, so decided to rework them as a new suite for flute quartet. Because of their operatic origins the movements share strong internal references, and the resulting suite has, I believe, honesty and integrity, regardless of the motivation or instrumentation."