Originally the second movement of the Partita for three percussionists, viola d'amore, and piano, the Ricercare was later adapted for piano and viola d'amore at the request of my friend Sviatoslav Belonogov. Composed in 2006 (year of the centenary of the birth of Schostakovich), the Ricercare uses the motif D-E-flat-C-B (D-S-C-H in Germanic notation), sogetto cavato by D. SCHostakovich. As its name indicates (Ricercar is a type of fugue form) the contrapuntal textures dominate the musical discourse of the work.
First performed at Palacio de las flores, La Granja de San Ildefonso, Segovia, Spain, July 2011 by Sviatoslav Belonogov (viola d’amore) and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (piano).
