Cassandra Miller: I cannot love without trembling (2022)

Cassandra Miller (*1976) I cannot love without trembling (Viola Concerto) (2022) Verse 1: To love purely is to consent to distance Verse 2: I cannot love without trembling Verse 3: Buried deep under the sound of his own lamentations is the pearl of the silence of God Verse 4: Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer Cadenza: Stars and blossoming fruit trees: Utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity Lawrence Power, viola Brussels Philharmonic Ilan Volkov, conductor World Première, 11 March 2023, Flagey Brussels Co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3, Brussels Philharmonic, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, supported by The Viola Commissioning Circle In the last year of her life, the French philosopher Simone Weil wrote in a letter to her friend Gustave Thibon, ‘Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.’ In Gravity and Grace (publish