Sohrab and Rustum, written in 1987-88 and premiered in London in 1992 by the De Beauvoir Quartet, is the most ambitious of Ailsa Dixon’s works for string quartet. A substantial through-composed piece, it was inspired by Matthew Arnold’s narrative poem of 1853, drawn from a Persian epic, which tells the story of the fatal encounter between an estranged father and son on opposite sides of a battle between the Tartar and Persian armies. Arnold was among the composer’s favourite poets, and in later life she recalled reading his works to her father as he was dying. The music is a vivid response to the poem’s human drama and atmospheric setting. The opening sequence evokes the river Oxus rising in the starlit mountains: a long, searing high E in the first violin over a deep chord from the lower strings gives way to an eerie chromatic oscillating motif between the two violins, like the scintillation of light on water. Through a gradual crescendo it turns into a fast, falling motif as the river gathers momentum, tumbling towards the plain where the drama will take place. A leaping phrase ending with a trill, marked ‘brillante’ and passed between the players, brings the action to life, and the story unfolds as the two armies come face to face. It centres on a tragic act of violence in single combat between the great warrior Rustum and his long-lost son Sohrab, unknown to one another on the battlefield. As Sohrab is mortally wounded, their identities are discovered; despair, tenderness and forgiveness follow. Towards the close of the piece, its human tragedy played out, the armies light their evening fires, and after a brief, poignant return of the leaping motif, all is dissolved in the relentless flow of the Oxus pouring out into a calm sea:

the majestic river floated on, Out of the mist and hum of that low land, Into the frosty starlight… till at last The long'd-for dash of waves is heard, and wide His luminous home of waters opens, bright And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.

As the mighty warrior gives up the ghost, a haunting out-breath from the players escapes into a moment of silence before the final chord. © Josie Dixon (please credit if using this programme note) This work is featured on The Spirit of Love: Chamber Music by Ailsa Dixon by The Villiers Quartet, released on Resonus Classics, 22 August 2025.