James Dillon's 12 Caprices recorded by Sean Shibe
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Sean Shibe’s album Vesper presents a collection of contemporary guitar works, including James Dillon's 12 Caprices, which Shibe premiered last year at Wigmore Hall.
Recorded here for the first time, the album's miniatures explore the guitar’s expressive range in profoundly different ways: ritualistic and evocative in works by Harrison Birtwistle, elemental in Dillon, and allusive in Adès. Shibe’s interpretations reveal the instrument’s extraordinary colour, subtlety, and capacity for transformation, bringing each work to life with imagination and nuance.
Shibe performs on Sylvette (2021), a guitar made by luthier Simon Ambridge in collaboration with French-British artist Lydia Corbett. A muse to Pablo Picasso – who was himself an important influence for several of Birtwistle’s works on this album – Corbett also inspired Picasso’s celebrated Sylvette series. Modelled on the small, responsive instruments of the Andalusian luthier Antonio de Torres, the guitar features Corbett’s artwork on its body, adding a visual and symbolic layer to the performance.
Shibe is a former BBC New Generation Artist, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2012 winner, a Royal Philharmonic Society 2018 Young Artist Award winner, a multi-GRAMMY nominee, and the recipient of the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award. His recordings have won BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone Awards.
