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Benjamin’s ‘Into the Little Hill’ thrills Paris audiencesAnderson commission reopens Royal Festival Hall‘Wagner Dream’ – Harvey’s new opera launched‘Cyrano’ – Carl Davis ballet premiere‘Sophie’s Choice’ reaches the USASir Malcolm Arnold – 1921-2006Sir Paul McCartney’s ‘Ecce Cor Meum’

Adès fêted inParis, London & New York

Adès fêted in Paris, London & New York Benjamin’s ‘lyric tale’ thrills Paris audiences

HIGHLIGHTS

32

The undoubted highlight of Paris’s ground-breaking

Festival d’Automne last year was the world premiere of

George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, a 40-minute

“lyric tale” in two parts, for soprano, contralto and

ensemble of 15 players; the composer’s first operatic

work and his longest composition to date. The keenly

anticipated premiere attracted movers and shakers

from all over the musical world.

The libretto is by the acclaimed English dramatist

Martin Crimp, whose work is enormously admired in

France. The work has been co-commissioned from the

Festival, Opéra National de Paris and Ensemble Modern,

with support from the Siemens Music Foundation and the

Forberg-Schneider-Stiftung. The Ensemble Modern was

conducted by Franck Ollu, in the Amphitheatre of the

Opéra Bastille on 22, 23 and 24 November. Anu Komsi

and Hilary Summers were the singers – each responsible

for multiple roles – and the production was directed and

designed by Daniel Jeanneteau. The piece, immediately

prefaced by two of Benjamin’s chamber works (Three

Miniatures for Solo Violin and Viola,Viola) moved to the

Théâtre de St.Quentin en Yvelines on 26 November;

further performances of this production are already

scheduled in Amsterdam,New York and Frankfurt in 2007;

Liverpool,Vienna, Lucerne,Turin,Milan and Melbourne in

2008 and Brussels, Helsinki and London in 2009.

‘For almost 20 years, George Benjamin has been thinking aboutcomposing an opera. In that time there have been plenty of rumours ofhim collaborating with leading playwrights, but it is only now that he hasfound the right person to work with: the British dramatist and translatorMartin Crimp. What they have produced, the “lyric tale” Into the LittleHill, premiered under the banner of the Festival d’Automne in Paris, is asentrancingly beautiful as anything Benjamin has written.

It is a slender, deceptively simple piece, lasting only 40 minutes andscored for just soprano and contralto (Anu Komsi and Hilary Summers,both outstanding) with 15 instrumentalists from Ensemble Modernconducted by Franck Ollu. The piece has barely enough dramatictrappings to qualify even as music theatre and while it probably could bepresented more lavishly than Daniel Jeanneteau’s staging in the OpéraBastille’s amphitheatre, it is the very economy of means – the action isplayed out around the ensemble, with the two singers sharing thenarration and playing all the roles with a minimum of props – that givesthe work its elegance and poetic power.

Crimp’s equally spare libretto retells the centuries-old story of thePied Piper. A minister seeking re-election promises the people he will ridtheir country of its rats, even though he knows they do no harm. Astranger, who has no face, offers to lead the rats away in exchange formoney. A bargain is struck and the rats disappear, but when the ministeris re-elected he reneges on the deal, saying the money has been better

spent on “barbed wire and education”, and the stranger leads the childrenaway to the light “inside the little hill”.

If the political resonances are clear enough Crimp never labours them,while the deftness of Benjamin’s vocal writing weaves it into a spell-binding piece of storytelling. Each role is effortlessly characterised: theminister’s delivery clipped, matter-of-fact; the stranger’s soprano linesspiralling ever higher. All are wrapped in the most luminous score, subtlycoloured by basset horns, cornets and a cimbalom, and later by banjo andmandolin too, while the stranger’s seductive music is given to a solo bassflute snaking through the textures.

If composing for the stage has opened up new areas of expression for Benjamin, the result is more ravishing than anyone could possibly have imagined.’

The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 25 November 2006

‘… the result is more ravishingthan anyone could possibly have

imagined.’

‘… respire magnifiquement en dépit d’une tension quasi permanente.L’écriture est claire, même si elle privilégie les textures graves, chuchotéesdans un tréfonds à la lumière sonore subtilement sous-saturée…excellement interprété, est aussi exigeant que médusant.’

Le Monde (Renaud Machart), 24 November 2006

‘… it was the eerie beauty and uncanny originality of the music thatmade the dominant impression on me. The scoring is remarkable – for asort of “alienated” folk band… There are passages of ethereal delicacy,silken slowness, but these are contrasted with sudden fierceness, as inBenjamin’s recent orchestral Palimpsests. Bass timbres are beguiling, thetutti sound is at once bizarre and delectable: I wanted more of it.’

The Sunday Times (Paul Driver), 3 December 2006

‘… une demi-heure d’une fascinante concentration… Ce qui frappe dans la musique de Benjamin, qui se densifie en se raréfiant, c’est unerichesse harmonique dont on cherche en vain la trace chez sescontemporains… on s’incline devant un très grand musicien, servi par des interprètes d’exception…’

Le Figaro (Christian Merlin), 25 November 2006

Forthcoming performances of ‘Into the Little Hill’

(Netherlands premiere)

16 & 17.6.07, Holland Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Anu Komsi/Hilary Summers/Ensemble Modern/George Benjamin

(US premiere)

26-28.7.07, Lincoln Center Festival, New York, USA: AnuKomsi/Hilary Summers/Ensemble Modern/George Benjamin

Thomas Adès is dividing his

time between Paris and

London in an incredible

period of frenzied activity for

the multi-faceted musician in

the early part of 2007.

Présences, ParisSince 9 February Adès has been

Featured Composer at the

Présences festival in Paris, where

23 of his works are being

performed by over 700 musicians

in just under a month. This forms

the largest retrospective of his

work to date and includes the

French premieres of his new orchestral work Tevot, in

addition to America, the Violin Concerto and Brahms.

Adès is participating as composer, conductor and

pianist and many of the works are being broadcast by

Radio France.

Remaining performances at Présences in Paris

The Origin of the Harp1.3.07, Orchestre de Pau/Fayçal Karoui

Piano Quintet & Arcadiana2.3.07, Quatuor Diotima/Bertrand Chamayou

Living Toys3.3.07, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Jean Deroyer

America(French premiere)4.3.07, Orchestre Colonne/Laurent Petitgirard

Tevot(French premiere)5.3.07, Berlin PO/Sir Simon Rattle

Covent Garden revive ‘The Tempest’Adès has been travelling back and forth between Paris

and London during Présences to take rehearsals for the

revival of The Royal Opera production of The Tempest.

‘TRACED OVERHEAD’(Barbican Centre, London – March-April 2007)During April this year,‘Traced Overhead’, the UK’s most

significant Adès homage to date, promoted by the

Barbican, features the UK premiere of Tevot with 11

other works by Adès placed in the context of music

close to him by composers such as Stravinsky, Kurtag

and Nancarrow.

Adès will participate as composer, conductor and

pianist, whilst other performers include the Berliner

Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle; The Labeque

Sisters; Ian Bostridge; Chamber Orchestra of Europe,

BBC Symphony Orchestra; Scharoun Ensemble; Simon

Keenlyside; Birmingham Contemporary Music Group;

BBC Singers;Anthony Marwood; Rebecca von Lipinski;

Susan Bickley; Arditti Quartet and the Pokrovsky

Ensemble:

7.3.07, Barbican Hall: Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle

Adès: Tevot (UK premiere); Janacek: Sinfonietta; Dvorak: Symphony No 7

25.3.07, LSO St Luke’s: Birmingham ContemporaryMusic Group/Arditti Quartet/Rebecca von Lipinski/Labeque Sisters/Pokrovsky Ensemble/Thomas Adès

Adès: Five Eliot Landscapes; Chamber Symphony; Living Toys; Arcadiana; Traced Overhead;Stravinsky: Les Noces; Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano; String Quartet No 2; 3Canons for Ursula; Nancarrow/arr. Adès: Piano Studies Nos 6 & 7 (world premiere)

3.4.07, LSO St Luke’s: Ian Bostridge/Thomas AdèsSchumann: Dichterliebe; Britten: Sechs Hölderlin Fragmente; Liszt: Funerailles; Kurtág:

Tears; In memory of a just man; Post-face a Zoltán Kocsis; Hölderlin: An…;Wagner/arr. Liszt: Isolde’s Liebestod;

13.4.07, Barbican Hall: BBC Symphony Orchestra/Rebecca von Lipinski/Susan Bickley/BBC Singers/Thomas Adès

Adès: America - A Prophecy; Berlioz: Overture: Les Francs-juges; Sibelius: Luonnotar; Ives: Orchestral Set No 2; Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms;

17.4.07, Barbican Hall: Scharoun Ensemble/SimonKeenlyside/Thomas AdèsAdès: Piano Quintet; Court Studies from ‘The Tempest’; Beethoven: Piano Trio ‘Archduke’;

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

22.4.07, Barbican Hall: Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Anthony Marwood/Thomas Adès

Adès: Violin Concerto;Three Studies from Couperin (UK premiere); Haydn: Symphony No 70; Beethoven: Symphony No 1

STOP PRESS!: Carnegie Hall residencyThomas Adès has been appointed as holder of The

Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at

Carnegie Hall for the 2007-8 season. He will feature as

composer, conductor and pianist in a number of

concerts, recitals and events throughout the year.

These will include his New York recital debut; the

US premiere of his latest orchestral piece Tevot (Berlin

PO/Sir Simon Rattle) and the NY premiere of his Three

Studies from Couperin (Orchestra of St Luke’s/Xian

Zhang). Adès also makes his New York conducting

debut, in Gerald Barry’s witty chamber opera The

Triumph of Beauty and Deceit.

PHOTOS: RAPHAAL PIERRE

Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)

HIGHLIGHTS

It is with great sadness that we learnt of the death of

Sir Malcolm Arnold on 23 September 2006, at the age

of 84. One of the most famous, prolific and well-loved

composers of the 20th century, Sir Malcolm composed

eleven symphonies and seven ballets as well as

concertos, orchestral overtures, many chamber works,

two operas and over a hundred celebrated film scores,

including The Bridge on the River Kwai for which he

was awarded an Oscar in 1958.He won the Ivor Novello award for Outstanding

Services to British Music in 1986, a Doctorate of Musicfrom Miami University in 1989 and a Knighthood in1993. In October 2001 Sir Malcolm was awarded aFellowship of the British Academy of Composers andSongwriters on the occasion of a special 80th birthdayconcert at the Wigmore Hall. Several events had beenplanned to celebrate his 85th birthday, including theinaugural Malcolm Arnold Festival in his home town ofNorthampton (incorporating a Arnold ConcertoCompetition), a gala concert at St John’s Smith Square,and a day-long celebration of his chamber works at theRoyal College of Music in London. He died on the sameday that a ballet set to his music,The Three Musketeers,was premiered in Bradford by Northern Ballet Theatre.It was later toured throughout the UK and comes toSadler’s Wells, London in 2007. The premiereperformance was dedicated to Sir Malcolm.

Sir Malcolm's name will be inscribed in the

Musicians' Book of Remembrance in a service at St

Sepulchre's Church, Holborn Viaduct, London - the

Musician's Church, on 24 April at 6pm.The Service

commemorates all those musicians whose names

have been inscribed in the Book of Remembrance.

Acclaim for ‘The Three Musketeers’Critics lauded The Three Musketeers following

its premiere run. The Northern Ballet Theatre

and Orchestra performed to choreography by their

Artistic Director, David Nixon and a scenario by David

Drew. The music included extracts from Arnold’s The

Fair Field, Flute Sonata, Four Irish Dances and

Anniversary Overture. The production toured to

Woking, Nottingham and Milton Keynes:

‘It is Arnold’s cinematic soundtrack that makes this ballet a sweepingdrama rather than a wet costume romp, and the soaring themes, jazzylicks and folk inflections are played with relish by NBT’s orchestra.Arnold’s music has the effect of a big glass of pre-theatre wine: it swellsthe emotions and smoothes of any rough edges, niggling details and pettycynicism. It’s perfect for a ballet… with swashbuckling fight scenes andromantic pas de deux… There are sumptuous visuals too, with the actionpunctuated by three grand and glitzy masques. It’s all round greatentertainment and the audience laps it up. Sadly, Arnold didn’t have thechance to see the final ballet, but surely he would have approved.’

Daily Telegraph (Lyndsey Winship) 29 September 2006

‘Arnold died on the day of the premiere, but it’s good to report that hismusic – lively, tuneful, fast paced or romantic – drives the action and fitsthe bill with great success.’

The Times (David Dougill) 1 October 2006

‘… by dint of its sheer energy and lavish spectacle, The ThreeMusketeers bubbles along. There’s a marvellously exuberant and tunefulscore drawn from the music of Sir Malcolm Arnold ‘

Daily Mail on Sunday (Rupert Christiansen) 22 October 2006

Arnold Festival launches in NorthamptonAs reported above, the inaugural Arnold Festival took

place in Northampton between 21 and 22 October last

year. It was devised jointly by of Nick Hallam of the

Royal and Derngate, and Arnold’s biographers, Paul

Harris and Anthony Meredith. Highlights included the

inaugural Malcolm Arnold Concerto Competition, in

which young conservatoire soloists played Arnold

concerti, accompanied by The Arnold Ensemble and

Matthew Taylor. The judges included Emma Johnson,

Julian Lloyd Webber and David Mellor. The winner was

Prema Kesselman who performed the Flute Concerto

No 2. Elsewhere there were illustrated talks by Piers

Burton-Page, Annetta Hoffnung and Katherine Arnold

(the composer’s daughter).The festival culminated with a gala concert on 22

October given by the Royal PO and Barry Wordsworth.The programme included the Symphony No 8.

‘The Malcolm Arnold Edition’ on DeccaDecca has released the

acclaimed BMG/Conifer

recordings originally made in

the 1990s. They are issued in

three boxed sets comprising

all eleven symphonies,

seventeen concerti and

countless other orchestral and

instrumental works. A number of

Decca’s own earlier recordings

are also included.

5

Davis’s ‘Cyrano’ ballet premieres in Birmingham

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PHOTOS: STEVE HANSON

Birmingham Royal Ballet premiered Carl Davis’s three-

act ballet Cyrano in the Birmingham Hippodrome on 7

February this year. The score was commissioned by

Birmingham Royal Ballet for David Bintley, and was

choreographed by him. Following six perfomances in

Birmingham it then was then toured to The Lowry

(Salford), Plymouth Theatre Royal, Sunderland Empire

Theatre and New Theatre Oxford. Reviews to follow in

the next issue.

Cyrano (2005)Ballet in 3 actsDuration 2 hours 5 minutes2222 – 4331 – timp – perc(3) – harp – stringsCommissioned by Birmingham Royal BalletFP: 7.2.07, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham, UK:Birmingham Royal Ballet & Orchestra/conductor, PaulMurphy/choreographer, David Bintley

English National Ballet revive ‘Alice’English National Ballet toured the UK from October

2006 with their 1995 production of Alice in

Wonderland, to choreography by Derek Deane. The

music is by Tchaikovsky and has been assembled and

orchestrated by Carl Davis from piano pieces and pre-

existing orchestral works. After opening in Manchester’s

Palace Theatre, the production visited Bristol,

Southampton and Oxford, before a Christmas run in the

London Coliseum from 28 December until 7 January:

‘… a popular attraction with half-term family appeal… Apart from theperennial pleasure of Lewis Carroll’s fantasy, the other enticement here ismusic by Tchaikovsky… This is an effective compilation by Carl Davisfrom symphonies, the Album for the Young, orchestral suites and more…’

The Sunday Times (David Dougill), 29 October 2006

‘What a delightful and welcome return of Derek Deane’s Alice to thefamily Festive season… A stage packed with movement to a lushcompilation Tchaikovsky score, a much loved children’s fable, part of allour growing up, and charming and ingenious designs by Sue Blaneall add up to dance as entertainment that is hard to beat.’

Ballet.co.uk, October 2006

‘… the limpid simplicity of a melody fromTchaikovsky’s Album for the Young so perfectlychimes with the character of Carroll’sheroine that you’d believe they weremade for each other.’The Independent (Jenny Gilbert), 7 January 2007

Meanwhile, on 29 October, Davis’sstage musical,Alice in Wonderland – inIan Brown’s successful productionthat premiered to great acclaim atthe West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2005– played at the BirminghamRepertory Theatre for their Christmas2006 season.

Presteigne Festival focusFaber composers are well represented at the 2007

Presteigne Festival (23-28 August). Composer-in-

Residence will be Peter Sculthorpe who will

hear performances of eight of his works.

Highlights include a new commission for violin and

piano from David Matthews, a cello recital of

Sculthorpe and Carl Vine by Alice Neary, and

orchestral music by Sculthorpe and Matthews. More

at www.presteignefestival.com.

Paul McCartney’s ‘Ecce Cor Meum’Faber Music Ltd is delighted to announce

representation of Sir Paul McCartney’s new 57-

minute, four-movement oratorio, Ecce Cor Meum

(which translates as ‘Behold My Heart’). Scored for

soprano solo, boy trebles, chorus and orchestra it

sets an impassioned text (in English, with some

Latin) by the composer himself.The work was originally commissioned eight

years ago by Anthony Smith (President of MagdalenCollege, Oxford), and in 2001, it was given itspreview performance by the Magdalen CollegeChoir and Bill Ives at the Sheldonian Theatre,Oxford.McCartney then revised the work and has nowreleased it for performance and CD release.

The world premiere took place on 3 Novemberat the Royal Albert Hall and was performed by KateRoyal (soprano); the Academy of St Martin in TheFields Orchestra; London Voices; Boys Of MagdalenCollege Choir, Oxford and Boys of King’s College

Choir, Cambridge, all conducted byGavin Greenaway. The US premieretook place in Carnegie Hall, New York

on 14 November, with Kate Royal onceagain the soloist, accompanied by the

Concert Chorale of New York, TheAmerican Boychoir, the Orchestra of St

Luke’s and Gavin Greenaway.Ecce Cor Meum was released on an

EMI Classics in September this year:

“The eight years that it has taken Paul McCartney tocomplete this superb oratorio have scarcely been

easy for him, so it’s little surprise that Ecce CorMeum (‘Behold My Heart’) is a profoundly moving

work. Designed to be sung by young people, itsidesteps the usual exhausting reiteration of themes in

favour of constantly unfolding and overlapping melodies.A triumph.”

Sunday Express, 26 September 2006

Perusal materials are available from thePromotion Department,

[email protected].

4

‘It is Arnold’scinematic

soundtrackthat makesthis ballet asweepingdrama…

(it) has theeffect of a bigglass of pre-

theatre wine:it swells theemotions

andsmoothes ofany rough

edges,niggling

details andpetty

cynicism. It’sperfect for a

ballet…’

Harvey opera premiere – ‘Wagner Dream’

HIGHLIGHTS

‘…bright,colourful,shining,dancing,

impeccablymade,happy.’

6 7

Following the success of

Julian Anderson’s

Ondine disc last year,

a second disc of

his music (on NMC)

has been released

and is attracting

similar plaudits. It

celebrates his three-

year residency with

the City of

Birmingham SO

and features the

five works he wrote for

them (and their related ensembles – BCMG

and the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus) in that

period, namely Symphony, Imagin’d Corners, Eden,

Book of Hours and Four American Choruses on

Gospel Texts: Sakari Oramo, Oliver Knussen, Martyn

Brabbins and Simon Halsey conduct.

‘… something charged with those rarest of qualities in the contemporary arts – joy, exuberance, happiness, delight, celebration, ecstasy: and all thesewithout anything cheap or dumbed-down into puerility. To achieve suchwide-eyed freshness without reneging upon a sophisticated modernist idiomand technique is already a paradox, and Julian Anderson’s music turns it intoa triumph. Forty next year, his representation on CD has been long delayed.Now come two simultaneously which together yield some two and a halfhours of pleasure…

The best introduction is probably Khorovod, a synthesis of Russian dancetypes veering between dainty and raucous, brash and tinkle, before a suddenlyric ending – the ritual wind-down of Stravinsky’s Wedding with a tendersoul. Alhambra Fantasy and The Stations of the Sun inhabit comparableterrain with extensions of high and wide: the gusto is intensified, also thegentler inward side, and a vein of volupté tightly reined-in earlier isoccasionally given its head.

Eden would also make a seductive start – a seven-minute glimpse ofthe Peaceable Kingdom with (again) some of the most convincing off-tunings– micro-intervals that really register expressively – since Ives got it right firsttime a century ago. Eden grows inevitably into Imagin’d Corners, where theinitial ecstatic shine grows ever more extrovert and radiant. The CrazedMoon is quite different. Yeats’s celebrated poem inspires a visit to rarifiedexpressionist places without a gigue or a khorovod in sight – rather, ghostfanfares, dark surges, musical imagery of disturbance, fracture, pain…

Despite such passages, and in some other pieces I’ve no space tomention, exploration of calm meditation, Anderson’s music is fundamentallyabout felicity – bright, colourful, shining, dancing, impeccably made, happy.’

The Spectator (Robin Holloway), 30th December 2006

‘… breathtaking, with Anderson showing an expressive range andimagination of terrific power… the subtle intricacy of Anderson’s

approach to harmony, and the interplay between tempered and non-tempered tunings, reinforces its strongly personal, authenticallycontemporary quality…’

Gramophone (Arnold Whittall), November 2006

‘Heaven is Shy of Earth’ – Proms premiereA new choral/orchestral work proved one of the

highlights of the 2006 BBC Proms in the Royal Albert

Hall, London on 6 August. Heaven is Shy of Earth, a

BBC commission, lasts 30 minutes, and is scored for

mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra. Angelika

Kirchschlager was the soloist, with Sir Andrew Davis

conducting the BBC SO and Chorus:

‘… some of the most engaging musiche has ever written… The piece is anheir to the British choral tradition.’

‘… some of the most engaging music he has ever written… a radiantcantata… The piece is an heir to the British choral tradition. But it’s somuch more than that. Setting texts from the Latin Mass, the Psalms andpoems by Emily Dickinson, the work is a rapturous meditation on theoptimism of Dickinson’s vision: that heaven should envy earth the wondersof the natural world. The shimmering soundworld of the work is embodiedby the haunting flugelhorn with which it opened in Andrew Davis’sperformance with the BBCSO, introducing the choruses rapt Kyrie Eleison.Mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager relished the lyrical brilliance of hersolo movement, but it was the choral passages that impressed the most,especially the Sanctus. With beautifully heard microtones and denselayers of orchestral sonority, Anderson creates a texture of teemingcomplexity, building to an impassioned “Osanna”. For all the quiescenceof the concluding Agnus Dei, the final impression of Heaven is Shy ofEarth is a reflective but ecstatic joy. Anderson has done nothing finer.’

The Guardian (Tom Service) 8 August 2006

‘It is a powerful, beautiful and curious work… Anderson speaks of havingwritten a “secular” or “outdoor” mass, such as Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass orMartinu’s Field Mass, but the contradiction at the heart of his text certainlygives pause.

What he has done is perhaps to “stylise” the mass movements in thesame way that Stravinsky, whose austere chord voicings he evokes, butwhose own mass was emphatically not secular, stylises past musical idiomsin his neo-classical works. One is free to disregard liturgical rituals andrelish the unusual choral-orchestral textures for which they are an armature.Yet there is a depth of feeling in the music, an underlying sombre passion,that struck me as far from a take-or-leave mentality. It may be as Andersonhas said, that the familiar words allow him to indulge his invention whentreating them, but his choral writing has a traditional yet unhackneyedeloquence that keeps bringing one back to what is being said… Davismade this moving score seem an established part of the repertory.’

The Sunday Times (Paul Driver) 13 August 2006

Anderson Proms premiere plus brace of discsAll eyes turn to Luxembourg on 28 April, when Jonathan

Harvey’s chamber opera Wagner Dream is to be

premiered in the Grand Théâtre, part of the Capital of

Culture 2007 events. Directed by Pierre Audi it will be

staged by Netherlands Opera, with Ictus Ensemble

conducted by Martyn Brabbins. To an English libretto by

the distinguished French author Jean-Claude Carrière

(long-term collaborator of Jean-Louis Barrault, Luis

Buñuel and Peter Brook), it has been co-commissioned

by Netherlands Opera,Holland Festival,Grand Théâtre de

la Ville de Luxembourg and IRCAM.

The opera is scored for 24 players, a cast of 11 plus

chorus, and live electronics. It is set in Venice where

Wagner died in 1883, and is Harvey’s take on Wagner’s

unfullfilled 30-year ambition to create an opera, Die

Sieger, based on a Buddhist legend: the love of a low-

caste servant girl for a monk. Harvey and Carrière have

together adapted the story of Die Sieger, combining the

last hours of his life with the plot of the opera. Two

cultures meet: the rational Western viewpoint that

knowledge must be obtained through emotional

experience and the Eastern idea that redemption can

only be found by freeing oneself from both joy

and sorrow. The differences between the two worlds

are presented on stage in strong contrast by means of

the spoken word and song as well as by live and

electronic music.

The production later transfers

to the Holland Festival in

Amsterdam (6-14 June)

and the Agora Festival

(23-24 June).

The Holland Festival

make Harvey the subject

of a special focus at that

time with a portrait

concert of his music

being given by the

Nieuw and ASKO

Ensembles on 13 June. It

will include the Netherlands

premiere of Harvey’s new

oboe concerto,

Sprechgesang (soloist

Peter Veale), in

addition to Hidden

Voice 1 & 2,

Jubilus, Calling

Across Time

and Death of

Light, Light

of Death.

PHOTO: MAURICE FOXALL

WAGNER DREAM (2006)Opera in nine scenes for soloists, actors,chorus and ensemble of 22 players with electronicsDuration 105 minutesLibretto: Jean Claude-Carrière (Eng)

Singers: Vairochana (B)/Ananda (T)/Prakriti (S)/Mother of Prakriti(M)/Buddha (Bar)/OldBrahmin(B); pit chorus (4 singers – SATB)/stage chorus (2 singers – TB)

Actors: Wagner/Cosima/Betty/Dr. Keppler/Carrie Pringle

1121 – 1111 – perc(2) – harp – elec keybd – 4 vln.2 vla.2 vlc.db – electronics (2 operators)

Commissioned by De Nederlandse Opera & Holland Festival, Amsterdam, Grand Théâtre de laVille de Luxembourg and IRCAM Paris.

World premiere: 28 & 30.4.07, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg: soloists of The NetherlandsOpera/Ictus Ensemble/IRCAM/dir. Pierre Audi/cond.Martyn Brabbins

(Netherlands premiere)6.6.07, Holland Festival, Amsterdamalso perfs 8, 9, 11, 12 & 14.6.07

(French premiere)23 & 24.6.07, Agora Festival, Nanterre Amandiers

TUNING IN

Festival d’Automne, Paris(For news of Into the Little Hill, see page 3.) Elsewhere

in the Festival, Benjamin conducted Ensemble Modern

in a concert that included his Three Inventions for

Chamber Orchestra and At First Light, a programme

that was repeated in Frankfurt and Madrid. The portrait

concluded on 19 December when he conducted Dance

Figures and Palimpsests, with the Orchestre de l’Opéra

National de Paris:

‘(Dance Figures) Un jeu de contrastes maîtrisés à la perfection. Jamais unemesure de trop qui pourrait ravaler tel passage gratifiant au rang d’effetartificiel. Jamais une page en creux pour souffler entre deux morceaux debravoure. Rien que des traits d’esprit, à l’instar de ces tuttis aux allures deKlaxon de luxe qui tentent d’étreindre les conciliabules des petites percussions.

Benjamin se distingue dans l’art d’extirper les sons des instruments.Palimpsests, en donne un aperçu magique. D’abord autour d’un trouble motifdes bois qui vient hanter, à la manière d’un serpent de mer, l’étendue limpidede l’orchestre puis dans une dérive collective vers un rugissement inouï.’

Le Monde (Pierre Gervasoni), 21 December 2006

‘Dance Figures’ at the Proms…The UK premiere of Benjamin’s orchestral Dance

Figures, given by David Robertson and the BBC SO at

the BBC Proms on 24 July 2006 was widely praised:

‘… nine characterful movements written to be choreographed, butgripping as a concert work, mysteriously evoking 20th-centuryorchestration at its most lucid and glamorous.’

The Sunday Times (Paul Driver), 30 July 2006

… and Sadler’s Wells… Meanwhile, the original ballet production of Dance

Figures finally reached London when Anne Teresa de

Keersmaeker’s ‘D’un Soir Un Jour’ formed part of a

Sadler’s Wells retrospective of Rosas’s work on 19 and

20 October.Their production has been touring Europe in recent

months staging performances in France,Belgium and TheNetherlands. It comes to Bern’s Tanztage from 19-21 June.

… and in BerlinBack on the concert platform, Ilan Volkov will conduct

the German premiere of Dance Figures at the Berlin

Philharmonie with the Deutsches Symphonie

Orchester on 17 May.

Aimard travels with ‘Piano Figures’As dedicatee of Piano Figures, Pierre-Laurent

Aimard is including the work in numerous concerts.Recent engagements have included the LucerneFestival on 2 September last year. Looking ahead hegives the Belgian premiere at Ars Musica in Brussels on17 March (along with Shadowlines); the US premiere inCarnegie Hall on 29 March; the German premiere at theRuhr Klavierfest on 18 June; a date at the TanglewoodFestival in August, and the French premiere in Roqued’Antheron on 1 August.

Aimard, who has known the composer since theyboth studied with Messiaen, is also the pianist chosen fora commission from the prestigious Roche Foundation inSwitzerland for a work for piano and orchestra. Aimardand The Cleveland Orchestra give the premiere at the2008 Lucerne Festival,where Benjamin will be composerin residence.

Ars Musica, BrusselsIn addition to Piano Figures and Shadowlines (see

above), the 2007 Ars Musica festival will also include a

performance of Sudden Time by the Orchestre

Nationale de Belgique and Matthias Pintscher, and the

Belgian premiere of Three Miniatures for Solo Violin

by Carolin Widmann.

Carnegie Hall focusIn March, Benjamin travels to the USA where he will

enjoy a high-profile portrait concert at Zankel Hall

(Carnegie Hall), in New York on 29 March.He will conduct The Zankel Band in At First Light,

whilst Misha Amory and Hsin-Yun Huang perform Viola,Viola. Pierre-Laurent Aimard then gives the US premiereof Piano Figures, in addition to Shadowlines. Next dayin Carnegie Hall, David Robertson conducts the St LouisSO in Sudden Time, following three performance givenin the orchestra’s home. Benjamin then goes to theMontreal Symphony for a week, where he will conductthe Canadian premiere of his Palimpsests.

‘Music of Today’ concert reopens Festival HallBenjamin is the subject of a Philharmonia Orchestra

‘Music of Today’ portrait on 24 July, a concert that will

mark the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall after

extensive refurbishments. The concert will be

conducted by Franck Ollu and features At First Light,

Upon Silence and Three Miniatures for Solo Violin.

Netherlands Youth Orchesta residency Benjamin will be in The Netherlands in August this year,

where he will conduct a tour with the Netherlands

Youth Orchestra including the Dutch premiere of his

Dance Figures. Various other chamber and ensemble

works have also been programmed in this residency,

which culminates in a concert in Amsterdam’s

Concertgebouw on 20 August.

9

‘Falling Angel’ premieres in Birmingham & ParisThomas Adès and the Birmingham Contemporary Music

Group launched a new Davies work, Falling Angel, in

concerts in Birmingham and Paris in February 2007. One

of BCMG’s highly successful Sound Investment

commissions the 21-minute work was heard in the CBSO

Centre on 3 February before travelling to the Présences

Festival in Paris for a performance on 24 February.

The composer writes:

‘The starting point for this piece was the painting

‘Falling Angel’by the German artist Anselm Kiefer. I was

initially drawn to his work by the abrasive textures he

makes out of natural materials, which give his work

intensity and rawness.

There are two main images in this work: an artist’s

palette, which represents a victim (an emblem of art

being threatened), and the painter’s guardian angel.

‘Falling Angel’ shows the fall of the angel holding a

palette. Kiefer’s painting is simultaneously very bright

and very dark, and it was this that I hoped to capture in

sound; I often aim to create music that is “black

and shiny”.

The musical motifs in my piece include fanfares,

marches and an ethereal distorted melody, all of

which act as signposts to decide the direction of the

music. Rustic dances, quivering chords and metallic

bass lines transform into lyrical lines, which are woven

together and underpinned or saturated by rough,

abrasive textures.’

CBSO Youth Orchestra commission Davies was in Birmingham once again on 18 February, for

the premiere of a 10-minute orchestral commission from

the CBSO Youth Orchestra. Paul Daniel conducted the

premiere of Streamlines in Symphony Hall. Davies’s

music often connects with young

audiences, given its roots in

experimental rock and funk and this

should prove no exception. It has been

inspired by the extraordinary

close-ups of plants which the

German photographer Karl

Blossfeldt published in 1929.

Mira Calixmultimediacommission for 2007Aldeburgh FestivalDavies has been commissioned,

together with Warp Records artist,

Mira Calix, to write a full-evening

multimedia work to be premiered at the Aldeburgh

Festival on 20 June 2007,with a further performance on

21 June.

The work – to be directed by Tim Hopkins, and to

involve the architect Pippa Nissen – explores

architectural links between the renowned Snape

Maltings concert hall and the Elephant and Castle

shopping centre in South London – both were built in

the same period. Now, ironically, the Snape complex is

about to be substantially redeveloped, whilst the

Elephant and Castle is to be pulled down. The work will

explore the contrasts between the two sites, between

urban and rural landscapes and the whole idea of

architectural opposites. At this early stage in the

compositional process Davies says that “it will be as if

aspects of the Elephant and Castle had transplanted

themselves to rural Suffolk.”

The work will use four singers, a band of

instrumentalists, pre-recorded sound effects and film. It

has been commissioned by Aldeburgh Music.

City of London Sinfonia commissionA new work for chamber orchestra, kingpin, will be

premiered in the Turner Sims Concert Hall,

Southampton on 20 April,with a further performance in

Chatham on 22 April. Douglas Boyd will conduct.

Winnipeg hosts ‘Iris’ premiereEarlier this year, Davies’s music crossed the Atlantic,

when Iris for soprano saxophone and ensemble

received its North American premiere as part of the

Winnipeg Symphony’s New Music Festival on 12

February. Soloist was Sasha Boychouk, with Alexander

Mickelthwate at the helm.

‘neon’ in UK, USA & IsraelFollowing his experiences conducting two

of Davies’s orchestral works in the UK

(Spiral House – BBC SSO and

Tilting – BBC SO), Zsolt Nagy has

now programmed Davies’s

ensemble work neon with the

Israel Contemporary Players on

9 and June, in Tel Aviv and

Jerusalem respectively.

In the UK, Talkestra and

Steve Dummer present the work as

part of the Soundwaves festival in

Brighton on 24 June, whilst it was

given its US premiere by

KULMUSIK at Ithaca College (NY)

on 14 November 2006.

8

SelectedForthcomingPerformances

kingpin(world premiere)20.4.07, Turner Sims Concert Hall,Southampton, UK: City of LondonSinfonia/Douglas Boydalso perf 22.4.07, Chatham

neon(Israeli premiere)9.6.07, Tel Aviv Museum, Israel:Israel Contemporary Players/ZsoltNagyalso perf 10.6.07, Jerusalem MusicCentre24.6.07, Soundwaves Festival,Brighton, UK: Talkestra/SteveDummer

Elephant & Castle(world premiere)20 & 21.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,Snape Maltings, UK: dir. TimHopkins/designer. Pippa Nissen

Tansy Davies George Benjamin


PHO

TO: RAPH

AAL PIERRE


Sudden Time11.3.07, Ars Musica, Brussels,Belgium: Orchestre Nationale deBelgique/Matthias Pintscher23-25.3.07, St Louis, MI, USA: StLouis SO/David Robertson

Piano Figures &Shadowlines(Belgian premiere of Piano Figures)17.3.07, Ars Musica, Brussels: Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Three Miniatures forSolo Violin(Belgian premiere)18.3.07, Ars Musica, Brussels: CarolinWidmann

Ringed by the FlatHorizon & DanceFigures(ballet perfs by Rosas/ch. AnneTeresa de Keersmaeker)20.3.07, Caen, France; 24.3.07, Sète,France; 27 & 28.3.07, Martigues,France; 20 & 21.4.07, Leuven,Belgium; 23.4.07, Hasselt, Belgium;26.4.07, Clermont-Ferrand, France; 9-21.6.07, Bern, Switzerland

Carnegie HallPortrait, New YorkPiano Figures & Shadowlines(US premiere of Piano Figures)29.3.07, Pierre-Laurent AimardAt First Light, 29.3.07, The ZankelBand/George BenjaminViola, Viola, 29.3.07, Misha Amory& Hsin-Yun HuangSudden Time, 30.3.07, St LouisSO/ David Robertson

Three Inventions forChamber Orchestra18.4.07, Porto, Portugal: RemixEnsemble/Franck Ollu

Palimpsests(Canadian premiere)5.4.07, Montreal: Montreal SO/GeorgeBenjamin

Viola, Viola19.03.07, Los Angles, USA: KurtRhode/ Ellen Ruth Rose14.4.07, Brussels, Belgium: TabeaZimmermann/Antoine Tamestit

Olicantus19.4.07, Berkeley, CA, USA: BerkeleySO/Kent Nagano

Dance Figures(German premiere)17.5.07, Berlin: DSO Berlin/Ilan Volkov(Netherlands premiere - perfs byNetherlands Youth Orchestra &George Benjamin))18.8.07, Apeldoorn; 19.8.07,Nijmegen or Arnhem; 20.8.07,Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Into the Little Hill(see page 3)

Piano Figures(German premiere)18.6.07, Ruhr Klavierfest: Pierre-Laurent AimardAugust 2007, Tanglewood Festival,MA, USA: P-L Aimard(French premiere)1.8.07, Roque d’Antheron: P-L Aimard

At First Light; ThreeMiniatures for SoloVln & Upon Silence24.7.07, Music of Today, RoyalFestival Hall, London, UK: members ofPhilharmonia Orchestra/Franck Ollu

At First Light & Octet29.7.07, Muziek Podium Zeeland, TheNetherlands: NJO Ensemble/EtienneSiebensalso perfs 3-5.8.07, Gelderse MuziekZomer, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands

Three Inventions forChamber Orchestra3-5.8.07; Gelderse Muziek Zomer,Apeldoorn, The Netherlands: NJOEnsemble/Bas Wiegers

ONE OF THE KARL BLOSSFELDT PLANTPHOTOGRAPHS THAT INSPIRED 'STREAMLINES'

Oliver Knussen Carl Vine Jonathan Harvey

TUNING IN

11


Death of Light,Light of Death5.3.07, Eindhoven, TheNetherlands: Nieuw Ensemble/Ernestine Stoop

… towards apure land(Belgian premiere)11.3.07, Ars Musica, Brussels:Orchestre Nat. de Belgique/Matthias Pintscher

Body Mandala(world premiere)15.3.07, Glasgow, UK: BBCSSO/Ilan Volkov

“Nous Sons”,BarcelonaTombeau de Messiaen17.3.07, Hervé N’KaouaString Qt No 4(Spanish premiere)24.3.07, Arditti QuartetDeath of Light, Light ofDeath (Spanish premiere) &Song Offerings27.3.07, Anu Komsi/BCN 216/Georges-Elie OctorsWhite as Jasmine(Spanish premiere)29.3.07, Anu Komsi/BarcelonaSO/Francois Xavier Roth

At a CloudGathering &Stabat Mater(ballet by Susan Buirge)29.3.07, Draguignan, France

String Qt No 431.3.07, Le printemps des arts,Monaco: Quatuor Diotima25.5.07, Musica Electronica,Breslau. Poland: Arditti Quartet12.7.07, Metz, France: ArdittiQuartet

Sprechgesang,(world premiere)Wheel ofEmptiness &Mortuos Plango15.4.07, WDR, Cologne,Germany: Peter Veale/musikFabrik/Peter Rundel

Lauds29.4.07, New York, USA: TheNew York Virtuoso Singers/Harold Rosenbaum

Timepieces &Tranquil Abiding6.5.07, Glasgow, UK: BBC SSO/Stefan Solyom/Ilan Volkov

Festival GMEM,MarseillesDeath of Light, Light ofDeath10.5.07, Ensemble TM+String Qt No 411.5.07, Quatuor DiotimaAt a Cloud Gathering &Stabat Mater11.5.07, chor. Susan Buirge

Sprechgesang(French premiere)9.6.07, Agora Festival, Paris,France: Peter Veale/musikFabrik/Peter Rundel

Hidden Voice 1& 2; Jubilus;Sprechg’g;Calling AcrossTime; Death ofLight etc13.6.07, Holland Festival,Amsterdam, The Netherlands:Nieuw Ensemble/ASKO/Ed Spanjaard

Clarinet Trio(Austrian premiere)4.8.07, Bregenzer Festspiele:Ensemble Intégrales

String QuartetNo 29.9.07, Beethoven Festival,Bonn, Germany: Arditti Quartet

UK premiere for ‘Requiem’ & BCMGappointmentThe UK premiere of Knussen’s Requiem for

soprano and ensemble took place in Birmingham on 26

October 2006. Knussen conducted the Birmingham

Contemporary Music Group and soloist Claire Booth:

‘The music has a neo-Bergian, perhaps Falla-like lushness, yet a miniaturistprecision wholly Knussenish. The internal design of this curious hybrid ofsong cycle and elegy is immaculate, but the result is instant seductiveness.’

The Sunday Times (Paul Driver) 29 October 2006

‘There is a new emotional urgency here. The master of bejewelledminiatures remains, still writing concisely (the running time is 12minutes), but textures are looser, a little less poised. Gut feelings decidedthis work, not just craftsman’s pride.

Four poems, of a sort, are set for soprano (as at the Chicagopremiere, the radiantly expressive Claire Booth). The qualification arriveswith the first setting — a collage of lines from the poems that EmilyDickinson addressed to her sister, another Sue.

“Is it true, dear Sue?” the first bar asks. Unfortunately it is. Knussen’sresponse flares to panic and rage, but the tone is largely pensive, the coloursautumnal (no violins, for instance), with discreet musical echoes. Memoriesare summoned by Mahlerian horn calls; the Machado setting includes a glintof de Falla. Impossible not to be moved and impressed…’

The Times (Geoff Brown) 24 October 2006

The concert marked the commencement of

Knussen’s appointment as Artist-in-Association to the

BCMG. The three-year appointment runs until 2009.

Canadian focusKnussen travelled to Canada in February this year to

conduct the Toronto SO as part of its New Creations

festival on 28 February. Two chamber concerts with the

National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa on 7 and 10

March followed with the Canadian premiere of the

Requiem, and Two Organa.

Piano concerto set for Zankel Hall premierePeter Serkin premieres a new work for piano and

ensemble on 13 April, in a concert given by The Zankel

Band in Zankek Hall, New York. Knussen conducts a

concert that also includes the NY premiere of his

Requiem (soloist Susan Narucki).

Philadelphia Orchestra commissionAnother orchestral commission will be launched on 10-

12 May by Christoph Eschenbach and The Philadelphia

Orchestra in their Kimmel Center home.

‘The Anne Landa Preludes’Vine’s The Anne Landa

Preludes for solo piano were

premiered on 4 September

2006 by four of Australia’s

finest pianists: Tamara Anna

Cislowska, Duncan Gifford,

Clemens Leske and Brieley Cutting. The Anne Landa

Preludes were commissioned by John Sharpe in loving

memory of Anne Landa who made an extraordinary and

sustained contribution to the encouragement of young

pianists in Australia.The Anne Landa Preludes feature on an all-Vine

piano disc released by Tall Poppies, in performance bythe Australian virtuoso Michael Kieran Harvey. “Carl Vine– The piano music 1990-2006” also includes PianoSonata No 2,Five Bagatelles and Red Blues and has beenwarmly received:

‘I’ve had as many ‘wow!’ moments with the Australian Tall Poppies labelas any other in recent times, and this new collection of piano works by CarlVine goes right to the top of the heap – I’m only sorry that the Musicweb-International ‘Discs of the Year 2006’ listings have already beencompleted: this would be a very strong contender for inclusion.

The recordings on this CD are excellent… if I’m keen to ‘demonstrate’new pieces to musical colleagues it is almost invariably for the musicalcontent rather than the tonsil-rattling qualities in the sound. For itsincredible music and musicianship, this is most certainly a CD which I shallbe ‘demonstrating’ to the piano fraternity in The Hague and beyond.’

Musicweb International (Dominy Clements), January 2007

Third Piano Sonata premiereVine recently completed his Third Piano Sonata which

was commissioned by the Gilmore International

Keyboard Festival and the Colburn School with

assistance from the Australia Council. It will be

premiered by the recipient of the 2004 Gilmore Young

Artist Award, Elizabeth Schumann, on 11 May at Zipper

Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Ms Schumann has the

exclusive right to perform the work until late 2007.

Huntington Estate Music FestivalCarl Vine has been appointed as Artistic Director of

Australia’s most prestigious and successful annual

chamber music festival, the Huntington Estate Music

Festival in Mudgee, New South Wales. Vine’s second

festival as Director will run from 24 November-2

December 2007.

Selected Forthcoming Performances

The Silver Rose(ballet choreographed by Graeme Murphy using a broad selection of Vine's orchestral music Includes extracts fromPiano Concerto, Smith’s Alchemy, Descent, Celebrare Celeberrime, V, Prologue & Canzona and Pipe Dreams)22 & 24.3, 2, 4, 9 & 13.4.07, Nationaltheater, Munich, Germany: Bayerisches Staatsballet & Staatsorchester/chor.Graeme Murphy)

V22.3.07, Jena, Germany: Jenaer PO/Nicholas Milton

Piano Sonata No 3(world premiere)May 2007, Los Angeles, CA, USA: Elizabeth Schumann

10


Horn Concerto2-4.3.07, Konzerthaus, Berlin,Germany: Marie Luise Neunecker/Konzerthausorchester/HeinrichSchiff12 & 13.7.07, Hannover,Germany: Marie LuiseNeunecker/NDR Radio-philharmonie Hannover/ AndrisNelsons

Requiem & TwoOrgana(Canadian premiere ofRequiem)7 & 10.3.07, Ottawa, Canada:tbc/National Arts CentreOrchestra/Oliver Knussen

Requiem(London premiere)13.3.07, Queen Elizabeth Hall,London, UK: Claire Booth/London Sinfonietta/GeorgeBenjamin15.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: Claire Booth/BirminghamContemporary Music Group/Oliver KnussenAugust 2007, London, UK:Claire Booth/BCMG/OliverKnussen

… upon onenote18.3.07, Caen, France: LondonSinfonietta2-5.8.07, Netherlands tour:Nationaal Jeugd Orkest/EtienneSiebens

New work &Requiem(world premiere of new work)13.4.07, Zankel Hall, CarnegieHall, New York, NY, USA: PeterSerkin/The Zankel Band/OliverKnussen

New work(world premiere)10-12.5.07, Kimmel Center,Philadelphia, PA, USA: ThePhiladelphia Orchestra/Christoph Eschenbach

Violin Concerto12.6.07, Royal Festival Hall,London, UK: Christian Tetzlaff/Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen

Rattle’s ‘Madonna’heads key Berlin focusThe German premiere

performances of Harvey’s

masterly orchestral/electronic

Madonna of Winter and

Spring at the Berliner

Festspiele’s MusikFest Berlin 2006 formed part of a

Harvey focus in Berlin that revealed him to the

audiences as one of today’s most important living

composers. Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner

Philharmoniker gave Madonna on 9 and 10 September

2006. The press were united in their praise:

‘Was das gut halbstündige Werk, eine moderne Variante der “Tod undVerklärung”-Idee, auszeichnet und das Publikum in Hochspannungversetzte, ist zunächst das Raffinement und die Eleganz großformatigerAbläufe, die Verschmelzung von Klanglinie und Klangsäule,instrumentalem Live- und Elektronik-Ton. AtemberaubendeKlangverwehungen, die majestätische Kraft der Orchesterklangbilder, sieerwachsen aus dem perfekten Außen-Innen-Timing der vier Teile – Kampf,Abstieg, Tiefen, Maria. Diese können in religiöse Programmatik, aber auchals reines Tonraumkunstwerk gehört werden – von den hämmerndenKlangschüben des ersten Teils mit seinen komplex-variablen Rhythmenund harten Kontrasten, von Rattle und dem Orchester bravourösgemeistert, bis hinein in die tiefen Klangregionen und endlich den finalenHöhenrausch als Art Skrjabinscher Universum-Sphärenmusik.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung (Wolfgang Schreiber), 11 September 2006

Members of the Berlin PO later performed Death of

Light, Light of Death and the Arditti Quartet performed

the Quartet No 4 in the Philharmonie’s Kammermusikzaal.

Harvey now looks forward to two Berlin-based

commissions. Firstly,a 20-minute work for the Berlin Radio

Choir and Berlin Philharmonic on the theme of ‘Angels’,

and a 90-minute commission for voices and the Berlin

Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle on the universal ‘Global

Ethic’ theme, instigated by the theologian Hans Küng.

‘… towards a pure land’ at the PromsOne of the undoubted highlights of the 2006 BBC

Proms season was the London premiere give by Ilan

Volkov and the BBC Scottish SO on 9 August of

…towards a pure land for orchestra, the first fruit of

his prized BBC SSO residency:

‘Lucky BBC Scottish, with Jonathan Harvey as their composer-in-association. To have kept faith with the modernist complexity he grew upwith, and yet turn it so consistently to spiritual ends, gives him the best oftwo seemingly incompatible worlds… This is music full of strangerustlings and near-inaudible sonic halos, yet also with and inner pulsationthat leads the ear and mind willingly on… Harvey’s vision of delight.’

Daily Telegraph (David Fanning) 10 August 2006

Shortly after the Prom, Ilan Volkov gave the US

premiere of the work with the National SO in

Washington DC (28-30 September). It can next be

heard during Ars Musica, Brussels on 11 March, when

Matthias Pintscher conducts the Orchestre National de

Belgique.

‘Body Mandala’ – BBC orchestral commission

In the UK the BBC SSO will record …towards a

pure land and White as Jasmine in February, before

premiering their next Harvey commission, Body

Mandala,on 15 March in Glasgow. The work is inspired

by Buddhist purification rituals witnessed by Harvey on

a trip to Tibet. All three works, plus a fourth (to be

written for the BBC SSO) will appear on an NMC disc.

‘The Choir’ BBC radio portrait & new discOn 21 January, Harvey was the subject of BBC Radio 3’s

programme ‘The Choir’. Amidst lengthy extracts from a

number of his choral works,Harvey was interviewed by

Aled Jones about his choral output.

A new disc of Harvey’s choral music “Angels” has

been issued by Soupir Editions in France. Rachid Safir

conducts Les Jeunes Solistes in sparkling performances

of The Angels, Missa Brevis, Marahi, How could the

soul not take flight?, Dum transisset sabbatum and

sweet/winterhart. (See New Recordings)

‘Sprechgesang’ premiered in CologneA new oboe concertino is unveiled on 15 April in

Cologne. Sprechgesang is the result of a co-commission

from MusikFabrik, Klangforum Wien and ASKO

Ensemble. Peter Veale is the soloist. The concert also

includes Wheel of Emptiness and Mortuos Plango.

Sprechgesang can then be heard at the Holland Festival

in a Harvey portrait by ASKO on 13 June, when the

soloist is Marieke Schut.

Portraits in Spain, France and ItalyHarvey’s growing reputation as one of Europe’s major

composers has been further confirmed with several

recent portraits.

He attends the Nous Sons festival in Barcelona in

March where performances include White as Jasmine

(Barcelona SO and Anu Komsi), String Quartet No 4

(Arditti Quartet) and Death of Light, Light of

Death (BCN 216).

The GMEM Festival in Marseilles includes several

works in May, given by the Diotima Quartet and

Ensemble TM+.

Harvey was in Italy in December 2006,when Ensemble

FontanaMIX gave a series of portrait concerts that included

Song Offerings,Tombeau de Messiaen and Advaya.

PHO

TO: KEITH

SAUN

DERS

PHOTO: NIGEL LUCKHURST

PHO

TO: M

AURIC

E FOXALL

‘Tevot’ premiered by Rattle and Berliner PhilharmonikerSir Simon Rattle has championed Adès’s music ever

since he commissioned Asyla for the City of

Birmingham SO in 1997. He programmed it in his last

CBSO concert and his first as Music Director of the

Berliner Philharmoniker.

Tevot is his second commission, this time for Berlin

(a joint commission from the Stiftung Berliner

Philharmoniker and The Carnegie Hall Corporation).

Premiered by the Berlin Phil on 21-23 February in the

Philharmonie, the orchestra then toured the new work

to Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Paris, London and Brussels.

The US premiere is on 14 November in New York’s

Carnegie Hall (see page 3).

Adès writes of the piece:

‘The title of this one-movement symphony, Tevot (tey-

VOT), means in Hebrew “bars of music”. Also, in the

Bible, (tey-VA) is the ark of Noah, and the

cradle in which the baby Moses is carried on the river.’

Los Angeles Philharmonic residencyAdès was in California in December 2006, concluding

his two-year residency with the Los Angeles

Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted the LAPO in his

Asyla on 2 and 3 December, in the Walt Disney Concert

Hall. He also gave a solo piano recital in the Herbst

Theatre, San Francisco and conducted a short run of his

chamber opera Powder Her Face at the University of

Southern California in November.

Following the interest and acclaim Adès has excited

on the West Coast, the LAPO has already booked him for

further appearances, to be announced.

‘… a work of postmodern dazzlement – full of arrestingly weirdsounds… Asyla sounded as fresh, original and exciting as ever. In 1997,it had announced a major new orchestral composer on the scene. Thatannouncement has proven accurate. Adès, wildly popular here ascomposer, conductor and pianist, will continue his relationship with theorchestra, we are told, but we are not yet told when or in what capacity.’

Los Angeles Times (Mark Swed), 4 December 2006

‘Powder Her Face Suite’ premieres at AldeburghSince its premiere in 1995,Adès’s chamber opera Powder

Her Face has been singled out for its inventive

instrumental writing. Adès now plans an orchestral suite.

It will be a co-commission from Aldeburgh Music,

the Philharmonia Orchestra and The Cleveland

Orchestra. The premiere will provide one of the

highlights of the 2007 Aldeburgh Festival, when the

composer conducts The Philharmonia Orchestra in

Snape Maltings on 17 June. He will expand the music

from ensemble to large orchestra and will surely

provide a work that will enter the repertoire of many

orchestras the world over.

Southbank Centre commissionsmultimedia workIn January London’s newly relaunched Southbank Centre

announced their 2007-8 season. One of the highlights will

be a new multimedia work from Adès for large ensemble

and video installation. It has been co-commissioned by the

Southbank Centre and the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Association. The video elements will be created by Israeli

artist Tal Rosner. The 30-minute work will be premiered in

London by the London Sinfonietta and Adès in Spring 2008

with performances to follow in Los Angeles and Paris.

12


Tevot(remaining perfs by Berlin PO& Sir Simon Rattle)1.3.07, Tenerife, Canary Islands(French premiere)5.3.07, Présences Festival, Paris(UK premiere)7.3.07, “Traced Overhead”,Barbican Hall, London(Belgian premiere)8.3.07, Brussels

Traced Overhead12.3.07, Guildford Festival, UK:Richard Uttley

America(German premiere)21 & 22.4.07, Berlin, ChristianeIven/Rundfunk-Orchester-ChoreBerlin/John Axelrod

Court Studiesfrom TheTempest6.3.07, Wigmore Hall, London,UK: Nash Ensemble

ChamberSymphony7-10.3.07, San Francisco, CA,USA: SFSO/Alan Gilbert

… but all shallbe well8 & 9.3.07, Cologne &Amsterdam, Germany & TheNetherlands: RoyalConcertgebouw Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins4 & 5.5.07, Brussels & Ghent,Belgium: Flemish RadioOrchestra/Martyn Brabbins

The Tempest12-26.3.07, Royal OperaHouse, London, UK: The RoyalOpera/Thomas Adès

Traced Overhead& DarknesseVisible24.3.07, Carnegie Hall, NewYork, NY, USA: Louis Lortie

Asyla29 & 31.3.07, Birmingham,UK: CBSO/Sakari Oramo28.6.07, RFH, London:Philharmonia Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnanyi

Violin Concerto(Finnish premiere)4.4.07, Helsinki: tbc/FinnishRadio SO/Jukka Pekka Saraste

Powder Her Face(Icelandic premiere)May 2007, Reyjavik ArtsFestival: Icelandic OperaJuly 2007, Mannheim,Germany: Nationtheater

Three Studiesfrom Couperin10.5.07, The Sage Gateshead:Northern Sinfonia/Thomas Adès23.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival:Northern Sinfonia/Thomas Adès

Arcadiana12.5.07, Munich, Germany:various14.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: Belcea Quartet9.9.07, Beethoven Festival,Bonn, Germany: Arditti Quartet

Powder Her FaceSuite(world premiere)17.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: Philharmonia Orchestra/Thomas Adès

DarknesseVisible21.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: Thomas Adès

Piano Quintet1.8.07, Bregenz Festival:Austria: Wiener Concert Verein

Thomas Adès

PHO

TO: AD

RIAN BU

RROW

S

‘Turning Point’ – ConcertgebouwcommissionTurning Point, an 18-minute commission, from the

Concertgebouw was premiered to tremendous ovation

on 19 January 2007, when Markus Stenz conducted the

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Matthews returned to Amsterdam later that month

when Stenz conducted the same forces in four of

Matthews’s orchestrations of Debussy’s Préludes:

‘These orchestrations enrich the repertoire… written in the spirit of thecomposer and with at times the same rich fantasy which Ravel used for hisinstrumentations. Matthews’s good taste, knowledge and courage makesthe difference between an arranger and a composer.’

De Telegraaf (Roeland Hazendonk), January 2007

Rattle and Gergiev take up DebussyorchestrationsSome of the world’s leading conductors have taken

Matthews’s Debussy orchestrations into their

repertoire. The latgest of these is Valery Gergiev, who

conducts a selection in one of his opening Barbican

concerts as the new Principal Conductor of the London

Symphony Orchestra.

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker

(who have recorded three of the preludes on EMI

Classics) brought four to the 2006 BBC Proms on

1 September:

‘… beguiling re-creations of the French composer’s soundworld, evokingthat of Jeux most of all but also touching on La Mer in “What the West WindSaw.” They are exquisite miniatures, and Rattle made sure that every colourin these shimmering webs of sound was precisely caught by his superb band.’

The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 4 September 2006

Matthews’s own music was firmly to the fore during

The Last Night of the Proms on 9 September, when his

fizzing orchestral Vivo was performed by the BBC SO

and Mark Elder in a concert broadcast the world over.

Hallé residencyMeanwhile,on 6 May The Hallé Orchestra and Mark Elder

premiere the remaining five preludes, plus a Postlude of

Matthews’s own in a Bridgewater Hall concert. They

intend to release all 24 preludes on their own CD label.

‘Alphabicycle Order’ – Hallé Childrens’Choir commissionThe latest fruit of Matthews’s position as Composer-in-

Association to the Hallé is Alphabicycle Order, a song-

cycle for childrens’ choir and orchestra, to poems by

Christoper Reid. It will be premiered by the Hallé

Childrens’Choir in The Bridgewater Hall on 11 July. The

conductor will be Edward Gardner.

‘Berceuse for Dresden’ – UK premiereA few days earlier the Manchester International Cello

Festival stages the UK premiere of Matthews’s Berceuse

for Dresden for cello and orchestra. Raphael Wallfisch

is the soloist with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by

Garry Walker.

The work received global attention prior to its

premiere in Dresden’s newly-restored Frauenkirche on

17 November 2005. Lorin Maazel conducted the New

York PO with Jan

Vogler taking the solo part. International TV networks

carried the story of an American orchestra, a German

soloist and a British composer lamenting through music

the controversial bombings of the city on 13 February

1945, bombings that left the magnificent 18th century

church in ruins. Matthews responded to the commission

with a heart-felt moving tribute to the victims of the

Dresden bombings that perfectly captured the spirit and

reverence of the moment.


Debussy: Feuxd’artifice12.3.07, Barbican Hall,London, UK: LSO/ChristophMangou

Two PartInvention30.3.07, Queen Elizabeth Hall,London, UK: LondonSinfonietta/Oliver Knussen

Berceuse forDresden(UK premiere)2.5.07, ManchesterInternational Cello Festival, UK:Raphael Wallfisch/BBC PO/Garry Walker

Debussy:Bruyères; Lescollinesd’Anacapri; Laterrasse desaudiences duclair de lune; Lacathèdraleengloutie; Voiles& C Matthews:Postlude(world premieres)6.5.07, Bridgewater Hall,Manchester, UK: The HalléOrchestra/Mark Elder

AlphabicycleOrder(world premiere)11.7.07, Bridgewater Hall,Manchester, UK: The HalléOrchestra & Childrens’ Choir/Edward Gardner

Pluto theRenewer26.7.07, Takemitsu MemorialConcert Hall, Opera City, Tokyo,Japan: Tokyo City Philharmonic/Taijiro Iimori

Colin Matthews

TUNING IN

13

Nicholas Maw

TUNING IN

15


Music ofMemory10.3.07, Baltimore Msueum ofArt, MD, USA: BaltimoreClassical Guitar Society

Roman Canticle15 & 17.4.07, Alice Tully Hall,Lincoln Center, New York, NY,USA: Angelika Kirchschlager/Chamber Music Society ofLincoln Center

String Sextet(world premiere)27 & 29.4.07, Alice Tully Hall,Lincoln Center, New York, NY,USA: Chamber Music Society ofLincoln Center28.4.07, Quick Center for theArts, Fairfield University, USA:Chamber Music Society ofLincoln Center(UK premiere)23.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: Aronowitz Ensemble

New work(world premiere)& RomanCanticle9.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival, UK:Anna Dennis/Britten Sinfonia

Sonata NotturnaAugust 2007, Belaye, Lot,France: String Group at SummerCello Festival

‘… riveting

and

affecting…

opened a

gradual

window

into the

darkness of

the human

heart,

looking for

answers,

uncovering

still more

questions.’

Knussen premieres BCMG commissionA new work for large ensemble is to be premiered by

the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and its

newly-appointed Artist-in-Association, Oliver Knussen,

on 23 March in Birmingham’s CBSO Centre. Going a

Journey lasts 23 minutes and is scored for an ensemble

of 16 players. It derives its title from the title of an essay

by William Hazlitt “On Going a Journey”, and refers to

the episodic structure of Woolrich’s composition.

Knussen and BCMG then bring the new work to the

2007 Aldeburgh Festival on 15 June, in Snape Maltings.

The work also travels with BCMG to Spain, when

Pierre-André Valade joins them for a performance in the

new Auditorio Reina Sofia in Madrid, on 7 May.

Finnish double-billTwo works for chamber orchestra can be heard a week

apart in March, when the Pori Sinfonietta give the

Finnish premieres of the Concerto for Orchestra (15

March, conducted by Jukka Iisakkila) and Mozart-

inspired The Theatre Represents a Garden: Night (22

March,Thomas Kemp).

‘Elephant’ in LondonWoolrich’s most recent orchestral work comes to

London on 26 June, when the Kensington SO and

Russell Keable present The Elephant from Celebes in St

John’s Smith Square. Inspired by a Max Ernst painting

of the same name the work was originally

commissioned for the Britten-Pears Orchestra who

premiered it at the Snape Proms in 2005.

The KSO enjoy a close relationship with Woolrich,

having previously given performances of the concerti

for viola and oboe, and The Ghost in the Machine in

recent seasons.

Violin Concerto commissionWoolrich’s link to the Aldeburgh Festival remains a

strong one. In addition to the performance of Going a

Journey (see above) he is once again Associate Festival

Director and has been commissioned by Aldeburgh

Music, Northern Sinfonia and Michael and Barbara

Gwinnell, to write a violin concerto for the outstanding

German talent Carolin Widmann, for premiere at the

2008 Aldeburgh Festival.

Return to DartingtonAfter a few years absence, Woolrich returns to the

renowned Dartington International Summer School this

year, when he directs the Advanced Composition

Course over a two-week period in August. Several of his

compositions will be performed there at that time.

Symphony No 6 to premiere in LondonDavid Matthews has completed his Sixth Symphony.

The 35-minute orchestral work,commissioned by David

Cohen to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the

John S Cohen Foundation, will be premiered in London

on 2 August, by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

under Jac van Steen.

‘Terrible Beauty’ – Nash Ensemble commissionAnother new commission, from the Nash Ensemble, will

be unveiled by them in London’s Wigmore Hall on 6

March. Terrible Beauty is scored for mezzo-soprano and

ensemble, and sets a text taken from Shakespeare’s

‘Antony and Cleopatra’. Susan Bickley is the soloist and

Lionel Friend conducts.

Toccata Classics record complete quartetsMatthews’s work for string quartet now stretches into

double figures. Together with his six symphonies, they

form the core of his output and chart a fascinating path

throughout his compositional career. The enterprising

new label,Toccata Classics, will record all of these with

the Kreutzer Quartet (with whom Matthews has a

special relationship and for whom he wrote his String

Quartet No 10).

Orchestral disc for DuttonOne of Matthews’s staunchest advocates in recent years

is conductor George Vass, who has regularly featured

him at the Presteigne and the Hampstead and Highgate

Festivals. Vass and Orchestra Nova have recently

recorded an all-Matthews disc for future release on the

Dutton Epoch label. Featured are Movement of Autumn;

A Congress of Passions;The Sleeping Lord;Aubade;From

Sea to Sky; Total tango and Y Deryn Du.

BBC Philharmonic take up ‘The Music of Dawn’Matthews was in Manchester in September 2006, when

the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra gave a scintillating

performance of his symphonic poem The Music of

Dawn, under Rumon Gamba on 20 September. It was

recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.


Terrible Beauty(world premiere)6.3.07, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Susan Bickley/Nash Ensemble/Lionel Friend

Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd24.3.07, St Jude-on-the-Hill, London, UK: Finchley Choral Society/George Vass

Symphony No 6(world premiere)2.8.07, London, UK: BBC Symphony Orchestra/Jac van Steen

New work(world premiere)26.8.07, Presteigne Festival, UK: Sara Trickey (vln)/Gretel Dowdeswell (pno)

Aubade28.8.07, Presteigne Festival, UK: Presteigne Festival Orchestra/George Vass


Concerto forOrchestra(Finnish premiere)15.3.07, Promenade Centre,Pori, Finland: Pori Sinfonietta/Jukka Iisakkila

The TheatreRepresents aGarden: Night(Finnish premiere)22.3.07, Promenade Centre,Pori, Finland: Pori Sinfonietta/Thomas Kemp

Going a Journey(world premiere)23.3.07, CBSO Centre,Birmingham, UK: BirminghamContemporary MusicGroup/Oliver Knussen(Spanish premiere)7.5.07, Madrid, Spain:BCMG/Pierre-André Valade15.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: BCMG/Oliver Knussen

The Elephantfrom Celebes(London premiere)26.6.07, St John’s SmithSquare, London, UK: KensingtonSO/Russell Keable

14

‘Sophie’s Choice’ arrives in the USAThe eagerly-anticipated US premiere production of

Maw’s opera Sophie’s Choice thrilled audiences of The

Washington Opera under Marin Alsop in September and

October 2006.

This was a co-production in collaboration with

Volksoper Wien and Deutscher Oper Berlin, directed by

Markus Bothe and starring four of the original Covent

Garden cast, not least Angelika Kirchschlager as Sophie:

‘I found myself thinking of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, another operathat sounds quite unlike any other, exists in its own harmonic world andunfolds at its own unhurried pace. Like Pelléas, Sophie’s Choice achievesan effective tautness, even when there is little propulsion. It creates acomplex interior world of sound to reflect the characters’ complex interiorworld of conflicted emotions.

… you need only hear the soft, chilling chord that accompaniesSophie’s first mention of Auschwitz, or the exquisite lyricism that carriestwo Emily Dickinson poems that tellingly appear in the text, to recognizethe work’s overall quality.

And, for my money, the final 18 measures of the score – played bythe orchestra after the Narrator sings, “At Auschwitz, tell me, ‘Where wasGod?’ The response: ‘Where was man?’” – rank among the mostbeautiful and touching in the repertoire. Maw resists the temptation to layon the emotion at this point, but simply has the music slowly evaporateupward, like the Narrator’s question, to a dark, unanswering sky.’

The Baltimore Sun (Tim Smith), 23 September 2006

‘Nicholas Maw may well be the greatest contemporary composer mostconcertgoers have never heard of. Defying the dominant academictradition throughout most of his career, he has composed a body oflistenable, tuneful music – contemporary to be sure, but not the nasty 12-tone stuff that has driven generations from the concert hall whenever aliving composer is on the menu. Yet he has paid a price for this in termsof his reputation in the insular world that classical music became in thelatter half of the 20th century.’

The Washington Times (T L Ponick), 23 September 2006

‘… riveting and affecting… opened a gradual window into the darknessof the human heart, looking for answers, uncovering still more questions.’

Opera (Tim Smith) February 2007

‘It has an undeniable appeal.’The New York Times (Anne Midgette), 23 September 2006

‘… a wonderful piece of orchestral writing. The ache of loss in the stringsduring the narrator’s reflective interludes, the way a seductively rhythmicdance blossoms from an onstage Victrola until it possesses the entireorchestra in the Coney Island scene, the snatches of the plain-spokenAmerican folk melody that fleetingly appear to underscore verses by EmilyDickinson, all show Maw to be a superb orchestrator.’

Washington City Paper (Joe Banno), 6 October 2006

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center residencyMaw is a Featured Composer throughout the 2006-7

season of Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center in

New York.

The undoubted highlight will be the premiere of a

commissioned String Sextet,to be given from 27-29 April.

Chamber Music Society is also featuring several

other of his chamber works, including Roman Canticle

(soloist Angelika Kirchschlager) and the String Quartet

No 3. The season started with a performance by Ani

Kavafian of Maw’s Stanza for solo violin:

‘… Maw seems the true marriage between the classical and the modern, animportant value for musical societies… adopts elements of Romantic lyricism.’

The Evening Bulletin (Alicia Oltuski), 26 September 2006

Aldeburgh Festival focusMaw’s music will be featured in two concerts at the

2007 Aldeburgh Festival.

The String Sextet for Chamber Music Society of

Lincoln Center (see above) will be given its UK premiere

on 23 June by the outstanding young Aronowitz

Ensemble, whilst on 9 June Britten Sinfonia premiere a

short new chamber work, and perform the ravishing

Roman Canticle for voice, flute, viola and harp.

John Woolrich David Matthews


PHO

TO: KARIN

CO

OPER


Peter Sculthorpe

TUNING IN

Wynton Marsalis premiere at Lincoln CenterA new 33-minute work for jazz band and symphony

orchestra, The Migration Series, was premiered in the

Rose Theater, New York on 16 November last year by

Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the American

Composers Orchestra and Steven Sloane.

The commission arose from Bermel’s position as

the ACO’s Music Alive Composer in Residence scheme,

a three-year appointment that commenced in 2006.

‘The work opens with a moody episode built atop a repetitive descendingbass riff, with plaintive harmonies and sinewy solo lines. When he scoresbluesy brass chords, Mr. Bermel spikes them effectively with gnarlymodernist dissonance. There were riveting passages that combinedchoralelike harmonies with unhinged rhythms; a bleakly comic episode inwhich the brass players from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra evoked awondrous gaggle of squawking, whining and pleading human voices.’

The New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 18 November 2006

Boston Modern Orchestra Project disc plansGil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project gave

a stirring performance of the Bulgarian-inspired

Thracian Echoes on 3 November 2006 in Boston. They

later recorded it for a future all-Bermel orchestral release:

‘Thracian Echoes is an exciting piece by a composer with what seems to be– on this single scrap of evidence – an extraordinary ear for translatinghis ethnological adventures into orchestral music that is itself adventurousand, in the doing, making it quite personal as well. Who else could havemade all that up? Thracian Echoes was the hit of the concert.

Sequenza21.com (Richard Buell), 15 November 2006

‘… an extraordinary ear fortranslating his ethnological

adventures into orchestral music…’


Soul Garden9.3.07, Westport Arts Center, CT, USA: Lark Quartet

‘Book of Hours’ in New York, Toronto & LilleAwarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for

Large-Scale Composition in 2006, and now recorded on

the NMC label (see p.6),Anderson’s Book of Hours for

large ensemble and live electronics is rapidly

establishing itself in the world’s concert halls.

It receives its New York premiere on 13 April when

Oliver Knussen conducts The Zankel Band in Zankel

Hall, part of Carnegie Hall. On 28 February Knussen

had conducted the Canadian premiere in Toronto,when

he directed members of the Toronto SO as the opening

concert in their New Creations festival.

The London Sinfonietta give the French premiere of

Book of Hours in Lille on 16 September.

‘Symphony’ in The Netherlands and UKAnderson’s Symphony (winner of the British

Composers Award in 2004, and included on the recent

NMC disc) will be heard in Amsterdam and London in

the coming months.

The Netherlands premiere takes place on 19 April in

the Concertgebouw, when Ed Spanjaard conducts the

Netherlands Radio PO. Meanwhile, Edward Gardner

conducts the London premiere of the work on 12 May,

with the BBC SO in the Barbican Hall.

New commission from LondonPhilharmonic to re-open Royal Festival HallAnderson is currently working on, Alleluia, a

choral/orchestral commission from the London

Philharmonic Orchestra, that will be premiered in the

inaugural concert in the newly-refurbished Royal Festival

Hall on 11 June, under the baton of their Principal

Conductor Designate,Vladimir Jurowski.

Further acclaim for Ondine discPress acclaim continues for Anderson’s recent

Ondine CD (containing Alhambra Fantasy;

Khorovod; The Stations of the Sun, The Crazed

Moon and Diptych), now drawing praise from

across the Atlantic:

‘These are striking scores, and are superbly played andrecorded… (Khorovod) a fast paced, glittering, sometimesraucous assemblage of various folk-music allusions…(Alhambra Fantasy), music that is industrious and becomingmore of a fantasia… The slower music in both these ensemblepieces is hauntingly beautiful.

The three works for symphony orchestra are equallyimpressive… music of contrast and vividness; music thatone wants to return to…’

Fanfare (Colin Anderson),

November/December 2006


The Colour ofPomegranates(French premiere)18.3.07, Caen, France: LondonSinfonietta

Book of Hours13.4.07, Zankel Hall, NewYork, USA: The ZankelBand/Oliver Knussen(French premiere)16.9.07, Lille, France: LondonSinfonietta/tbc

Symphony(Netherlands premiere)19.4.07, Concertgebouw,Amsterdam, The Netherlands:Netherlands Radio PO/EdSpanjaard(London premiere)12.5.07, Barbican Hall,London, UK: BBC SO/EdwardGardner

AlhambraFantasy(Spanish premiere)7.5.07, Auditorio del MuseoCentro de Arte Reina Sofia,Madrid, Spain: BirminghamContemporary Music Group/Pierre-André Valade

Alleluia(world premiere)11.6.07, Royal Festival Hall,London, UK: LondonPhilharmonic Orchestra &Chorus/Kurt Masur

Julian Anderson‘Captain Quiros’ – towards an operaIn 1982 Sculthorpe completed a television opera,

Quiros, concerning the exploits of the explorer Pedro

Fernandez de Quiros (1565-1615), the man who gave

Australia its name. Sadly, the opera was performed only

once and has never been revived. Sculthorpe is now

revising the work for future stage production. From

this rewrite has emerged a 20-minute orchestral suite,

Captain Quiros. It was premiered on 27 October in the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music, with the student

orchestra conducted by Imre Pallo.

‘Requiem’ on disc and premiered in SydneySculthorpe’s Requiem finally came to Sydney on 26

October last year, with a performance by the Sydney

Philharmonia Choir and Orchestra conducted by David

Porcelijn, with William Barton the didjeridu soloist:

‘… using didgeridoo, canticles based on Aboriginal lullabies, and momentsof spiky percussion overlaid on the chants and structure of the old LatinMass, eschews anguished rhapsodic or solemn tones in favour of a languageof gentle, imagined ritual… best moments included the gentle lament ofthe Kyrie, where the texture had woody sparseness, and the plainchantissued warmly from the lower strings like nourishment from dusty earth…’

Sydney Morning Herald (Peter McCallum), 30 October 2006

The Requiem is now available on an ABC Classics 2-

disc set, along with several other premiere recordings.

Presteigne Festival – Featured ComposerSculthorpe makes a rare trip to the UK this summer,

when he is Featured Composer at the Presteigne Festival

in Wales. Several of his works will performed, including

the rapturous Cello Dreaming for cello, strings and

percussion, and the Second Sonata for Strings.

Other Minds festival in CaliforniaSculthorpe travelled to the US in December last year,

when he was featured at the Other Minds festival in San

Francisco.

The highlight was the world premiere of a new

version for didjeridu and string quartet of his String

Quartet No 16. The soloist was local player Stephen

Kent, joining the Del Sol String Quartet.

RPO to stage complete Mutuals cycle in London Carl Davis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are to

perform the first ever complete cycle of all 12 Chaplin

Mutuals in London's Cadogan Hall from 15-18 August

this year. There will be four evening programmes, each

consisting of three films.

‘Phantom’ comes to Covent GardenDavis made his Royal Opera House debut on 8 October

last year in a wonderfully memorable evening, when he

conducted The Orchestra of The Royal Opera House in

his score to the classic 1925 film The Phantom of the

Opera, starring Lon Chaney:

‘In an inspired piece of programming, this year Lon Chaney returned in themost fitting of auditoria… The classic film came totally to life in this mostbeautiful auditorium. Carl Davis’s wonderful orchestral score breathedmelodrama, humour, spectacle and the full range of emotions into theexperience. The film played to a full house.’

Cinema Technology (Mark Trompeteler), 1 December 2006

Chaplin Mutuals DVDs released in USADavis’s scores to the 12 Chaplin Mutual films have now

been released in the USA, marking the 90th anniversary

of the films’ original release. Image Entertainment have

produced a four-disc set that draws together David

Shepard’s beautiful prints (including new footage), with

Davis’s superlative scores:

‘Twelve comedy classics that stand the test of time. The nasty synth scoreshave been replaced by full orchestral scores by the esteemed Carl Davis. Theeffect is huge, giving these films a sense of importance that they deserve…’

Digitallyobsessed.com, 10 July 2006

Selected Forthcoming PerformancesCyrano(see page 4)

Ben-Hur(Luxembourg premiere)9.3.07, Luxembourg: Orchestre Philharmonie de Luxembourg/ Carl DavisSeptember 2007, German tour (10 perfs): Neue Philharmonie Westfalen/Helmut Imig

The Rink, Easy Street & The Immigrant(Swedish premieres)25.3.07, Gävle, Sweden: Gävle SO/Carl Davis

The Phantom of the Opera7.4, 1.7 & 22.8.07, Ulverston, Cockermouth & Edinburgh, UK: Cumbrian YO/Tim Redmond

The Immigrant14 & 15.4.07, Windsor, Ontario, Canada: Windsor SO/ John Morris Russell

Pride and Prejudice Theme22.4.07, Eastbourne, UK: Melvyn Tan/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Carl Davis

Wings(US premiere)28 & 29.4.07, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, USA: cond Eric Benjamin

Flesh and the Devil(Danish premiere)3.5.07, Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus SO/Frank Strobel

Champions Theme19.5.07, The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK: Jon Christos/Hallé Orchestra/Carl Davis

The Chaplin Mutuals(first complete cycle)15-18.8.07, Cadogan Hall, London, UK: RPO/Carl Davis

The Rink22.9.07, St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, UK: Norwich Pops Orchestra/Geoff Davison


Djilile(ballet) 9.2-8.6.07, TheaterKrefeld, Germany: StadtischeBuhnen Krefeld Moenchen-gladbach/chor. Jan Linkens

Earth Cry;Djilile; StringQuartet No 11& Songs of Sea& Sky(ballet) 14.2-10.3.07, QuarryAmphitheatre, Reabold Hill,WA, Australia: West AustralianBallet/chor. Frances Rings

Nourlangie(ballet) 8-18.3.07, Houston,TX, USA: Houston Ballet &Orchestra/ Craig Ogden(gtr)/chor. Stanton Welch

From Ubirr(US premiere)10 & 11.3.07, Reno, NV, USA:William Barton(didj)/RenoChamber Orchestra/Theodore Kuchar

Music for Bali14.3.07, Brisbane, Australia:The Queensland Orchestra/Mark Kadi

Memento Mori &Irkanda IV(world premiere of new versionof Memento Mori for didjeridu& orchestra)22.3.07, Jena, Germany:William Barton (didjeridu)/Jenaer PO/Nicholas Milton

My CountryChildhood25.3.07, Hobart, Tasmania,Australia: Hobart CO/MyerFredman

Kakadu28.3.07, Perth, WA, Australia:West Australian SO/GrahamAbbott

Small Town1.4.07, Redland CommunityCultural Centre, QLD, Australia:Cleveland SO/Phillip Taylor

Earth Cry5.5.07, Birmingham, UK:Birmingham SchoolsSO/William Boughton

PresteigneFestival, UK(Composer-in-Residence)String Quartet No 8:24.8.07, Psophos QuartetFrom Nourlangie: 24.8.07,Sara Trickey/Catriona Scott/HuwWatkinsRequiem for cello alone:25.8.07, Alice NearySecond Sonata forStrings: 25.8.07, FestivalOrchestra/George VassIrkanda IV: 26.8.07, KathrynThomas/Sara Trickey/Sarah-Jane Bradley/Alice NearyNocturnal & Djilile:28.8.07, Gretel DowdeswellCello Dreaming: 28.8.07,Alice Neary/Festival Orchestra/George Vass

16

Carl Davis Derek Bermel

PHO

TO: KEVIN

JEROM

E EVERSON

17

PHOTOS: MAURICE FOXALL

Sculthorpe scoops major prizePeter Sculthorpe has been awarded the Don Banks

Music Award (worth 60, 000 Australian dollars), for

his outstanding contribution to Australian music.

The award was made more significant as the

composer was a close friend of Don Banks, also a

composer, who died in 1980.While Sculthorpe has won many awards, he says

that being elected as one of Australia’s 100 LivingNational Treasures in 1998 and being made one ofAustralia’s 45 Icons in 1999 were other highlights.

Benjamin Britten

TUNING IN

1918


Young Apollo11.3.07, Liepaja City Theatre,Latvia: Kevin Kenner/LiepajaSO/Imants Resnis

TemporalVariations19.4.07, Queen Elizabeth Hall,London, UK: Sasha Calin/John Reid

Owen Wingrave(world premiere of new versionfor chamber orchestra)23.4-5.5.07, Linbury Theatre,Royal Opera House, London,UK: The Royal Opera/RoryMacDonald

String QuartetNo 325.4.07, Alice Tully Hall,Lincoln Center, New York, NY,USA: Vermeer Quartet14.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: Belcea Quartet

Suite for Cello4.5.07, ManchesterInternational Cello Festival, UK:Natalia Gutman16.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,Jubilee Hall, UK: Jakob Kullberg

Third Suite forCello5.5.07, ManchesterInternational Cello Festival, UK:Danjulo Ishizaka

Phaedra12.5.07, Barbican Hall,London, UK: Sarah Connolly/BBC SO/Edward Gardner22.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival,UK: Pamela Helen Stephen/Northern Sinfonia/ThomasZehtmair

The Company ofHeaven13.5.07, Aachen, Germany:Chor des Bach-Verein &Domchor Aachen/AachenSO/Wolfgang Karius20, 23 & 24.5.07, Lubeck &Thun, Germany: Schuler desGymnasiums Thun-Schadau/Rolf Wuthrich

Death in Venice(world premiere of new co-production with La Monnaie &Leipzig)24.5-13.6.07, LondonColiseum, London, UK: EnglishNational Opera/EdwardGardner/dir. Deborah Warner(world premiere of new co-production with BregenzFestival & Prague State Opera)8, 11 & 12.6.07, AldeburghFestival, Snape Maltings, UK:Various soloists/Britten-PearsOrchestra/cond. Paul Daniel/dir.Yoshi Oida18.7-5.8.07, Bregenz Festival,Austria: Various soloists/ViennaSO/Britten Festival Chorus/cond.Paul Daniel/dir. Yoshi Oida

Suite for Harp9.6.07, Aldeburgh Festival, UK:Britten Sinfonia

Paul Bunyan(world premiere of new co-production with Volksoper Wienand Opernhaus Luzern)27.7-2.8.07, Bregenz Festival,Austria: Various soloists/Vorarlberg SO/ Kornmarktchor/cond. Steuart Bedford/dir.Nicholas Broadhurst

Eight FolksongArrangements26.8.07, Presteigne Festival,UK: Charlotte Mobbs/Lucy Wakeford

‘Owen Wingrave’ - new chamber versionpremiered at The Royal Opera HouseA new version of the 1971 television opera Owen

Wingrave will be premiered on 23 April in the Linbury

Theatre of The Royal Opera House. David Matthews

was commissioned to rescore it for chamber ensemble

of 15 players. The production will be directed by Tim

Hopkins, who has also designed the set. It will be

conducted by Rory MacDonald and will receive eight

performances, ending on 5 May.

‘Death in Venice’ – new European productionsTwo new productions of Britten’s final opera Death in

Venice are to be unveiled in the UK in the coming months.The first will be premiered by English National Opera

in the London Coliseum on 24 May. A co-productionwith La Monnaie (Brussels) and Oper Leipzig it is to bedirected by Deborah Warner and conducted by ENO’snew Music Director, Edward Gardner. It runs until 13June.

In June, the Aldeburgh Festival give threeperformances (8, 11 and 12 June) of a new co-production with Bregenz Festival and Prague StateOpera. Directed by Yoshi Oida and conducted by PaulDaniel, it opens in Bregenz on 18 July.

‘Paul Bunyan’ at Bregenz FestivalAlso at Bregenz will be a new production of Paul

Bunyan, Britten’s first opera, long suppressed by

the composer but recently

enjoying a revival.The new production is co-

produced together withVolksoper Wien andOpernhaus Luzern. It is to bedirected by Nicholas Broadhurstand conducted by one ofBritten’s greatest champions,Steuart Bedford. It runs from 27July to 2 August.

Tony Palmer film releasedon DVDTony Palmer’s acclaimed and

moving portrait film of Benjamin

Britten, ‘A Time There Was’ has

been released on DVD, on the

Digital Classics label. One of

Palmer’s celebrated series of

composer documentaries it

includes rare archive footage

and interviews with Britten,

Peter Pears and other major

figures, family and friends.

‘Mein Herz brennt’ representationFaber Music Ltd is delighted to announce worldwide

hire representation of Torsten Rasch’s epic song-cycle

Mein Herz brennt, as the result of a contract

with TamTam Fialik Musikverlag and Musik-Edition

Discoton GmbH.This was the work that catapulted Rasch into the

classical music spotlight. in his native Germany, followingsome 14 years spent living in Japan writing TV and filmscores in relative obscurity. Far from a typical cycle, the65-minute work takes its text and musical inspirationfrom existing songs by the hugely popular Germanindustrial metal band Rammstein, who first hit theinternational rock scene in the mid-1990s and who nowhave sold over 7 million albums worldwide.

Despite its inspiration, Rasch’s work, traces, quitesurprisingly, the lineage of Mahler, Berg and Zemlinskywith hardly any reference to popular musical languageat all. (In fact, the only strong connection betweenRammstein and Mein Herz brennt are the lyricsthemselves.) With the addition of a speaking part thereis also a subliminal homage to Kurt Weill via the gutturalvocal stylings of Lotte Lenya.

Mein Herz brennt was commissioned andpremiered by the Dresdner Sinfoniker and JohnCarewe, with the solo parts taken by celebratedoperatic bass René Pape and renowned actressKatharina Thalbach. Following the first performances

in Dresden and Berlin, DG released thedisc as part of their 20/21 series. It wonBest World Premiere Recording at the2004 Echo Classical Awards in Munich:

‘Surely one of the major creative forces inGermany’s musical life… Enormously powerful,a sort of 21st century Das Lied von der Erde.Lavishly orchestrated, the canvas suggestingepic vistas… Burningly intense and with apassionate voice all of its own.’

BBC Radio 3’s ‘The Cowan Collection’

(Rob Cowan), August 2004

‘This extraordinary work has disturbed andexcited me more than any new music I'veencountered for some years…’

The Spectator (Robin Holloway)

‘Wouivres’ – LondonPhilharmonic commission

Rasch has now completed his

orchestral commission from the

London Philharmonic Orchestra. It

is entitled Wouivres, lasts 25 minutes

and is in four movements. Details of

the premiere will follow soon.

Torsten Rasch

‘House Music’ thrills on London’s South BankLondon audiences thrilled to the outrageous orchestral

sounds of Matthew Hindson in December, when the

virtuoso Marina Piccinini and the London Philharmonic

Orchestra premiered his 30-minute flute concerto,

House Music under the baton of Roberto Minczuk. The

commission was made possible by a generous gift from

the HMcMeen Smith Scholarship:

‘The climax of its concert… and easily the most invigorating item of theevening. Flute concertos are hardly two a penny and Matthew Hindson’snearly half-hour House Music probably ranks as the biggest piece thatflautists now have to play. It shows you things that you never knew aflute could do – creating faux chords with harmonics, mixing air andnotes, tapping on the keys, separate tonguings, quartertones. And that isjust the opening page.

Hindson, who is Australian, wants to see if the rhythms andharmonies of techno music can be brought into the classical concert hall.The result is bizarre but strangely compelling – long flute cadenzas thatsound like avant-garde experimentation from the 1960s alternate withdance numbers for full orchestra with the volume turned up to maximum .

Soloist Marina Piccinini showed off what she could do, as if asked toplay the advanced guide to flautist’s technique from first page to last atbreakneck speed.’

Financial Times (Richard Fairman), 14 December 2006

‘… a flute concerto with a difference… The title House Music refers to thephenomenon familiar in clubland as well as the buildings we live in. Whilethe first movement races manically round the kitchen, garage and workshopwith the turbocharged energy of clubbers, the second evokes a margarita-sipping break at the poolside. This is the most original and appealing musicof the concerto, with softly tinkling bells producing a windchime, harpsweeps suggesting trickling water and a languid flute solo.’

‘… a flute concerto with adifference…’

Marina Piccinini was the dazzling soloist, fully in command in thelounge, nursery and games rooms too.’

Evening Standard (Barry Millington), 14 December 2006

San Francisco Ballet take up HindsonHindson’s music lends itself perfectly to dance with its

rhythmic drive and instant audience appeal. The latest

company to succumb to its charms are San Francisco

Ballet, who dance to two works for strings in their

current season. Commencing on 11 April, they take up

The Rave and the Nightingale and a newly-

commissioned version of Technologic 1, all to

choreography by the Canadian, Matjash Mrojewski.

They give six performances in all, with live orchestra

conducted by Martin West.

Glennie plays Hindson “under the Stars”Fresh from her recent damehood, Evelyn Glennie

travels to Perth on 3 March, where she performs the

rumbustious finale “Drummer Queen” from Hindson’s

Percussion Concerto (written for Glennie and

premiered in Brisbane in 2006). The Perth performance

forms part of a “Symphony under the Stars” outdoor

concert in King’s Park, given by the West Australian SO

and Brad Cohen. Hindson’s music is no stranger to this

type of event – his orchestral Speed soared right across

Sydney Harbour as part of the Millennium celebrations,

televised worldwide.

Limelight awardHindson has been listed as one of the Top 50 to watch

in the Australian arts industry by Limelight magazine

(the ABC’s glossy monthly journal). This significant

honour is just reward for Hindson’s recent endeavours

in launching his own Aurora Festival of new music in

western Sydney and, of course, for his work as a

composer and music educationalist.

‘Rush’ at Huntington FestivalAlways a favourite with audiences, Hindson’s Rush for

guitar and string quartet was a highpoint of the

prestigious Huntington Estate Music Festival in

Mudgee, New South Wales in November 2006. Karin

Schaupp was the soloist.

‘Headbanger’ in Carnegie HallHindson’s music reaches New York’s Carnegie Hall on 22

March when the Kutztown University Wind Ensemble

perform Headbanger under Jeremy Gusteson.


Headbanger(US premiere)1.3.07, Kutztown University, PA,USA: Kutztown University WindEnsemble/Jeremy Justesonalso perf on 22.3.07, CarnegieHall, New York

‘DrummerQueen’ fromPercussionConcerto3.3.07, Symphony under theStars, King’s Park, Perth,Australia: Dame EvelynGlennie/West Australian SO/BradCohen

Boom-Box(German premiere)22.3.07, Jena, Germany: JenaerPO/Nicholas Milton

Technologic 1-222.3.07, Central CoastConservatorium, NSW, Australia: student ensemble/Christopher Bearman

The Rave and theNightingale &Technologic 1(US premiere)11.4.07, War Memorial OperaHouse, San Francisco, CA, USA:San Francisco Ballet &Orchestra/Martin West/chor.Matjash Mrojewskialso perfs 12.4, 14.4, 20.4, 22.4& 24.4.07

Piano Trio(world premiere)21.4.07, Camden Haven MusicFestival, Kendall, NSW, Australia:festival ensemble

Comin’ RightAtcha(UK premiere)24.6.07, Soundwaves Festival,Brighton, UK: Talkestra/SteveDummer

Heartland7.7.07, Sydney Conservatoriumof Music, NSW, Australia: SydneyPhilharmonia Choirs/BrettWeymark

‘… bizarrebut strangelycompelling -long flutecadenzas

that soundlike avant-

gardeexperimenta

tion fromthe 1960salternate

with dancenumbers forfull orchestra

with thevolume

turned up tomaximum.’

Matthew Hindson

PHO

TO: M

ARCO

BORG

GREVE

FLAUTIST MARINA PICCININI,

FOR WHOM HOUSE MUSIC

WAS WRITTEN

NEW WORKS FROM THE PERFORMANCE DEPARTMENT

THOMAS ADÈS

Piano QuintetPiano and string quartet. Score ISBN 0-571-52012-X £tbc

THOMAS ADÈS

The TempestVocal score ISBN 0-571-52208-4 £44.95

MALCOLM ARNOLD

Sonata for StringsString orchestra. Score ISBN 0-571-52767-1 £16.95

MALCOLM ARNOLD

Sweeney Todd SuiteBrass band, arranged by Philip Littlemore. Score and parts ISBN 0-571-56918-8 £24.95

FRANK BRIDGE

Dance RhapsodyOrchestra. Score ISBN 0-571-52116-9 £29.95

FRANK BRIDGE

IsabellaOrchestra. Score ISBN 0-571-52247-5 £tbc

DEBUSSY/ARR C MATTHEWS

Préludes (Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest; Feuilles mortes;Feux d’artifice; Canope; Les tierces alternées; Hommagea S. Pickwick Esq.; La Danse de Puck; MinstrelsOrchestra. Score ISBNs Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest 0-571-52412-5; Feuilles mortes 0-571-52410-9;Feux d’artifice 0-571-52428-1; Canope 0-571-52427-3; Les Tierces alternées 0-571-52429-X;Hommage a S. Pickwick Esq. 0-571-52432-X; La Danse de Puck 0-571-52433-8; Minstrels 0-571-52434-6

GEORGE GERSHWIN

George Gershwin Platinum CollectionPiano/vocal/guitar. ISBN 0-571-52684-5 £16.95

HOWARD GOODALL

Winter LullabiesUpper voices and harp. Score ISBN 0-571-52841-4 £6.95, harp part ISBN 0-571-56929-3 (fp) £6.95

MATTHEW HINDSON

Rave-Elation (Schindowski Mix)Orchestra. Score ISBN 0-571-52378-1 £24.95

JULIAN ANDERSON

Eden; Imagin’d Corners; Symphony; Book of Hours; FourAmerican Choruses on Gospel Texts

City of Birmingham SO & Chorus/BCMG/Sakari Oramo/Oliver Knussen. NMC D121

JULIAN ANDERSON

Old BellsClive Williamson. Cadenza Music CACD0612

SIR MALCOLM ARNOLD

The Malcolm Arnold Edition(including 11 symphonies & 17 concerti). Various artists. Decca (3 boxed sets – 13 CDs)

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Nocturnal after John DowlandJames Boyd. (artist’s label)

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

A Time There Was (DVD)Film, directed by Tony Palmer. Digital Classics DC10017

JONATHAN DOVE

Seek him that Maketh the Seven Stars; Into thy Hands;Wellcome, all wonders; Who killed Cock Robin?

Colmore Consort/Charles Janz. CC CD1

JONATHAN HARVEY

The Angels, Missa Brevis, Marahi, How could the soul nottake flight?, Dum transisset sabbatum & Sweet/winterhart

Les Jeunes Solistes/Rachid Safir. Soupir Editions S215–NY100

GUSTAV HOLST

Elegy; A Song of the Night; Invocation; The LureLorraine McAslan/Alexander Baillie/London SO/London PO/David Atherton. Lyrita SRCD 209

MORTEN LAURIDSEN

Nocturnes (premiere recording); Mid-Winter Songs;Les chansons des roses & other works

Polyphony/Britten Sinfonia/Stephen Layton. Hyperion CDA67580

DAVID MATTHEWS

The Ship of Death; Moments of Vision;Hurrahing in Harvest; Psalm 23

Colmore Consort/Charles Janz CC CD1

NICHOLAS MAW

Three Hymns; Swete Jesu; One foot in Eden still, I standSchola Cantorum of Oxford/Mark Shepherd. Hyperion CDA67615

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY

Ecce Cor MeumKate Royal/ASMF/London Voices/Boys Of Magdalen College Choir, Oxford/Boys of King’s

College Choir, Cambridge/Gavin Greenaway. EMI Classics 0946 3 70424 2 7

PETER SCULTHORPE

Requiem; Great Sandy Island; Quamby; New Norcia; MyCountry Childhoood; Earth Cry

William Barton/Adelaide Chamber Singers/Adelaide SO/Arvo Volmer/James JuddABC Classics 476 5692 (2 CDs)

ROBERT SIMPSON

Symphonies 7-9RLPO/RPO/Bournemouth SO/Vernon Handley. Hyperion CDS44191-7

(‘Complete Symphonies’ boxed set – 7 CDs)

CARL VINE

The Anne Landa Preludes; Piano Sonata No 2; FiveBagatelles; Red Blues

Michael Kieran Harvey. Tall Poppies TP190

2120

Stage WorksGEORGE BENJAMINInto the Little Hill (2006)

A lyric tale in two parts for soprano, contralto and ensemble of 15 players. Duration 40 minutes.Text: Martin Crimp (Eng). Singers: Soprano: The Crowd/The Stranger/Narrator/The Minister’s Child;Contralto: The Crowd/Narrator/The Minister/The Minister’s Wife. Instrumentation: fl(=picc + bassfl).2 basset hn in F.cbcl – 2 crts.tenor trbn – cimbalon = perc(1) – 2 vln(II=mandolin).2vla(II=banjo).2 vlc.db (lowest string tuned to C). Commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris,with contributions from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation; Opéra National de Paris; andEnsemble Modern, with contributions from the Forberg-Schneider Foundation. FP: 22.11.06: Festivald’Automne, Paris, France: Anu Komsi/Hilary Summers/Ensemble Modern/Franck Ollu

CARL DAVISCyrano (2005)

Ballet in 3 acts. Duration 2 hours 5 minutes. 2222 – 4331 – timp – perc(3) – harp – strings.Commissioned by Birmingham Royal Ballet. FP: 7.2.07, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham,UK: Birmingham Royal Ballet & Orchestra/cond. Paul Murphy/chor. David Bintley

JONATHAN HARVEYWagner Dream (2006)

Opera in nine scenes. for soloists, actors, chorus and ensemble of 22 players with electronics.Duration 105 minutes. Libretto: Jean Claude-Carrière (Eng). Singers: Vairochana (B)/Ananda(T)/Prakriti (S)/Mother of Prakriti(M)/Buddha (Bar)/Old Brahmin(B); pit chorus (4 singers –SATB)/stage chorus (2 singers – TB), Actors: Wagner/Cosima/Betty/Dr. Keppler/Carrie Pringle.1121 – 1111 – perc(2) – harp – elec keybd – 4 vln.2 vla.2 vlc.db – electronics (2 operators): 8or 6 channel system/digital mixer/1 (or 2) Mac computers with soundcards/Wacom GraphicTablet/16 MIDI faders/Clip-on mics for all instruments & several close mics for percussion/CD-ROM.Commissioned by De Nederlandse Opera & Holland Festival, Amsterdam, Grand Théâtre de la Villede Luxembourg and IRCAM Paris. FP: 28.4.07, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg: soloists of TheNetherlands Opera/Ictus Ensemble/IRCAM/Martyn Brabbins

OrchestralTHOMAS ADÈSTevot (2007)

Orchestra. Duration c23 minutes. 5(III-V=picc, III=bfl).5(IV=ca, V=bob).5(II=Eb, IV=Eb, A,optional basset cl, V=cbcl).4.cbsn – 8.5(I= ad lib ptpt).3.2 – timp(2) - perc(6) – harp – pno(=cel)– strings. Commissioned by the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker and The Carnegie Hall Corporation. FP: 21.2.07: Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany: Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle

DEREK BERMELThe Migration Series (2006)

Jazz big band and orchestra. Duration 32 minutes. I. Landscapes; II. After a Lynching; III. A Rumor; IV. Riots and Moon's Shine; V. Still Arriving. Jazz Ensemble – 5 reeds; 4 tpt; 3 trbn;pno; elec gtr; upright bass; drums. Orchestra: 0101 – 4001 – timp – perc(2) – hp – strings.Commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. FP: 16-18.11.06, Lincoln Center, New York, NY, USA:Wynton Marsalis/Jazz at Lincoln Center/American Composers Orchestra/Steven Sloane

TANSY DAVIESStreamlines (2007)

Orchestra. Duration 11 minutes. picc.2.3.3.2.cbsn - 4.3.2.btrb.1 - perc(4/5) - harp - strings.Commissioned by CBSO Youth Orchestra with funds from the Feeney Trust. FP: 18.02.07: SymphonyHall, Birmingham, UK: CBSO Youth Orchestra/Paul Daniel

JONATHAN HARVEYBody Mandala (2006)

Orchestra. Duration 20 minutes. 3(III=picc).4.3(III=bcl).3(III=cbsn) – 4.4(I=picc.tpt).2 tenortrbn.2 btrbn.1 – harp – pno – perc(5) – strings:(1st vlns.2nd vlns.8 vlc.6db) NB no violas.Commissioned by the BBC for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. FP: 15.3.07: City Halls,Glasgow, UK: BBC SSO/Ilan Volkov

MATTHEW HINDSONHouse Music (2006)

Concerto for flute & orchestra. Duration 30 minutes. 2(II=picc).2(II=ca).2(=bcl).2 –4.2(II=fl.hn).3.1 – timp – perc(2) – harp – strings. This commission was made possible by agenerous gift from the HMcMeen Smith Scholarship Fund. FP: 13.12.06: QEH, London, UK: MarinaPiccinini/London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Roberto Minczuk

MATTHEW HINDSONAn Infernal Machine (2006)

Orchestra. Duration 5 minutes. picc.2.2.2.2 – 4.2.2.btrbn.1 – timp – perc(4) – strings.Commissioned by The Orchestras of Australia Network for first performance by the Tamworth YouthOrchestra with the financial assistance of the Australian Government through the Australia Council,its arts funding and advisory body. FP: 19.8.06: TOAN Orchestral Forum, The Camberwell Centre,Camberwell, VIC, Australia: Tamworth regional Youth Orchestra/Ann Hoy

COLIN MATTHEWSTurning Point (2006)

Orchestra. Duration 18 minutes. 2(I & II = picc).afl.2.ca.2.bcl.cbcl.2.cbsn – 4341 – timp –perc(3) – 2 harp – pno (= cel) – strings: 30 vln div in 3 (12-10-8).12.10.8. Commissioned bythe Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. FP: 18.1.07: Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands:Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Markus Stenz

Chamber/InstrumentalTANSY DAVIESFalling Angel (2006)

Chamber ensemble of 17 players. Duration 21 minutes. 1(=afl & picc).1(=ca).Ebcl(=bcl).Bbcl(=bcl).1(=cbsn) – 2.2(1 & 2=fl.hn) – perc(2) – electric keyboard on harpischord setting(= prepared piano: paper placed between strings and hammers) – 2vln.vla.vcl.db. Commissionedby Birmingham Contemporary Music Group with financial assistance from Arts Council England,West Midlands and BCMG's Sound Investment Scheme. FP: 3.2.07: CBSO Centre, Birmingham, UK:BCMG/Thomas Adès

COLIN MATTHEWSLuminoso (2006)

Viola and piano. Duration 31/2 minutes. Commissioned by the BBC Proms. FP: 28.8.06: BBC PromsChamber Music Series, Cadogan Hall, London, UK: Lawrence Power/Simon Crawford-Philips

DAVID MATTHEWSIt takes… (2006)

Arrangement of the tango from Symphony No 4 for violin and piano. Duration 3 minutes. FP:5.10.06: Barnes Music Society, London, UK: Efi Christodoulou/Sophia Rahman

PETER SCULTHORPEAn Australian Anthem (1995)

Brass quintet. Duration 4 minutes

PETER SCULTHORPEBaltimore Songlines (2005)

Clarinet, violin and piano. Duration 17 minutes. Commissioned by Michigan State University, andThe Embassy of Australia,Washington and written for the Verdehr Trio. FP: 26.10.06: The NationalAquarium, Baltimore, USA: Verdehr Trio

PETER SCULTHORPEDarwin Calypso (2006)

Flute, clarinet, string quartet and piano. Duration 71/2 minutes. FP: 21.10.06: Clancy Auditorium,Sydney, Australia: Australia Ensemble

PETER SCULTHORPEKoori Dreaming (2004)

Descant recorder and guitar. Duration 21/4 minutes. FP: 20.10.04: Downing College, Cambridge,UK: John Turner/Craig Ogden

JOHN WOOLRICHGoing a Journey (2006)

Chamber ensemble of 16 players. Duration 23 minutes. picc.ca.3(III=bcl).dbl bsn – 2001 – timp – perc(1) – 2vla.2vlc.db. Commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group withfinancial assistance from Arts Council England, West Midlands and BCMG’s Sound InvestmentScheme. FP: 23.3.07: CBSO Centre, Birmingham, UK: BCMG/Oliver Knussen

Choral/VocalJULIAN ANDERSONMy Beloved Spake (2006)

SATB chorus and organ. Duration 31/2 minutes. Text: from Song of Songs (Eng).

DAVID MATTHEWSTerrible Beauty (2007)

Mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble of 7 players. Duration 14 minutes. Text: Shakespeare (Eng).fl.cl - harp - 2vln.vla.vlc. Commissioned by the Nash Ensemble. FP: 6.3.07, Wigmore Hall, London,UK: Susan Bickley/Nash Ensemble/Lionel Friend

PAUL MCCARTNEYEcce Cor Meum (2001/2006)

Soprano solo, boy trebles, chorus and orchestra. Duration 57 minutes. Text: Paul McCartney(Eng/Lat). 2222 – 2.2 (optionally doubling piccolo trumpets)0.0 – timp – perc(1) – hp – org –strings. FP: 10.11.01, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, UK: Magdalen College Choir and Orchestra/BillIves. FP(revised): 3.11.06, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: Kate Royal/Choir of King's CollegeCambridge/London Voices/Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Gavin Greenaway

SELECTED NEW PUBLICATIONS & RECORDINGS

MEDIA SPOTLIGHTBOOKS ON MUSIC FROM FABER & FABER

Film NewsRights Worldwide Ltd (Faber Music’s film and television

music administration ‘arm’) controls publishing rights in

two new scores by Adrian Johnston;for Sparkle (directed,

produced and written by the same team that made a

previous Johnston-scored film, The Lawless Heart); and

for Becoming Jane (a Julian Jarrold-directed biographical

portrait of the young Jane Austen and her romance with a

young Irishman). Both films are expected to be released

in 2007, and Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway as

Jane, is particularly tipped for success.

Dan Jones’s latest film credit is In Tranzit.A story of

reconciliation through love. Set in the chaos of the

Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II, it tells the

story of a group of German prisoners sent to a female-

run Russian prison camp. Co-produced by Jimmy de

Brabant and Michael Dounaev, and directed by Tom

Roberts, it stars John Malkovich and Thomas

Kretschsmann as well as a less-well-known Russian

female cast.

New scores from Stephen Warbeck include those for

Michael Radford’s crime drama Flawless, set in 1960s

London and starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore; and

for Miguel and William,a film written and directed by Inés

Paris which invents a friendship between Cervantes and

Shakespeare. Both films were produced by Future Films’s

Albert Martínez Martín.

Television NewsSimon Rogers is set to work on further episodes of SMG

Productions’s long-running Rebus this year. At the end

of the year he commenced work with Evelyn Glennie

on a documentary film made by Jon Blair and narrated

by Sir Antony Sher – South Africa: Murder Most Foul.

Dame Evelyn (whose new title we proudly

acknowledge) previously worked with the

distinguished documentary maker Jon Blair on his 7-

part documentary series The Age of Terror. A few years

earlier, Jon won an Oscar for his Anne Frank

Remembered, which has music by Carl Davis. In the

new film, Jon and Sir Antony, South African exiles both,

return to their native country to explore the appalling

levels of violence there. In the end, the film (initially

due for broadcast on More 4) focuses on the

investigation into a murder…

Marc Sylvan had an extraordinarily productive year

in 2006,mainly in the entertainment area. After working

with Simon Lacey on Endemol’s Run for Glory at the

start of the year,he then forged an extremely productive

relationship with this busy production company. He

worked on their quiz shows In the Grid (for Channel 5),

For The Rest Of Your Life (for ITV) as well as a yet

uncommissioned pilot for a third such show, and on

Celebrity Scissorhands (BBC) and its offshoot Keep Your

Hair On (CBBC). His reputation in this area swiftly

spread and he was commissioned for the BBC’s quiz

show aimed at children, Get 100 (scheduled for

transmission in 2007). Long may this success continue

– at least while the apparent need to fill the schedules

with quiz shows continues!

Faber Music congratulates Dame Evelyn GlennieWe warmly congratulate Evelyn Glennie on her

elevation, in the New Year Honours List, to Dame

Companion of the Order of the British Empire. This

richly deserved honour recognises her outstanding

contribution to music.

Evelyn’s most recent composition credit is her

collaboration with Simon Rogers on music for Jon

Blair’s documentary film for More 4, South Africa:

Murder Most Foul, presented by Antony Sher.

Evelyn previously worked with Jon Blair on his

series The Age of Terror.

Mstislav Rostropovich: Cellist, Teacher, LegendElizabeth Wilson

Published to coincide with

Rostropovich's 80th birthday

celebrations

Mstislav Rostropovich,

internationally recognised as one

of the world's finest cellists and

musicians, has always maintained

that teaching is an important

responsibility for great artists.

Before his emigration in 1974 from

Russia to the West, Rostropovich

taught several generations of the

brightest Russian talents – as

Professor of the Moscow Conservatoire –

over a continuous period of 25 years. His

students included such artists as

Jacqueline du Pré, Natalya Gutman,

Karine Georgian and many others

This book follows Rostropovich’s

own musical formation and the pivotal

points of his career. Always aware of his

role as educator, he has also set out to

be an innovator, inspiring new works

from important composers written

specially for him, helping create new

instrumental techniques and influencing

his understanding of the creative

concept which did so much to shape his

performances.

Rostropovich demanded from his

students the same exigent standards that

he required from himself. His open master

classes held in Class 19 of the Moscow

Conservatoire, were packed with students and teachers

– not only of cello but of all instrumental disciplines.

Usually seated at the piano, he conducted, cajoled and

inspired his students to give of their best, and equally

stimulated all his listeners. Drawing from her own vivid

reminiscences and those of ex-students, documents

from the Moscow Conservatoire and extensive

interviews with Rostropovich himself, Elizabeth

Wilson’s book sets out to define the philosophy behind

his teaching, and to recapture the atmosphere of the

Conservatoire and Moscow’s musical life.

Currently living in Italy,Elizabeth Wilson was born in

London, and studied cello at the Moscow Conservatoire

with Mstislav Rostropovich, also becoming fluent in

Russian. On her return to London she embarked on a

performing, teaching and writing career. Her new

edition of Shostakovich: A Life Remembered has been

published in the UK, the USA and Russia in celebration

of the composer’s centenary. She is also author of an

acclaimed biography of Jacqueline du Pré

(Faber 1998) – and is editor of an

anthology of Shostakovich’s letters,

recently published in Italy.

April 2007 ISBN 9780571220519 Hardback

c£25

Britten’s ChildrenJohn Bridcutt

‘Deserves to achieve the status

of a classic.’

Opera Magazine (Michael Kennedy)

‘In the current climate of hysteria

about any sort of relationship

between adults and children,

Bridcut’s book seems enlightened

as well as enlightening, tackling a

difficult subject with both sensitivity and

directness. Unstuffy, often funny,

frequently heart-rending and always

hugely readable, it also does what

all good biographies do: it sends you

back to the work well-informed and n

ewly enthused.’ Daily Telegraph (Peter Parker)

June 2007 ISBN 9780571228409 Paperback £9.99

TemperamentStuart Isacoff

‘Isacoff untangles the complexities of this

issue with the aplomb of a virtuoso

pianist.’New York Times Book Review

In this accessible and engaging book Stuart

Isacoff applies his musical expertise and great

erudition to one of the most fascinating stories in the

history of Western culture.

April 2007 ISBN 9780571234462 Paperback £8.99

The Royal Ballet: 75 YearsZoë Anderson

‘Remarkable – a lively and varied tale of

endeavour, triumph, relapse and retrenchment

every inch as engrossing as Richard Morrison’s

story of the LSO. Anderson has a simple, lucid

style many of us would kill for.’BBC Music Magazine

‘A history well researched, well told and

Anderson has a clean, succinct way with

narrative. This is how it was, and the future can

trust the telling of it.’Financial Times (Clement Crisp)

April 2007 ISBN 9780571227969 Paperback £12.99

22 23

STILL FROM

BECO

MIN

G JAN

E

PHO

TO: J.W

ILSON

©, EG

IMAG

ES

These are interesting times for music in education. Alan

Johnson’s State of Play ministerial Address in January

announced a national singing campaign for primary

schools, which will be led by composer and presenter

Howard Goodall, and we all look forward to seeing how

this progresses. In fact Fortissimo readers will have seen

Howard Goodall’s name appear many times within its

pages, as we publish much of his choral music. Most

recently, Faber published Howard’s Winter Lullabies – a

beautiful cycle of six loosely interwoven movements for

solo harp/piano and upper voices (recently recorded by

Christ Church Choir and the harpist Catrin Finch on The

Gift of Music [CCL CDG1155]). Although the story of

the nativity lies at the core of this work, it also explores

associated secular issues of homelessness, displacement

and flight, showing the relevance that this timeless story

continues to have for our modern lives.

Many readers will also be familiar with the work of

Mike Brewer, musical director of the National Youth

Choirs of Great Britain. Building on the runaway

success of his previous collection Hamba lulu, once

again mixed-voice choirs are presented with a terrific

opportunity to experience the excitement and energy

of African music with Banuwa. This volume taps into a

rich seam of African culture and includes the festive

song ‘Banuwa’, alongside Zulu ‘bird’ song ‘Izintakana’

and a new arrangement of a South African wedding

song – ‘Babevuya’, coupled with the infectious

‘Walamba’.

Coming up this spring are two important new

series for piano:Simply Classics consists of three books

for beginner to grade 5 pianists, filled with Peter

Gritton’s inspiring arrangements of classical

masterpieces. The second series to be launched

comprises two stylish new books for piano: The

Essential Pop Collection and The Essential Jazz

Collection. These books are for intermediate pianists

and are packed with well-known pop and jazz classics.

It’s Never Too Late To Play Jazz will be the next to

appear in the successful Never Too Late series for

beginner adult pianists. Featuring a CD to play along

with, helpful notes and well-known jazz classics as well

as plenty of Pam and Olly Wedgwood’s own irresistible

pieces, it is ideal for getting started with jazz.

It has also been a busy few months for Faber Music’s

pop catalogue. The bumper Carlin Classic Collection

was published in December, featuring 66 classic songs

spanning many decades of popular musical history

arranged for piano, voice and guitar, complete with

photographs of the artists. The music of Gershwin

spans both the popular and classical genres, and we are

delighted to have brought together 50 of his best-loved

songs in one publication, George Gershwin: The

Platinum Collection. Each song has been newly

engraved, providing a clean, modern look that is easily

readable, and is a must for all fans of the composer.

Following the huge popularity of the Authentic

Playalong Pink Floyd volumes for Guitar, Bass and

Drums, the next addition to the series will be Authentic

Playalong Nirvana. Matching folios to the most recent

albums by Scissor Sisters, Muse and Take That have also

met with great success!

All the music mentioned above, along with the

entire Faber Music printed music catalogue, is now

available for purchase through their website

www.expressprintmusic.com.

Head OfficeFaber Music Ltd3 Queen Square

London WC1N 3AUTel: +44

(0)20 7833 7900Fax: +44

(0)20 7833 [email protected]

www.fabermusic.com

Promotion tel: +44(0)20 7833 7911/2

[email protected]

Distribution CentreFM Distribution

Burnt MillElizabeth WayHarlow, Essex

CM20 2HXTel: +44

(0)1279 82 89 89Fax: +44

(0)1279 82 89 01trade@

fabermusic.comHire tel: +44

(0)1279 82 89 07/8Hire fax: +44

(0)1279 82 89 [email protected]

USA/CanadaBoosey & Hawkes Inc

35 East 21st StreetNew York

NY 10010-6212(promotion)

Tel: (212) 358 5300Fax: (212) 358 5306

[email protected]

(rental)Tel: (212) 358 5300Fax: (212) 358 5307

[email protected]

Cover picture credit:Adrian Burrows

Editor: Tim BrookeDesigner:

Dave Warden

SALES PUBLICATION NEWS

www.fabermusic.com

PHOTO: ADRIAN BURROWS - Faber Music · Liverpool,Vienna,Lucerne,Turin,Milan and Melbourne in ... Dvorak: Symphony No 7 25.3.07, ... have been inscribed in the Book of Remembrance.

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