Fortissimo Spring 2014

FABER MUSIC NEWS SPRING 2014

fortissimo!

60: Carl Vine and John Woolrich in their prime

…Two composers of widely different genres, one living in Australia, the other in the south of France, have not only reached maturity in their musical output, but are contributing to musical society as outstanding musical programmers – each with a formidable track record in commissioning and encouraging the composers of our time to write music which they sensitively and creatively present alongside the masters of previous decades. But this year, it is time to reassess their own works – see overleaf…

SPECIAL FEATURES JULIAN ANDERSON

New opera ‘Thebans’ premiered at ENO p.4-5 THOMAS ADÈS

‘The Tempest’ wins a Grammy p.6 FRANCISCO COLL

World premiere of ‘Café Kafka’ opera p.7 A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF FABER MUSIC

A glimpse of a busy week for the company p.28

Tuning In • New Publications & Recordings • Music for Now • Media Music • Publishing News

JOHN WOOLRICH AT 60 Faber Music extends its warmest wishes to John Woolrich who celebrated his 60th birthday on 5 January 2014.

Woolrich is an important figure in British musical life with a rich catalogue that rewards exploration. His vibrant, constantly-evolving style is hard to pin down, but is perhaps best characterised in the words of pianist Joanna MacGregor as ‘a kaleidoscopic mixture of spiky wit, lightness, dark menace…’ He is a composer that enjoys exploring the unconscious, the imperfect, the unexpected and disruptive, just as much as he wears his heart on his sleeve in beautiful, lyrical melodies: cellist Steven Isserlis writes of the ‘heartfelt personal confession’ in Woolrich’s cello concerto, ‘music that is deeply felt, that really communicates its message.’ Woolrich also has a deep reverence for music of the past and is renowned for his skill in creative transcription (Ulysses Awakes, for instance, is a re-composition of a Monteverdi aria). Woolrich has often remarked how important and inspirational he finds his relationships with performers, and understandably he is held in high regard by many in the profession.

‘Happy birthday John! Thanks for all your wonderful music, and for giving so many countless amazing opportunities, to perform and hear and write and arrange, to so many people. You are an inspiration!’

Thomas Adès (composer, conductor, pianist)

‘John REALLY knows how to write good contra parts in his orchestral and chamber works. That’s why I had no hesitation in choosing him to write a work for Contrabassoon and Orchestra… It’s been an honour and privilege to know and work with John!’

Margaret Cookhorn (Contrabassoon – CBSO and BCMG)

EVENTS

Many are planning celebrations, notably, St John’s Smith Square, London where a day of Woolrich events will be held on 6 April. The day includes performances by the London Sinfonietta, Manson Ensemble, pianists William Howard, Catherine Edwards and Tom Poster, as well as the premiere of Through paths and turnings for the Orchestra of St John’s and conductor John Lubbock.

Other new works have been commissioned BIRTHDAY MESSAGES by the Cheltenham Festival (Pluck from the Air an 11-minute piano quintet will be premiered by the ‘John Woolrich has been a friend for many years… He was, in fact, the very first person to invite me to conduct Nash Ensemble in July), Dartington International Summer School (a piece for choir and chamber in the UK… I never forgot that week, nor the projects we were involved in later with John’s music, including a orchestra), and a violin/piano duo for Alexandra Wood and Huw Watkins.

UK tour of his chamber opera Bitter Fruit. In the musical However, the celebrations aren’t limited world one encounters different personalities, John is to new commissions alone. The CBSO and someone who not only works for himself, but takes pride contrabassoonist Margaret Cookhorn will revive and pleasure in sharing his energy with the musical the fantastically inventive contrabassoon concerto, community, programming colleagues’ compositions and Falling Down, on 14 May. Later that month the inspiring young musicians… We need people like you, London Contemporary Orchestra pays a visit to Woolrich’s French locale of Mirepoix for a concert of dear John, so please continue writing your beautiful music and creating new inspiring projects for a very, very some of his seminal string works: Ulysses Awakes, Capriccio and an arrangement of Wolf ’s Italian long time. Happy Birthday!’

Songs. In June the Schubert Ensemble will perform Pierre-André Valade (conductor) the piano quartet Sestina and Woolrich’s Bach Chorale arrangements, and a few weeks later BCMG ‘John Woolrich is one of the most individual figures bring In the Mirrors of Asleep to the Wigmore Hall. in new music… he pursues a highly idiosyncratic and The birthday year will be rounded off in November quirky path which leads to persistently memorable music for all genres of line up. What I value most about by the Britten Sinfonia with the London premiere of his Concerto for Violin.

his work is its immediately recognisable sound world and unpredictable sense of drama… I look forward to many more years of his beautifully crafted, sometimes humorous and other times dark art, which is such valuable feature of the musical world, and of the arts world as a whole.’

Julian Anderson (composer)

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PHOTO: JOHN WOOLRICH © MAURICE FOXALL

HIGHLIGHTS

CARL VINE AT 60 Many happy returns also to Australian composer Carl Vine who celebrates his 60th birthday on 28 October 2014, and with whom Faber Music has enjoyed a publishing relationship for 20 years.

Vine is known for his distinctive melodic gift – ‘Vine writes Big Tunes. More, he scores them with Technicolour richness’ wrote Michael Oliver in Gramophone Magazine – and a rich stylistic language drawing on influences as wide as jazz and avant-garde experimentation. His music is infused with an infectious sense of rhythm and it’s no surprise that he first came to prominence in Australia as a composer of music for dance (he now has 25 dance scores to his name). Since then his catalogue has grown to include seven symphonies, nine concertos, music for film, television and theatre, electronic music, numerous chamber works and many pieces for piano. Vine’s music is frequently performed in his native Australia, not to mention around the globe, and has found many champions among the world’s best performers.

‘I first met Carl Vine in person - having earlier made a nuisance fan call to him to tell him how much I loved his piece for cello and CD, ‘Inner World’ - when I dragged him over to London to attend a concert entitled ‘Pacific Voices’ that I was presenting with Barry Humphries at the Wigmore Hall. The programme was to finish with Inner World. It was wonderful to meet Carl - NOT the wild-eyed techno-savvy artist I’d had in mind, but a quiet, dapper gentleman with a deceptively gentle voice. I say ‘deceptively’, because he is the master of the soft cynical insult! Having played Inner World countless times, and recorded it, as well as premiering Carl’s cello concerto, I have now spent a lot of time with him. Carl is not only composer of enormous talent, and a wonderfully creative person; he is also great company!’

BIRTHDAY MESSAGES

Various birthday events have been planned throughout the year. Already behind us are the celebrations at the Sydney Opera House in March, which featured a performance of Smith’s Alchemy (a 14-minute rendering of his third string quartet), given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Israeli conductor Pinchas Steinberg.

March also saw the premiere of a new piano trio at the Conservatorium of Music in Newcastle, Australia. The Sitkovetsky Trio gave the first performance as part of an eight-concert tour of Australia presented by Musica Viva. Entitled The Village, the work takes inspiration from recent scientific studies suggesting that humans have evolved to function best socially in groups of no more than 150 people. ‘This is the premise of The Village,’ writes Vine, ‘in which a central character is reshaped through a series of musical encounters.’

On 31 May the Queensland Youth Symphony will give the first performance of Vine’s 10-minute orchestral tone poem Gravity Road, at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane.

The ‘Gravity Road’ of the title refers to a historic railway line in Pennsylvania which began life carrying coal, but became the world’s first rollercoaster. The piece is, in Vine’s words, ‘an homage to the pioneering spirit and sense of adventure’ that led to Gravity Road.

Vine returns to his home town of Perth in his birthday month of October for the world premiere of a new Concerto for Orchestra by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. The two performances, at the Perth Concert Hall on 10 and 11 October, will be conducted by Michael Stern.

‘Carl’s music has been an integral part of the Australian Chamber Orchestra… His rigorous and distinctive language has travelled with me and the ACO throughout Australia and the world and continues to inspire and transcend. Happy Birthday Carl.’

Richard Tognetti (violinist, conductor and composer)

‘Dear Carl, please indulge me as I pay tribute to your enduring legacy and boundless talent… where would Australian dance be without your breakthrough score for Poppy? How would budding and established pianists test themselves without your first Piano Sonata? How would Mythologia have thrilled the audience during the Sydney Olympics? Who else would generously open his archives and create an 80-minute score for my ballet The Silver Rose? Carl, so many thanks are in order for so much beautiful, demanding and uplifting music… As your friend, fan, and colleague, I wish you Happy Birthday as I hungrily await your next outpouring.’

Graeme Murphy (choreographer)

PHOTO: CARL VINE © KEITH SAUNDERS

Steven Isserlis (Cellist)

EVENTS

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JULIAN ANDERSON’S FIRST OPERA There can be few events in a composer’s life more thrilling than the birth of an opera. In Julian Anderson’s case it appears everything has been pointing to this moment. Following prodigious talent and international acclaim in just about every major genre – orchestral, choral, ensemble, chamber, dance – at 46 Anderson is about to release his first opera, Thebans. It is a timeless and thrilling tale: Anderson has collaborated with his librettist, the celebrated playwright Frank McGuinness, to re-work Sophocles’ Oedipus trilogy, a myth filled with murder and incest, political ambition, love and loyalty.

The opera has been commissioned by English National Opera and the much-anticipated premiere will be given in London on 3 May (performances run till 3 June). The superb creative team includes celebrated director Pierre Audi, conductor Edward Gardner and an outstanding cast of ENO regulars: Roland Wood as the tormented Oedipus, Susan Bickley as his wife/mother Jocasta, Julia Sporsén as the doomed Antigone, and Peter Hoare as Creon.

The opera is a co-production with Theater Bonn which will give the German premiere in May 2015.

Julian Anderson speaks here to Sonia Stevenson about Thebans, its inspiration, structure and music.

AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDERSON How did the opera come about and how does it relate to your other works?

‘In 2006 Ed Gardner, English National Opera’s Music Director, approached me after hearing the premiere of my chorus and orchestra work Heaven is Shy of Earth at the BBC Proms. In a sense, the music I wrote for that work’s mezzosoprano soloist – who not only sings lines from an Emily Dickinson poem, but takes on the character of Dickinson herself – was a pre-study for an opera. Neither was this my first foray into operatic writing. Unbeknown to most, in 1999, between commissions, I quietly began sketching an opera based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

The sketches went well, but at that stage I didn’t feel ready to tackle an entire opera and the manuscript went in a drawer (I hope to return to it someday). In the meantime, however, I was drawn to the Oedipus trilogy which I had studied at school, and when the commission came through from ENO it was clear to me that this would be the perfect subject.’

What in particular attracted you to the Oedipus tale?

‘One of the most important aspects of this trilogy lies in the fact that none of its characters are perfect. At one end of the scale you have (in Oedipus at Colonus) the elderly Oedipus at

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PHOTOS: PIERRE AUDI © IRWIN OLAF, SCORE EXTRACT FROM ‘THEBANS’ © FABER MUSIC

the seemingly wise and holy end of his life, who nonetheless speaks a terrible curse upon his own son. And at the other, you have Creon who is appallingly flawed and brutal, but has equally attractive and persuasive qualities.

These inconsistencies, these changes of heart, are what fuel the music. Opera is a rare medium where multiple meanings coexist simultaneously; where a character’s words can tell you one thing, but the music tells you another. From the first moment I read the Oedipus plays I was immediately struck by the feeling that these characters needed to sing.’

‘… The drama is vivid and strong; I don’t want people to know what’s hit them until they’ve left the opera house.’

How much have you stuck to Sophocles’ narrative and how has that informed the way your music unfolds?

‘There is some debate as to what order Sophocles’ plays should be presented in. The chronological order puts Oedipus the King first, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and finally Antigone. However some, myself included, feel that placing Antigone in the middle adds extra meaning to the way the drama unfolds. My opera represents the three plays as one grand narrative. Act 1 covers Oedipus’ time as arrogant king of the plague ridden city of Thebes and his subsequent fall from grace as he becomes the scapegoat for the city’s ills. The music changes with his character. Act 2 races forward in time to when Creon has taken charge of the city. He is

HIGHLIGHTS

a suave and persuasive speaker who preaches simple answers with Stalin-esque consequences for the people he comes to subjugate. The music here is initially very rigid, with restricted rhythmic writing and monolithic lines, but breaks down into something much more flowing as the people rebel. Finally Act 3 returns in time to the point of Oedipus’ death in a sacred wood outside Athens. He searches for an ending just as the music searches for a place to return to.

As he finally steps forward into a great light, the music gathers itself into an almighty crescendo; emphatic, yet on the point of something else.’

You have gained respect in many genres, especially for the vividness of your orchestral writing and for the affinity with which you write for chorus. How have you gone about writing for each – orchestra and chorus – in the opera?

‘From the start ENO wanted a work that would use all their forces, especially the chorus. The Oedipus plays could not be a better vehicle. The opera uses the chorus in many different guises.

In Act 1 they are in dialogue with the characters and commentate on the action. In Act 2 they aid, abet and argue, starting as victims singing in a mindless obedient way before breaking rank as chaos ensues. In Act 3 the chorus is entirely off-stage and their ethereal voices conjure up the sounds of nature and the voice of Zeus. In this, as in other factors, I was partly inspired by Janáček who uses his chorus to evoke the voice of nature in some operas.

The role of the orchestra is even more important and needs to be as flexible as possible. It adds another voice to the drama; one that can subvert just as much as it supports. For instance, there are moments when two characters are locked in tension, but I hold back the orchestra deliberately; only later does it erupt. It’s important to constantly think dramatically and this has stretched my musical vocabulary, making me think and reflect. This is thrilling; in fact this project has been the greatest thrill of my life.’

Opera is by its very nature a collaborative effort. How have you found the process of collaboration?

‘Firstly I was privileged to work on the libretto with the wonderful writer Frank McGuinness, whose Sophocles adaptations are the basis of the opera. Frank has an extraordinary sensitivity to the needs of opera and was happy to cut (and allowed me to cut still further) so that the text is not only sing-able, but truly thrilling and memorable in its brevity. I have also had enormous pleasure working with the creative team at ENO, with the director Pierre Audi whose work and musicality I have long admired, the designer Tom Pye who has brought to life some glorious recent productions, and Ed Gardner, without whom none of this would have happened, and who has conducted my music many times. Finally, my thanks go to ENO’s Artistic Director, John Berry, for his invaluable support for the project. This dream team allowed me to do what I needed to do. The opera has evolved and is different from when I first imagined it, as it should be. The drama is vivid and strong; I don’t want people to know what’s hit them until they’ve left the opera house.’

PHOTOS: JULIAN ANDERSON © MAURICE FOXALL, EDWARD GARDNER © BEN EALOVEGA

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ADÈS’S ‘THE TEMPEST’ WINS GRAMMY Grammy Award for Adès’s opera ‘The Tempest’ It’s not often that contemporary classical music makes the headlines alongside rock, pop and R’n’B, but Thomas Adès’s opera The Tempest is a distinctive and deserving exception. In a glittering, red carpet ceremony in LA, the work took the 56th Grammy Award for best opera recording, beating off stiff competition in the form of Christian Thielemann’s Ring Cycle and an Aldeburgh festival recording of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. The Tempest recording in question — a Deutsche Gramophone DVD of Robert Le Page’s extraordinary production featuring singers Simon Keenlyside, Isabel Leonard, Audrey Luna and Alan Oke, alongside Adès conducting — was recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera in October 2012 during a run of performances that were heralded as ‘simply magnificent’, ‘sensual enchantment’ and a ‘reminder of why we go to the opera.’

‘Crikey,’ said Adès as he accepted the award, ‘it’s an honour to be nominated at all.’ He went on to thank the Met and its musicians, along with general manager Peter Gelb for screening the opera in cinemas around the world as part of the company’s Live in HD programme.

The award-winning production is something to behold! Director Robert Le Page sets the action inside a creaking reconstruction of Milan’s 18thcentury La Scala; a setting that symbolises the Milanese society from which Prospero has been banned. Ariel hangs from an enormous chandelier, Caliban emerges from the under-stage machinery and Prospero conjures up illusions that dazzle his double audience (the fictional characters and the actual audience alike). This, matched with Adès’s ever-masterful and constantly-compelling score, makes for an opera experience like no other.

‘The Tempest’ in Frankfurt The Tempest has now been performed a breathtaking 70 times in 9 different countries. Most recently it was presented at Wiederaufnahme Oper, Frankfurt in January-February, in a revival of Keith Warner’s acclaimed 2010 production which sparked a chorus of praise in the German press.

It was no different this time round with critics remarking on the opera’s ‘full colour magic’ and praising conductor Sian Edwards for her ‘beautiful realisation of the score.’

‘The release of sound energy happens at the beginning of the storm and is followed by sharp, dissonant passages. But over the course of the action the music becomes softer and more harmonious, and endears itself with traditional listening habits, it comes to full colour magic, emotional outbursts and love poetry… Adès gives each of the characters idiomatic colour that is enhanced by the respective orchestral accompaniment. The air spirit Ariel is given

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PHOTOS: THE TEMPEST © THE MET / KEN HOWARD, THOMAS ADÈS © GETTY IMAGES

stratospheric coloratura, complemented by splashes in the orchestra, the love duet between Miranda and Ferdinand is supported by a romantic, melting, pure major key… Prospero’s outbreaks are keenly sharpened by the orchestral score. The former musical director of the English National Opera, Sian Edwards, led the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, in a beautiful realisation of the score’s colours and concise dynamics.’

Der Opernfreund (Manfred Langer), 13 January 2014

‘Everything became a compact, powerful whole, in which the power of the winds and the sea became sculptural… For all the storm, there is room for feelings and emotions.’

Frankfurter Neue Presse (Matthias Gerhart), 13 January 2014

‘The Tempest’ in Vienna The next opportunity to experience the magic of Robert Le Page’s Grammy-winning production will be at the Wiener Staatsoper in June 2015, when Adès himself will be conducting.

HIGHLIGHTS

FRANCISCO COLL – ‘CAFÉ KAFKA’ A bold new foray into opera Francisco Coll has not yet reached 30, but already he has ventured into the world of opera with Café Kafka, a chamber opera which was premiered at the Britten Studio, Aldeburgh in March. The work is a collaboration with librettist Meredith Oakes and together the pair have constructed a darkly surreal world built from texts and fragments by Franz Kafka.

What drew the composer to these fragments and how is the opera structured around them?

Meredith Oakes explains: ‘Kafka follows the truth of his feelings, so his writing is easily compatible with music.

Francisco is particularly interested in him, and when we first talked, we agreed that we would like to make a short opera based on short stories less familiar to the public than, say, Metamorphosis. At first we thought we might find just one story, but ultimately we decided to group and reshuffle elements from a number of different stories (a thing Kafka himself already does). I wound up taking sections from over a dozen. In that way we could make a text that would lend itself to performance on stage.’

The opera explores various themes common in Kafka’s writing: the individual’s perilous, changeable relationship with the herd; the interplay between real and surreal; courtship, attraction, rivalry, impulsiveness and the way love can seem like a special instance of all the things that are confusing about being alive; the vertigo and intoxication people feel from trying and failing to understand the world. These elements are picked out in music that is equally vivid and revelatory, fantastically paced and ultimately hugely engaging.

The drama focuses on relations between the sexes. Four of the characters are ordinary people: Girl (soprano – a bit flaky), Woman (mezzo), Man 1 (tenor), and Man 2 (counter-tenor – drinking schnapps and a bit drunk). The fifth, the bassbaritone, appears as the long-dead legendary figure known as The Hunter Gracchus.

Director Annabel Arden and designer Joanna Parker created a wonderful sense of comedy infused with an undertone of menace and mystery. A talented young cast – Suzanne Shakespeare as Girl, Daniel Norman as Man 1, Anna Dennis as Woman, William Purefoy as Man 2 and Andri Björn Róbertsson as Man 3/Gracchus/ Policeman – revelled in the fast-paced action and thrilling leaps of Coll’s vocal lines. Whilst conductor Richard Baker and Ensemble CHROMA brought out the score’s rich instrumental tapestry.

The 45-minute opera is scored for 5 singers and 10 players. It was jointly commissioned by Aldeburgh Music, The Royal Opera House and Opera North and was performed by all three companies during March.

PHOTOS: FRANZ KAFKA, FRANCISCO COLL

‘The evening comes alive after the interval, with Café Kafka, a witty fantasy by Meredith Oakes set to music of real imagination and prodigious technical skill by the young Spanish composer Francisco Coll. There’s a touch of unease about the comedy, and even a hint of menace, but as a whole the piece entertains in a sophisticated fashion as staged by Annabel Arden and designer Joanna Parker… My guess is that Café Kafka will have an afterlife. Its talented composer deserves a second operatic commission.’

The Stage (George Hall), 18 March 2014

‘…a master of his art. This could become a classic.’ ‘…this opera was brilliantly conceived and executed.

Taking its cue from Meredith Oakes’s stream-ofconsciousness libretto, the score was a brightlycoloured high-wire act which the singers translated into witty physical comedy as dysfunctional folk in a bar; its musical coup de theatre revealed 29-year-old Coll to be a master of his art. This could become a classic.’

The Independent (Michael Church), 18 March 2014

More reviews to follow in next newsletter.

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Selected forthcoming performances

Jonathan Harvey

Jubilus

ensemble piece Wheel of Emptiness, an evocation of buddhism, and Scena, a ‘quasi-operatic scene’ for violin and ensemble.

Bird Concerto with Pianosong

The simple beauty of ‘Plainsongs for Peace and Light’

4.4.14, Musikakademie Basel, Switzerland: Orchester Diagonal/ Jürg Henneberger/Marcus Weiss

12.4.14, Hertz Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California/ David Milnes

Jonathan Harvey’s last work, the choral piece Plainsongs for Peace and Light, was performed in the UK for the first time last summer at the Aldeburgh Festival. It is classic Harvey. Simplicity and complexity combined with beautiful effect: simple major and harmonic minor scales are used to generate diatonic clusters – eight-note chords with occasional doublings. ‘I know how well simple music sounds in voices,’ said Harvey, ‘the voice has the ability to re-enliven simple chords astonishingly.’

Scena

(South Korean premiere) 20.4.14, Sejong Cultural Center, Seoul, South Korea: Wayne Lin/ Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra/ Pierre-André Valade 8.5.14, Shanghai Conservatory, China: Nieuw Ensemble/Atlas Ensemble

String Quartet No 4

24.4.14, Sweet Thunder Festival, San Francisco, CA, USA: The JACK Quartet

String Quartet No 1

26.4.14, Milton Court Concert Hall, GSMD, Barbican, London, United Kingdom: Arditti Quartet

Calling Across Time

(German premiere) 10.5.14, Wittener Tage fur neue Musik, Witten, Germany: WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln/ Peter Rundel

String Quartet No 2

21.5.14, Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico: Arditti Quartet

Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco

25.8.14, Les Jardins Musicaux, Auvernier, Switzerland

Jonathan Harvey archive at the Paul Sacher Foundation The manuscripts of Jonathan Harvey have recently been acquired by the Paul Sacher Foundation. This transaction, which the Foundation agreed with the composer before his death, has been made possible thanks to the generous support of André Hoffmann.

Thus Harvey’s creative documents are all now available in Basel for musicological research. The collection provides comprehensive documentation of this extraordinary and complex artist. It allows insight into Harvey’s extensive musical oeuvre, his wide-ranging experiments fusing traditional instruments and electro-acoustic sound sources (some of which were implemented with IRCAM in Paris), and his unusual Buddhist-inspired aesthetic.

Harvey’s musical manuscripts (sketches, drafts and fair copies) form the main component of the collection, which also includes his writings on music (including his famous book on Stockhausen), correspondence and numerous recordings. More information can be found at www.paul-sacher-stiftung.ch

Coup de Cœur Each year the French Charles Cros Academy awards a Coup de Cœur to a selected number of recordings which they recognise for their excellence of interpretation, talented new performers and daring or editorial courage. In 2013 the Academy selected the Cyprès label recording of Jonathan Harvey’s opera Wagner Dream which features singers Claire Booth and Gordon Gietz, Ensemble Ictus and conductor Martyn Brabbins.

75th birthday year marked by Music of Today concert 2014 would have been Jonathan Harvey’s 75th birthday year and a marvellous tribute concert was given in January as part of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Music of Today series. The Philharmonia players were joined by conductor Antony Hermus and violinist Hae-Sun Kang for a thrilling performance of two of Harvey’s seminal works: the 8

PHOTO: JONATHAN HARVEY © MAURICE FOXALL

‘The Latvian Radio Choir gave a wonderfully precise and beautifully blended performance that captured the piece’s understated but extremely affecting numinous power. Predominantly hushed and serene, this brief and poignant work made an especially memorable conclusion to my weekend…’

Tempo (Paul Conway), December 2013

In January Cappella Amsterdam and conductor Gijs Leenaars gave the Dutch premiere of Plainsongs for Peace and Light in Utrecht, with additional performances in Amsterdam and Tilburg.

Continuing life of ‘Glasgow Trilogy’ The three orchestral works that make up the socalled ‘Glasgow Trilogy,’ Body Mandala (2006), Speakings (2008) and …Towards a pure land (2005), all composed whilst Harvey was composer in residence with the BBC Scottish SO, have had an extraordinary life. Since their premiere these visionary pieces have been taken up many leading orchestras, and the last six months alone have seen eight performances! In September the complete trilogy was performed at the Ruhrtriennale festival by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and Ilan Volkov.

The same orchestra gave an additional performance of Body Mandala at the Festival Musica Strasbourg, and later that month Speakings was performed by Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Pascal Rophé. In November Body Mandala was heard in Reykjavik in a performance by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, whilst Speakings was given

by L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and Jean Déroyer as part of Festival Manca. Finally, this March Body Mandala was performed at Conservatoire Nationale de Lyon. The enduring power and impact of these three Buddhist-infused works is clear.

The score of Body Mandala is available to purchase at www.fabermusicstore.com ISBN: 0-571-518494-4.

TUNING IN Selected forthcoming performances

Thomas Adès to this miniature form, but it is totally comfortable in this arrangement – brilliantly colourful, in fact, with these instruments… The concert was greeted with cheers and whistles of a magnitude you don’t expect at a contemporary music recital… if this is the future of classical music, it’s actually pretty exciting.’

Paul Kilbey (Bachtrack), 7 November 2013

‘Powder Her Face’ returns to London Adès’s first opera, Powder Her Face opens in a new English National Opera production this spring (2-19 April). The opera helped to launch the composer’s international career in 1995 and remains one of his most performed works. It charts the glamorous rise and seedy fall of the notorious socialite beauty Margaret, Duchess of Argyll – here played by soprano Amanda Roocroft – drawing on episodes from the Duchess’s colourful life, not least her sexually voracious appetite. The provocative tale is matched by a dazzlingly precocious score which pays homage to the popular idioms of cabaret and tango, as well as to Weill, Berg and Stravinsky.

The new production by Joe Hill-Gibbins – a major talent in British theatre, here making his opera debut – is site-specific and based at Ambika P3, London, described in the Guardian as ‘one of the capital’s hidden and most exciting new spaces.’

Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Letters Earlier this year Adès was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He joins a select group of only 75 foreign fellows across the fields of music, arts, literature and architecture.

Adès and friends open new Milton Court In November Adès took to the stage of London’s newest concert hall, Milton Court, in a chamber concert billed as ‘Adès and Friends.’ He was joined by violinist Anthony Marwood, clarinettist Matthew Hunt and cellist Louise Hopkins for a varied and absorbing evening of chamber music by himself and others, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Chamber gems such as the cello/piano duo Lieux retrouvés and the small ensemble works Catch and Court Studies from The Tempest shone brilliantly in the hall’s specially-designed acoustic.

‘Lieux retrouvés… Whether delicate, grand, sweet or squeaky, this is a generous piece for the listener, filled with gorgeous melodic moments, heartbreakingly soft gestures and typically deft Adèsian flourishes… Court Studies… what a remarkable transformation this music has undergone, from its grand operatic origins PHOTO: THOMAS ADÈS © MAURICE FOXALL

‘Adès’s music is filled with dark, translucent colours, rarely abrasive but always imposing. Whatever dynamic or tempo he employs, he always ensures a clarity of texture that gives his music a sense of openness and honesty. And at the piano, too, he is always projecting textures and colours, propelled by a skittish energy, but giving every element within the texture its due exposure… the Court Studies… What great music it is!… well-conceived and well-realised musical ideas, expertly paced and, as ever with Adès, expertly voiced among the four instruments.’

Seen and Heard (Gavin Dixon), 7 November 2013

Powder Her Face 2-19.4.14, Ambika P3, Marylebone, London, United Kingdom: English National Opera/dir. Joe Hill-Gibbins/cond.

Edward Gardner

Three Studies from Couperin 3.4.14, Auditorium Pollini, Padua, Italy: Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto/Nicholas Collon 11.5.14, Paraninfo Palacio de Congresos, de Valladolid, Spain: Joven Orquesta Universidad de Valladolid/Francisco Lara 29-30.11.14, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 North Water Street, Milwaukee, USA: Players from Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra/Jeffrey Kahane

Chamber Symphony 11.4.14, Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA: Oberlin Conservatory/ Timothy Weiss

Asyla

‘if this is the future of classical music, it’s actually pretty exciting’ ‘Asyla’ chosen as seminal work of 1990’s With its manic energy and mind-blowing orchestration, Asyla is a piece that hits you squarely between the eyes. It has been wowing listeners since its premiere in 1997 and it’s no surprise that it was included in a concert of seminal British works from the 1990s presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Jurowski as the culmination of the Southbank Centre’s Rest is Noise festival. Once again this extraordinary piece left the audience cheering.

‘…arguably the masterpiece of this concert… Asyla emerged once again as fantastically inventive and quirky, the latter quality enhanced by such as steel drums and two upright pianos, one detuned, and a warehouse of other paraphernalia. Whether hallucinatory or apocalyptic – messages from a madhouse and sometimes with a Shostakovich-like loneliness – there is no doubting Adès’s consummate imagination and skill.’

Classical Source (Colin Anderson), 7 December 2013

‘Finally came Thomas Adès’s celebrated and dazzling Asyla, excellently shaped by Jurowski and brilliantly played… [a] reminder that British music of the 1990s was healthily open to the stylish and funky as well as the cerebral.’

The Guardian (Martin Kettle), 9 December 2013

The National Youth Orchestra will perform Asyla with conductor Francois-Xavier Roth in three performances this April.

17, 18, 19.4.14, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, The Sage, Gateshead, & Royal Festival Hall, London, United Kingdom: National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain/Francois-Xavier Roth

Piano Quintet 20.4.14, salle Elie de Brignac, Deauville, France: Jonas Vitaud/ Quatuor Hermès 5, 6.5.14, Concert Hall, Perth, & Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, United Kingdom: Hebrides Ensemble

Court Studies from The Tempest 9.5.14, Farmers and Merchants Bank, Los Angeles, USA: DC8 20.6.14, Wigmore Hall, London, United Kingdom: BCMG

Concerto for Violin 22, 23, 24.5.14, Music Hall, Aberdeen, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, & Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, United Kingdom: RSNO/Peter Oundjian/Augustin Hadelich

The Origin of the Harp 2.6.14, Kilbourn Hall, Rochester, NY, USA: University of Rochester/ Madison Greenstone

Tevot 11, 21.6.14, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, & Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk, United Kingdom: CBSO/Thomas Adès

The Four Quarters 13.6.14, Kings Place, London, United Kingdom: Principle players of Aurora Orchestra

Darknesse Visible 17.6.14, Spitalfields Festival, Village Underground, London, United Kingdom

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Selected forthcoming performances

George Benjamin

Viola, Viola

OPERNWELT – PREMIERE OF THE YEAR 2013

3-5.4.14, Sint Petrusbasiliek, Boxtel, Cultura, Ede, Grote Kerk Muiden, Netherlands: Daniel Bard/David Marks

This award, from the leading German opera magazine Opernwelt, is decided by 50 independent music critics in Europe and US.

22.5.14, Kaplan Penthouse, Lincoln Centre, New York, USA: Huw Watkins/Yura Lee/Richard O’Neill

DIAPASON D’OR, NOVEMBER 2013

28.6.14, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk, United Kingdom: Antoine Tamestit

At First Light

4.4.14, Musikakademie Basel, Switzerland: Ensemble Diagonal/ Jürg Henneberger 5.6.14, Barcelona, Spain: BCN216 3.7.14, Suntory Hall, Toyko, Japan: Tokyo Sinfonietta/Yasuaki Itakura

Written on Skin

11-27.4.14, 3-24.5.14, Landestheater, Detmold, Germany: Lutz Rademacher/ Andreas Jören/Vera-Lotte Böcker/ Bernhard Landauer

(Portuguese premiere) 22-23.5.14, Calouste Gulbenkian Concert Hall, Lisbon, Portugal: Gulbenkian Orchestra/George Benjamin/Christopher Purves/Elin Rombo/Tim Mead

Three Inventions for Chamber Orchestra 10.5.14, Carnegie Hall, New York, USA: Ensemble ACJW/ Susanna Mälkki

Upon Silence / Octet

1.6.14, Rose Theater, Lincoln Center, New York, USA: Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Pablo Heras-Casado

Duet

(Icelandic premiere) 5.6.14, Reykjavik, Iceland: Iceland Symphony Orchestra/ George Benjamin/Nicolas Hodges

Ringed by the Flat Horizon

20.6.14, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra/George Benjamin

Shadowlines

26.6.14, IRCAM, France: Florent Boffard

Viola, Viola / Upon Silence

27.6.14, Le Centquatre, Paris, France: Students from Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris

Flight

28.6.14, Le Centquatre, Paris, France: Musicans from Ensemble Intercontemporain

Into the Little Hill

1-7.11.14, Essen, Germany: Theater and Philharmonie Essen/ Manuel Nawri/Regie Kay Link

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Musical America’s Composer of the Year Musical America announced George Benjamin as recipient of its 2014 Composer of the Year Award, which recognizes artistic excellence and achievement. Benjamin’s spectacular career, the richness and beauty of his music, along with the success of his recent opera Written on Skin, were cited:

‘George Benjamin began studies at age 15 with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire. His first orchestral work, Ringed by the Flat Horizon, was written at 20 and conducted by Pierre Boulez. A spectacular career ensued, with works for varied instrumental combinations creating rich textures and harmonic beauty. His sharp ear for poetry and precision was thrillingly revealed in his 2012 opera, Written on Skin, premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival… In nearly 40 international performances, it has received universal praise. The piece tells one of the oldest stories in the world, a triangular tale of sexual curiosity, rhapsodic love, and violent jealousy. But it does so in a language all its own, at once exquisitely wrought and devastatingly raw.’

Awards galore for ‘Written on Skin’ The Musical America award is just one of many that has bestowed on Benjamin in recent months. His opera Written on Skin has been collecting a growing list of accolades:

SOUTH BANK SKY ARTS AWARD 2014 – OPERA CATEGORY BRITISH COMPOSER AWARD 2013 – STAGE CATEGORY ‘…the work that revitalises contemporary opera; that demonstrates completely why it is still a vibrant contemporary force. Written on Skin is beautiful as well as dark, its translucent original score alternately charming and challenging, questioning.’

ACADÉMIE CHARLES CROS 2013 – GRAND PRIX PHOTO: GEORGE BENJAMIN © MAURICE FOXALL

‘Rejoice! We reviewers and spectators were not collectively hallucinating at the Aix-en- Provence festival in July 2012. The disc attests to Written on Skin, George Benjamin’s second opera… lyrical… haunting… personal… disturbing. How could one not fall under the spell? …the music of Benjamin and the text by Martin Crimp are perfect for one another… The instrumental part is full of archaic sounds and mysterious iridescent textures the bass viol , the mandolins, rare percussion, the muted brass… The vocal lines [have] astounding eloquence and sensuality…’

Diapson (Benoît Fauchet), November 2013

GRAND PRIX DU SYNDICAT DE LA CRITIQUE 2013 OPÉRA MAGAZINE – LE DIAMANT D’OPERA, NOVEMBER 2013 INTERNATIONAL OPERA AWARD (UK) 2013 Over 40 performances of ‘Written on Skin’ in two years!

It is hard to believe that Written on Skin was premiered just under two years ago; since that time it has astonishingly been performed over 40 times (beating even the number of performances Britten’s Peter Grimes in a comparable timeframe!).

The latest performances took place last autumn in Bonn, where the city’s Stadtteater staged a new production, and Paris, where Katie Mitchell’s original production was performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (conducted by George Benjamin) as part of the Festival d’Automne.

The opera now travels to the Stadttheater Detmold in another new production running from 11 April, and then on to Lisbon for two semi-staged performances with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and George Benjamin on 22 and 23 May. There are many more performances to come and more news will follow in the next newsletter.

‘Written on Skin’ out on DVD A DVD of Written on Skin (filmed at the Royal Opera House) was released in January on the Opus Arte label and has inspired renewed claims that this is one of the greatest operas of the 21st Century.

TUNING IN

Tansy Davies ‘George Benjamin’s opera is the most subtle, the most sophisticated, the most powerful musical drama of the modern era… Benjamin’s achievement is to make opera seem natural in the 21st century: Written on Skin is a vivid successor to Pelléas et Mélisande in its lyrical sensuousness and to Wozzeck in its cinematographic fluency and unsparing analysis of the human condition.’

Selected forthcoming performances neon

(Japanese premiere) 23.4.14, Shibuya-ku Bunka Sogo Center, Tokyo, Japan: Tokyo Ensemble Factory/Kanako Abe/Tokyo Ensemble Factory 4.10.14, Southbank Centre, London, United Kingdom: Asko/ Schoenberg Ensemble/Clark Rundell

Financial Times (Andrew Clark), 31 January 2014

Nature

10.5.14, CBSO Centre, Birmingham, United Kingdom: BCMG/Oliver Knussen

‘The first truly great opera of the 21st century…the [its] communicative power is immense, with Benjamin’s highly coloured music, never forbiddingly complex, consistently moving in step with Martin Crimp’s tangy and chiseled words.’

The Times (Geoff Brown), 17 January 2014

‘Into the Little Hill’ — Oz premiere Into the Little Hill, George Benjamin’s first opera and his first collaboration with playwright Martin Crimp, was staged in Australia for the first time

by Sydney Chamber Opera this January. The work reinterprets the Pied Piper legend as a dark political tragedy; its striking score lures the audience into a maze of sound and story. Written on Skin may have been making all the headlines recently, but its older and smaller cousin packs considerable punch.

‘…a masterclass in dramatic economy and cohesion…

Benjamin is one of modern music’s great colourists while organising his orchestral forces with intellectual rigour… Benjamin’s other great skill is his ability to set and dramatise the text – just listen to the tension he is able to build in the exchanges between ‘The Man’ and ‘The Minister’.’

Limelight Magazine (Clive Paget), 18 January 2014

‘Into the Little Hill, was simply electrifying… The purity of the intonation and the tightness of their ensemble almost hurt, it was so perfectly in place… the latent symbolism of events and characters is brought more to the fore.’

Bachtrack (David Larkin), 21 January 2014

Benjamin makes waves in Italy In September, George Benjamin was the composer in focus at the renowned MiTo festival in Italy. Over the course of 6 concerts, 3 orchestras (the London Sinfonietta, Filarmonica 900 and Orchestra del RAI Torino) delved into Benjamin’s treasure chest of orchestral works, revealing a myriad of gems.

‘From the “first light” of At First Light to the dark hues of the third of the Three Inventions, this was a wonderful concert by the London Sinfonietta, winning over audiences with the music of one of today’s greatest composers… he writes pieces of consistently high quality, and revealing a keen, meditative mind… a feeling of great refinement and the ability to continuously innovate.’

L’Unita (Paolo Petazzi Milano), 11 September 2013

BCMG to revive striking piano concerto ‘Nature’ Tansy Davies has long been renowned for her unique compositional voice and distinctive aesthetic. One of her most striking pieces of recent years is Nature, a small-scale piano concerto she wrote for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in 2012. Then, and at every hearing since, the piece has wowed audiences and press: ‘[a] singular and impressive piece, both abrasive and glittering’ wrote The Times in 2012.

BCMG is to revive the work on 10 May with Oliver Knussen conducting and Huw Watkins as soloist.

Davies featured at inaugural Bristol New Music Festival The first ever Bristol New Music Festival launched in February with performances of Davies’s much-loved small ensemble pieces Neon and Salt Box. As part of the new festival, the Bristol Ensemble was keen to establish a new music group from within their ranks and it was fitting that they turned to music by Davies, who hails from Bristol, for their inaugural concert.

The continuing appeal of ‘Neon’ It is no surprise that the Bristol Ensemble chose Neon for their concert; it is fast becoming one of the composer’s most performed works.

The piece is classic Davies: deliciously quirky funk riffs play off against each other and highly original orchestration shines through. In the words of one critic ‘This is Stravinksy for the club generation’ – Classical Source.

Since its premiere in 2004, Neon has been performed in nine different countries and this spring it travels to another, Japan, for a performance with Tokyo Ensemble Factory and conductor Kanako Abe. The 10-minute work is scored for seven instruments: bcl (with amplification).ssax - perc (1) - elec keyboard - vln/vlc/db (all with amplification), and the score is on sale at www.fabermusicstore.com ISBN: 0-571-53821-5.

PHOTO: TANSY DAVIES © RIKARD ÖSTERLUND

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Selected forthcoming performances

Colin Matthews with very precise colourings and introduces a wide perspectivec… Traces Remain certainly issues an invitation to return and surely a nomination in this year’s British Composer Awards.’

“Nicht zu schnell” from Piano Quartet 25.4.14, Palacio de la Ópera, La Coruña, Spain: Victor Pablo Pérez/Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia

Classicalsource (Colin Anderson), 9 January 2014

Movements for a Clarinet Concerto

‘pungently scored… darkly and powerfully expressive’

7, 8.5.14, Chicago, IL, USA: Chicago Symphony Orchestra/ Edwin Outwater/Torin Bakke

Night Rides

(US premiere) 1.6.14, Rose Theater, Lincoln Center, New York, USA: Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Pablo Heras-Casado

Suns Dance

1.6.14, Rose Theater, Lincoln Center, New York, USA: Orchestra of St Luke’s/Pablo Heras-Casado

Berceuse for Elliott

20.6.14, Wigmore Hall, London, United Kingdom: BCMG

Vier Stücke

24.6.14, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk, United Kingdom: Ensemble 360

‘Traces Remain’ shines at BBC SO premiere Colin Matthews has always been a master at orchestrating and completing other composers’ music; one need think no further, for instance, than his exquisite Debussy Prelude orchestrations.

Matthews takes this a step further in his latest orchestral work, Traces Remain, in which he skilfully weaves a number of ‘traces’ (a sketched passage from Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony, material from Sibelius’ lost Eight Symphony, Schoenberg’s orchestration of Beethoven’s song Adelaide and a Jacobean lute song by Robert Johnson) around his own musical narrative. The result is a powerful, almost hypnotic piece, where different styles drift in and out of focus offering fleeting perfumes of other musical lands, all underpinned by Matthews’s own serious harmonic language and unwavering sense of direction. The 20-minute work was wonderfully realised by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, clearly relishing the expert direction of their new chief conductor Sakari Oramo.

‘…Traces Remain has a sort of ferocious nostalgia that breaks through any artifice. The chewy orchestration is one engrossing pleasure from the start… As the piece gropes for resolution, via spectres of Mahler, Sibelius, and, especially, the soothing baroque cadences of a Jacobean lute song, it feels like a real journey…’

The Times (Neil Fisher), 10 January 2014

‘it feels like a real journey’ ‘A new work from Colin Matthews is always welcome, and his Traces Remain adds to our appreciation of his range… tantalisingly elusive, eerie and atmospheric, and is so from its very opening, pungently scored, and is darkly and powerfully expressive… Matthews’s music is often notable for its restraint, yet with powerful expression and also eruptive fortissimos. Matthews handles a large orchestra not only with mastery but 12

‘Traces Remain was an intriguing and at times moving evocation of the way the past lingers into the present in odd, unexpected corners… A fragment of Beethoven’s song “Adelaide”, or something that might have been Sibelius – or possibly Mahler – would suddenly loom up in the woodwind, its outlines clouded in harp and piano and murmuring string figuration. It could all have seemed a bit precious, but Matthews kept that danger at bay by embedding these evocations in a grand 20-minute span. ’ The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 9 January 2014

‘…beautifully scored and played with luminous care… music which I’d like to hear again…’

Arts Desk (David Nice), 9 January 2014

British Composer Award for String Quartet No. 4 Matthews’s striking String Quartet No. 4 took the chamber music prize in the 2013 British Composer Awards. The seven-movement work – which encompasses styles as disparate as the habanera and spectral music – was premiered in 2012 at the Wigmore Hall in a stunning performance by the Elias Quartet. The judges remarked:

‘…a work of substance, profoundly moving, with moments of poise and delicacy within a highly original structure.’

Piano Trio marks 30-year connection with Schubert Ensemble A chance remark made by John Adams that ‘a piano trio offers nowhere to hide,’ inspired the title of Colin Matthews’s own piano trio Nowhere to hide.

Unforgiving though the genre may be, Matthews more than rose to the challenge and his piano trio received warm appreciation at its London premiere at the Wigmore Hall in November. The 14-minute piece was commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble to mark their 30th anniversary and their 30-year connection with Colin Matthews (he was the composer chosen for the ensemble’s first commission in 1984).

‘The work’s four movements follow more or less continuously, and are closely related thematically, the bulk of the material presented in the Prologue. The second movement originated as an independent elegy, composed on the death of Elliott Carter last year, but it shares an interest in the interval of a minor second

PHOTOS: COLIN MATTHEWS ACCEPTING BASCA AWARD © MARK ALLAN, SPIRA MIRABILIS ORCHESTRA

TUNING IN

drawn out melodically from its use as a chord in the violin’s opening paragraph in the first movement… the Scherzino third movement picks up the scurrying figures with which the first movement had ended…’

Classical Source (Curtis Rogers), 28 November 2013

Unique performances of ‘Grand Barcarolle’ in Italy In 2011, following a commission by the Gewandhaus Orchestra and conductor Riccardo Chailly, Matthews composed a companion piece for Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony which he titled Grand Barcarolle (a 13-minute work which exists in both full and chamber orchestra versions). In essence the piece imagines a slow movement for the symphony (although there is no implication that Grand Barcarolle could be inserted into Beethoven’s work) and it has since proved a popular programming choice for anyone performing Beethoven’s Eighth.

The latest orchestra to take up Grand Barcarolle is Spira Mirabilis, a dynamic, young group from Italy.

Matthews attended the orchestra’s performances in January and he describes their unusual rehearsal process: ‘Rehearsals with Spira Mirabilis are unique. It might be compared to working with a string quartet but with 10 times the number of players; and, without a conductor, everything is up for discussion. The 13-minute Barcarolle was rehearsed for well over 12 hours while I was with them — at one time this involved taking 20 minutes over a single bar. Because they knew Beethoven 8 by heart one of the rehearsals took place in complete darkness!’

…and a new work for Spira Mirabilis Matthews is currently working on a chamber orchestra piece which will be premiered by Spira Mirabilis in Aldeburgh on 26 October. The work has been commissioned by Aldeburgh Music.

Martin Suckling

Selected forthcoming performances

SCO association begins on a high

Candlebird

Martin Suckling began his tenure as composer in association with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in February with the world premiere of Six Speechless Songs, a work celebrating the SCO’s 40th birthday.

But the piece also celebrates another birthday, that of the composer’s daughter who was born whilst he was writing the piece. ‘Such events,’ writes Suckling, ‘demand a celebration, but rather than composing a single movement of great energy and excitement, I decided to write a sequence of short lyrical moments that would allow for a variety of celebratory gestures…’

25, 27, 28.2.15, Younger Hall, St Andrews, City Halls, Glasgow, & Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Nicholas Collon/Mark Stone

‘The 32-year-old Glaswegian writes with an astonishingly clear hand. He cuts to the point, illuminates contrast like a chiaroscuro painting and doesn’t hide behind clutter. These six fleeting movements were buoyant and shimmering. Among many striking moments were squalling strings, daringly sparse stretches and a yearning trumpet call that glowed like a beacon through the haar.

The orchestra played it all with brilliantly lithe attack.’

The Guardian (Kate Molleson), 7 February 2014

‘…a subtly crafted birthday ode, comprising six miniatures in delicate, understated vein – almost Ravellian in their innocence and intimacy.’

Financial Times (Andrew Clark), 9 February 2014

‘From its vivid, rhythmic opening, all unison melodies and Messiaen-like birdsong, to the icy mystery of the third movement, Suckling created a work of rich, almost decadent lyricism… it drew you deep inside its glistening textures, and that felt magical.’

The Scotsman (David Kettle), 8 February 2014

‘Postcards’ are ‘mini-masterpieces’ Suckling’s Postcards (previously named Short Stories) – a series of miniatures composed for the Scottish Ensemble – were performed as a complete set for the first time in October. Each ‘story’ on its own has been warmly received, but as a set, the stories shine even brighter. They are scored for strings (4.3.2.2.1).

‘…a superb rendition of Suckling’s four Short Stories sublimely conceived mini-masterpieces whose dense yet somehow delicate, fragile construction was painstakingly rendered with marvellously sustained intensity.’

The Herald Scotland (Martin Kershaw), 24 October 2013

‘sublimely conceived mini-masterpieces’ ‘…the gossamer delicacies of Suckling’s luminescent sound world, and a style that flows with liquid ease between tonal comfort and microtonal exploration. There was a genuine affinity between this alluring music and the players.’

The Scotsman (Kenneth Walton), 24 October 2013

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Selected forthcoming performances

Julian Anderson ‘The ear is wowed by Anderson’s seemingly effortless control of complex orchestral texture, yet an overarching sense of purpose underpinning the sudden twists, juxtapositions and punctuations is always apparent. This is stunning music…’

The Discovery of Heaven

(US premiere) 24-29.4.14, Avery Fisher Hall, New York, USA: New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Davis

BBC Music Magazine (Christopher Dingle), January 2014

Thebans

(world premiere) 3-31.5.14, 3.6.14 Coliseum, London, United Kingdom: English National Opera/cond. Edward Gardner/dir. Pierre Audi

‘…a virtuoso of orchestral style… Fantasias is a blisteringly inventive, often convulsively driven quasisymphony, opening with a perhaps Janacek-inspired brass fanfare movement. The Crazed Moon is gravely beautiful… recalling Ives with its offstage trumpets and mystically iridescent strings.’

String Quartet No.2

(world premiere) 15.5.14, Wigmore Hall, London, United Kingdom: Arditti String Quartet

The Sunday Times (Paul Driver), 17 November 2013

(US premiere) 8.8.14, St Francis Auditorium, Santa FE, New Mexico, USA: FLUX Quartet

US premiere of ‘The Discovery of Heaven’

15.8.14, La Jolla, CA, USA: FLUX Quartet

Alhambra Fantasy

5.6.14, Barcelona, Spain: BCN216

Book of Hours

9.6.14, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, United Kingdom: London Philharmonic Orchestra/Clement Power

5 stars for LPO CD Further proof of Julian Anderson’s masterful orchestral works – pieces as vivid and wild, as they are heavenly and serene – has come with the release of a disc of some of the composer’s most important works to date. The Crazed Moon (1999), Fantasias (2009) and The Discovery of Heaven (2011) show Anderson’s constantly evolving, but ever compelling orchestral sound-world, and their performance here by the London Philharmonic Orchestra – with whom Anderson is finishing his stint as Composer in Residence – is nothing short of virtuosic! The CD has garnered unanimous praise and five star reviews.

‘There can be no stronger proof of Anderson’s emergence as a figure of international stature than these three scores, brilliantly performed by the LPO. The 45-year old London-born composer manipulates the orchestra with enviable assurance, subtlety and precision — spangled timbres radiating light, harmonies exploiting tensions on the edge of tonality, melodies made up of tantalising snatches of lyrical conversation. The five fantasies add up to a virtuoso showpiece — tingling stuff — while The Crazed Moon and The Discovery of Heaven are among the most vivid soundscapes of the modern orchestral era.’

Anderson’s orchestral piece The Discovery of Heaven has already picked up praise and accolades in this country (it won a 2013 South Bank Sky Arts Award and was compared, at its premiere, to ‘the work of a 21st-century Debussy’). This April it crosses the Atlantic for its US premiere with cocommissioner, the New York Philharmonic and conductor Andrew Davis.

Wigmore Hall day reveals Anderson’s astonishingly varied musical language Julian Anderson’s position as Composer in Residence got off to a resounding start in November with a whole day of events devoted to the composer.

Audiences were treated to a selection of his chamber and ensemble works; heard together this collection of pieces reconfirmed the wonderful diversity and absorbing character of Anderson’s musical language.

‘If there were such a position as “London’s composer-inresidence”, it would surely belong to Julian Anderson…

It [the programme] confirmed previous impressions of Anderson as a master-manipulator of sound — impossible to pin down to any style or school except his own, unashamed to acknowledge debts to the past within a fresh and piquant harmonic framework, and always leading the ear intelligently, but never predictably… his oeuvre is developing into a treasurechest — serious, well-made and engaging as much to the senses as to the intellect.’

Financial Times (Andrew Clark), 5 November 2013

Financial Times (Andrew Clark), 22 November 2013

‘among the most vivid soundscapes of the modern orchestral era’ ‘…this might be just the new music you’ve been waiting for, its wow-factor surface fluency only part of the story.

Strongly recommended.’

Gramophone Magazine (David Gutman), January 2014

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PHOTO: JULIAN ANDERSON © MAURICE FOXALL

‘his oeuvre is developing into a treasure-chest’ ‘However challenging his music, it is entirely distinctive in being immediately absorbing in its every character, its every mood and colour — and there are so many of them. Anderson is also blessed with the ability to speak clearly and succinctly about his own musicv So, in a sequence of contrasting pieces from the past 20 years of his career, he pinpoints attempting to hear familiar sounds as though they were newly discovered; being

TUNING IN

obsessed with dance; using simple rhythmic patterns in complex ways — and being fascinated by the music of eastern Europe — not as an ethnomusicologist… but as someone who deeply assimilates what he hears as invigorating influences on his own music.’

The Times (Hilary Finch), 4 November 2013

‘… qualities that run throughout Anderson’s works in whatever medium: its keen technical address, and content that draws some of its character directly from the means at his disposal. Whether in the sensuous nocturne The Colour of Pomegranates… or in the garish yet involving The Bearded Lady… the impact of specific properties of the instruments themselves played a significant part in the distinctiveness of his writing… But it was the sheer immediacy of Anderson’s ensemble piece Tiramisu, and the almost strident punchiness of his substantial dance score The Comedy of Change, that augured most positively for his opera Thebans…’

The Guardian (George Hall), 4 November 2013

Francisco Coll

Selected forthcoming performances

Viola concerto — a case study in fantastic orchestration

Liquid Symmetries

Francisco Coll’s growing relationship with the London Sinfonietta was strengthened in December with the world premiere of Ad Marginem, a 15-minute concerto for viola and large ensemble.

The Sinfonietta’s distinguished principal viola, Paul Silverthorne, took the solo part, while conductor Baldur Brönnimann expertly led the ensemble in this bold new piece. Coll’s trademark use of extreme registers and fantastic orchestration shone through.

‘Notable… Francisco Coll’s new viola concertino Ad Marginem, in which soloist Paul Silverthorne’s often combative role successfully took on the brittle brilliance of the ensemble around him…’

The Guardian (George Hall), 12 December 2013

‘…the Sinfonietta also found fruitful employment in Francisco Coll’s viola concerto, Ad Marginem, with Paul Silverthorne’s light brown notes strikingly pitted against the bright and spiky.’

Youthful work way ahead of its time At the age of just 17 Julian Anderson composed a spectral string quartet that was way ahead of its time.

This bold, demanding music required many new extended techniques and at the time it was deemed unplayable. But that was 30 years ago and the situation today is vastly different; groups such as the JACK Quartet have more than risen to the challenge and music such as this has become their main stay.

The JACKs proved their mastery of the genre at the London premiere of Anderson’s String Quartet No. 1 ‘Light Music’ (7 mins) with playing that blazed with energy and lightening quick changes of colour. The concert formed part of Anderson’s ongoing position as composer in residence at the Wigmore Hall and the hall will play host to the world premiere of Anderson’s second string quartet this May with the Arditti Quartet.

‘The first half closed with Julian Anderson’s String Quartet no. 1, subtitled Light Music… It is an early example of British spectral music, and uses a scale of steps to grade from order to disorder and back again, in both rhythm and pitch. It is an extraordinary piece…’

Bachtrack (Penny Homer), 24 January 2014

‘Especial interest was attached to the First String Quartet (1985) by the then late-teenage Julian Anderson… This nine-minute exploration of the ‘‘colour of sound’’ has all four instruments playing, more or less continuously, in a densely translucent and always-evolving texture whose recourse to the overtones of the harmonic spectrum and non-standard tunings audibly prefigure the composer’s future concerns. Complex though never abstruse, the piece more than justifies its belated inclusion in Anderson’s official catalogue… whoever claims that radical new music has no future in the UK needs to think again.’

Classical Source (Richard Whitehouse), 24 January 2014

The Times (Geoff Brown), 10 December 2013

25.5.14, Festival of Contemporary Music ENSEMS, Valencia, Spain

No seré yo quien diga nada (UK premiere) 11, 21.6.14, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, United Kingdom: Nicholas Hodges/CBSO/Thomas Adès

Melisma

4.7.14, Coswig, Germany: Duo Kang Kusnezow

Hidd’n Blue

(French premiere) 24.7.14, Aix en Provence, Grand Theatre de Provence, France: Youth Mediterranean Orchestra/ Alain Altinoglu

Tapias

(UK premiere) 29, 30.1.15, City Halls, Glasgow, & Town Hall, Ayr, United Kingdom: Simon Johnson/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/ Otto Tausk

CBSO to give UK premiere of exuberant piano concertino One of the standout pieces in Coll’s growing catalogue must certainly be the piano concertino, No seré yo quien diga nada (I’m not saying nothing), which he wrote for pianist Nicholas Hodges in 2012. The 10-minute, exuberant work glistens with invention and the vibrant melodic lines leap off the page. The concertino will be heard for the first time in the UK this June (11 June Symphony Hall, Birmingham and 21 June Aldeburgh Festival) in what is sure to be a thrilling series of performances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, soloist Nicholas Hodges and conductor Thomas Adès.

Valencia Prize Francisco Coll’s home region of Valencia has conferred on him a prestigious Levante-EMV/ Bankia Young Talent Award for Culture. The panel commented that ‘at just 28 years old, Francisco Coll has won several national and international competitions as a composer’ and remarked on his success in gaining an opera commission at such a young age (see p.7).

‘Hidd’n Blue’ — the perfect concert opener What is a perfect concert opener? A piece that makes the audience immediately sit up and listen? One that abounds in colour and rhythm? One that shows off the orchestra to its full? Coll’s Hidd’n Blue is all these things. This short 6-minute work has already been taken up by orchestras such as the LSO and Sinfonieorchester des SWR Freiburg, and this summer it will be performed at the Aix en Provence Festival by the Youth Mediterranean Orchestra and conductor Alain Altinoglu.

If you would like to find out more about this piece, please contact promotion@fabermusic.com.

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Selected forthcoming performances

Benjamin Britten trademark… It’s a tragedy that this production had so few performances, as Ian Bostridge’s interpretation needs to be seen and heard by so many more than can be crammed into the confines of a medieval church. His performance will rank among the finest ever in this role and certainly one of the highlights of this year’s Britten centenary. He sings with such beauty and such yearning intensity he breaks your heart.’

Paul Bunyan 1.4.14 - 28.5.14, Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, Curve Theatre, Leicester, Theatre Royal, York, Norwich Theatre Royal, The Hawth, Crawley, Warwick Arts Centre, Exeter Northcott, Cambridge Arts Theatre, UK: English Touring Opera/cond.

Michael Rosewell/dir. Liam Steel

An American Overture

The Observer (Stephen Pritchard), 17 November 2013

4.4.14, Grzegorz Fitelberg Concert Hall, Katowice, Poland: Polish National Radio SO/Paul Goodwin

‘such beauty and such yearning intensity’

String Quartet No 3 7.4.14, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Emerson String Quartet

Curlew River 12-25.4.14, Opéra de Lyon France: Opéra de Lyon/cond. Alan Woodbridge/dir. Olivier Py

Welcome Ode 23.5.14, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, UK: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko

Young Apollo 5.6.14, Kuhmo, Finland: Juvenalia CO/Janne Hanhijärvi/ Janne Hanhijärvi/Janne Hanhijärvi

Owen Wingrave (Chamber Reduction) 13-18.6.14, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk, UK: Mark Wigglesworth/ dir. Neil Bartlett/Britten-Pears Orchestra 15-17.8.14, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, UK: BrittenPears Orchestra/cond. Mark Wigglesworth/dir. Neil Bartlett/ Edinburgh International Festival

Death In Venice 14 - 29.6.14, Opernhaus Düsseldorf, Germany: Deutsche Oper am Rhein/cond. Lukas Beikircher/dir. Immo Karaman

Songs and Proverbs of William Blake 19.6.14, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk, UK: Christopher Maltman/Malcolm Martineau

Children’s Crusade / Voices for Today 22.6.14, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk, UK: National Youth Choir of Great Britain/James Sherlock/ Esther Jones/Ben Parry

Phaedra 1-3.8.14, Nijmegen Lux, Musis Sacrum, Arnhem, Apeldoorn Theatre Orpheus, Netherlands: Nederlandse Orkest-en EnsembleAcademie/Florieke Beelan/Clark Rundell

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Looking back on Britten 100 Although Britten’s reputation never waned after his death and although he was certainly a composer of international note, there was nonetheless a feeling that his star could go further: ‘I am sure that Britten’s time is not yet come; his greatness is not yet realised in full measure by the world.

But his time is coming, like that of Mahler and Shostakovich before him’ wrote Mstislav Rostropovich. With the chance now to look back on the year that marked the 100th anniversary of his birth and the extraordinary array of global Britten performances by virtually every major performing institution, it is clear that the time Rostropovich was writing of has come; that Britten has risen to truly canonical heights.

Netia Jones’ magical, digital production of ‘Curlew River’ With the shadows of gentle-swaying reeds rippling across the exterior of St Giles Cripplegate, one could be forgiven for thinking that a ghostly apparition of a fenland church had suddenly arrived in heart of London. This was the first glimpse of a new production of Britten’s Curlew River by director/designer/video-artist Netia Jones.

The magic continued inside with Jones conjuring up shingle, water and sky-scapes filled with flitting curlews, all projected onto the church floor.

Ian Bostridge topped the bill as a most unsettling Madwoman, with Mark Stone as the gruff, salt of the earth Ferryman. The extraordinary colours of Britten’s score – dazzling, despite an orchestral palette of just 7 instruments – were brought to life by the Britten Sinfonia under the organ-led direction of William Lacey.

‘Netia Jones’s outstanding new production for the Barbican Britten season places that frontier, the river, right down the length of the nave of St Giles Cripplegate, in one of the many striking video projections that have become her imaginative

‘Imaginatively conceived, sleek, modern, and very well sung, it comes as a well-timed testimony of how important a place these spare works occupied in Britten’s later years. Indeed, it is a shame the other two are not being performed alongside. There is nothing quite like them, either in Britten’s output or anywhere else… designer-stylish and very affecting. The role of the Madwoman might have been written for Ian Bostridge’s sinuous tenor and he is outstanding in every way.’

Financial Times (Richard Fairman), 17 November 2013

‘Jones uses the video to support, not supplant the live action, and the result is succinct, impactful and ultimately cathartic… perhaps the score, its lean lines played compellingly by members of the Britten Sinfonia under William Lacey, sounds less alien now than it did half a century ago — the legacy of composers including Britten himself… this was an involving, direct, unforgettable performance.’

The Guardian (Erica Jeal), 15 November 2013

‘Britten is attempting something of extraordinary originality here — a synthesis of the different musical and theatrical worlds of Japanese Noh drama and medieval church opera. The result is not a pastiche of the clichés of orientalist and plainchant modes, but a fiercely tense and emotionally resonant parable of grief and loss.’

The Telegraph (Rupert Christiansen), 15 November 2013

Curlew River will be performed by Opéra de Lyon, 12 - 25 April.

‘Phaedra’ choreographed for first time ‘Why dance to Britten?’ asks choreographer Richard Alston, ‘The simple answer is that his music breathes. It rises and falls, often with the voice, in lucid phrases that have a palpable sense of physical movement.’ Perhaps it is no surprise then that Alston chose the cantata Phaedra, one of Britten’s late and most emotionally-charged works, to choreograph as part of a special centenary performance involving his dance company, the Britten Sinfonia and mezzo Allison Cook. This was the first time the work had been set to dance and

TUNING IN

Torsten Rasch the result was much applauded.

Mein Herz brennt

‘Phaedra… physically and artistically meshes dance and music to the max. With the Britten Sinfonia forming the backdrop on stage, mezzo soprano Allison Cook plays the tortured Phaedra, moving among the dancers and addressing her rich lower register to their mute dancing forms. The effect is of a tour inside a woman’s creeping hysteria; the dancers in chorus, like moving scenery, or the waves of her emotions. ’

3-13.4.14, Theater Bautzen, Germany: New Lausitz Philharmonic/Markus Huber

Lycanthropy Aria

(New Zealand premiere) 21.5.14, Christchurch Transitional Cathedral, New Zealand: Tobias Cole/Christchurch Symphony Orchestra/Tom Woods

A Foreign Field

(world premiere) 31.7.14, Three Choirs Festival, Worcester Cathedral, United Kingdom: Kate Valentine/ Roderick Williams/Three Choirs Festival Chorus/Philharmonia Orchestra/Baldur Brönnimann

Evening Standard (Lyndsey Winship), 7 November 2013

‘meshes dance and music to the max’ ‘Alston’s choreography is shaped by an unusual dramatic intensity. In his slow-moving chorus of women, we feel the pulse of Phaedra’s doom, set against the men’s bombastic displays of warrior pride. Every gesture of the solo characters feels shaped by impending tragedy…

Alston’s Phaedra evolves with an emotional and musical subtlety that are his own. His heroine is performed by the magnetic mezzo soprano Allison Cook, who moves among the 10 dancers in a detailed choreography of emotion: her body shuddering with small tremors of guilt, her fingers threading with despair.’

The Guardian (Judith Mackrell), 7 November 2013

‘Death in Venice’ in Aldeburgh One of the final instalments of the Britten 100 celebrations was Opera North’s production of Death in Venice which, after a tour taking in the north of England, travelled to Aldeburgh for a highly moving performance in the very hall the opera was first staged. Director Yoshi Oida brought clarity to the work’s dialectic – simple, innocent, beauty cut through with corruption and menace – and the stellar cast with Alan Oke as an anguished and deeply-affecting Aschenbach, ensured a memorable performance.

‘A thing of simple beauty it is dominated by a performance of great integrity from Alan Oke as Aschenbach, which is essential listening… Watching and hearing this emotionally dessicated man begin to feel again, as his body relaxes and warmth begins to course through his voice, is immensely moving and ensures that our sympathies remain with him as desire and love rapidly turn to obsession… The great strength of Oida’s production lies in its rejection of a naturalistic depiction of Venice itself, which allows Britten’s seductive evocation of the city to do its work unaided, and intensifies our focus on the protagonists.’

The Guardian (Tim Ashley), 18 October 2013

Death In Venice will be performed by Deutsche Oper am Rhein, 14 June – 6 July.

Selected forthcoming performances

Major premiere to mark WWI ‘Victory in the First World War should not be celebrated,’ said the minister in charge of marking the WWI centenary. But how should the anniversary be marked? The Three Choirs Festival – one of the most historic and quintessential English music festivals – has answered the question in a unique way by collaborating with the Staedische Theater Chemnitz to commission a new work by German composer Torsten Rasch.

The piece itself is an amalgam of British and German culture, using as it does, extracts from the Old Testament, as well as poetry by Ivor Gurney, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brook and German poets Trackl and Rilke. The grand 35-minute work, entitled A Foreign Field, brings all these texts together in a majestic sweep. The world premiere at Worchester Cathedral this July features soloists Kate Valentine (soprano) and Roderick Williams (baritone), who join the Three Choirs Festival Chours and Philharmonia Orchestra under conductor Baldur Brönnimann. The German premiere takes place in Chemnitz in March 2015 to mark the destruction of the city by bombing in 1945.

…and a glimpse of what’s to come To foreshadow this summer’s WWI premiere, Rasch composed a short choral work, Here Dead We Lie, for the boys of Gloucester Cathedral. The haunting piece sets a text by A.E.Housman and was well received at its premiere in November.

‘Lycanthropia Aria’ performed in NZ The characters in Rasch’s powerful opera The Duchess of Malfi leap off the page in all their terrible glory. This May the spotlight will be shone on the character of Duke Ferdinand, the Duchess’ brother who believes he is a wolf, when countertenor Tobias Cole and Christchurch Symphony Orchestra perform the Lycanthropy Aria from the opera in Christchurch, New Zealand.

PHOTO: TORSTEN RASCH © MAURICE FOXALL

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Oliver Knussen – Selected forthcoming performances

Oliver Knussen

‘Little Concert’ is a ‘miniature masterpiece’ More than two decades since its premiere, Nicholas Maw’s Little Concert (a 12-minute concerto for oboe and small orchestra) is still impressing audiences with its expressive melodies and poetic harmonies. The Britten Sinfonia and director Paul Lewis were on fine form in October when they performed the work in Cambridge, Shrewsbury, Norwich and London. Maw’s delicate oboe writing was excellently expressed by Nicholas Daniel, who has performed the piece many times before. Maw, who passed away in 2009, has been somewhat neglected since his untimely death.

Time for a re-assessment!

Songs without Voices

4.4.14, Caruth Auditorium, Dallas, USA: Southern Methodist University/Pam Elrod Huffman

Ophelia Dances Book 1 / Ophelia’s Last Dance

8.4.14, Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA: BCMG/Huw Watkins/ Oliver Knussen

Cantata

11.4.14, Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA: BCMG

Where the Wild Things Are

23.4.14, Premiere Kleines Haus Karlsrhue, Germany: Annette Weber/Christoph Gedschold

Ophelia Dances Book 1 25.4.14, Auditori AXA, Barcelona, Spain: Grupo Barcelona 216

Two Organa

10.5.14, Paraninfo Palacio de Congresos, de Valladolid, Spain: Francisco Lara/Joven Orquesta Universidad de Valladolid

Autumnal

22.5.14, Kaplan Penthouse, Lincoln Centre, New York, USA: Huw Watkins/Yura Lee

…upon one note

20.6.14, Wigmore Hall, London, United Kingdom: BCMG

Horn Concerto — one of the best of its kind Oliver Knussen’s Horn Concerto is not only one of the standout works in his catalogue, but is widely regarded as one of the best concerti in the horn repertoire and has been performed nearly 90 times since its premiere in 1994. Further proof of the work’s excellence came last October when the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performed the concerto with soloist David Pyatt and conductor Martyn Brabbins.

‘Yet the standout work had come in the first concert under Martyn Brabbins with Oliver Knussen’s Horn Concerto, a masterpiece of lucidity and relative brevity. David Pyatt played it with great fluency and a glowing tone.’

The Guardian (Rian Evans), 14 October 2013

‘Horn player David Pyatt gave a suitably enchanting performance in Knussen’s Horn Concerto, a short, intense and often mysterious piece that takes the listener into a world of dreams. One had the feeling of being in a magical forest with the fluent and confident Pyatt leading the way with assured and energetic playing.’

Wales Online (Peter Collins), 11 October 2013

The magical world of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ comes to Karlsruhe Where the Wild Things Are is one of a kind opera! On the one hand it’s a classic children’s tale filled with adventure, fantasy and monsters (it’s based on the eponymous picture book by Maurice Sendak); on the other, it’s a mature, and at times, dark opera that appeals just as much to adults as to younger audiences. Couple that with a beautiful score that glows with magical colours and memorable vocal lines, and you have masterful opera that’s been performed over 270 times since its 1980 premiere. It’s currently being performed at the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe in a production

by Annette Weber. Lydia Leitner leads the cast as the young hero Max, Christoph Gedschold conducts.

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Nicholas Maw

‘How much braver, and lonelier, it was to write lyrical music in the 1980s, when Nicholas Maw composed his Little Concert for oboe and chamber orchestra. Had Maw been born 50 years earlier or later, instead of in 1935, he would have had a much easier ride. Little Concert lasts barely 12 minutes, yet from wistful beginning to zesty virtuosic finale it evokes worlds of emotion. In the eloquent hands of the oboist Nicholas Daniel it sounded like a miniature masterpiece.’

The Times (Richard Morrison), 11 October 13

‘Oboist Nicholas Daniel was the soloist in Nicholas Maw’s Little Concert, outstanding as ever, revelling first in its yearning, piquant-edged melodies, then in its playfulness.’

The Guardian (Erica Jeal), 13 October 2013

Ralph Vaughan Williams ‘Nocturne: Whispers of Heavenly Death’ Faber Music is proud to announce the publication of Nocturne: Whispers of Heavenly Death, a 7-minute piece for baritone and orchestra, by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work has an interesting history.

Vaughan Williams arrived in Paris in 12 December 1907 so that he could have lessons with Maurice Ravel. This is the first of his works to demonstrate the effects of these lessons which, as he wrote to Michael Calvocoressi after his return to London, ‘helped me and taught me more than I imagined was possible’.

Although works written not long after his Paris sojourn show signs of what he has learnt in Paris, Whispers of Heavenly Death seems to be the only surviving work that was actually started and completed while he was still having the lessons and was therefore probably written at Ravel’s instigation. This is borne out by the piece’s chromatic style and dark orchestral colouring.

The work is now published for the first time under the auspices of The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust, and the score is available to purchase from www.fabermusicstore.com ISBN: 0-571-53260-8.

PHOTOS: OLIVER KNUSSEN © MAURICE FOXALL, LYDIA LEITNER AS ‘MAX’ IN ’WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE’ © BADISCHES STAATSTHEATER

TUNING IN Selected forthcoming performances

David Matthews Solo Violin CD — ‘a most compelling statement’ Violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved has been a champion of David Matthews’s music for many years and their collaboration has resulted in a unique and extensive repertoire for solo violin. The pair are working together with Toccata Classics on a project to record all Matthews’s solo violin works, and the first in the series of recordings – featuring Three Studies, Fifteen Fugues and Winter Journey – was released last autumn to much praise:

One of London’s most influential people David Matthews has long had a significant reputation within the music community, but in a sign of his growing status within society more generally, his name appeared on the Evening Standard’s Power 1000 list of London’s most influential people in 2013.The paper wrote:

‘In his 70th birthday year, David Matthews, the elder of two composer brothers, seems more fertile than ever, continually adding to a tally of symphonies, concertos and string quartets, plus a range of often natureinspired works, including A Vision of the Sea for this year’s Proms.’

New book — David Matthews: Essays, Tributes and Criticism Following on from the celebrations surrounding David Matthews’s 70th birthday last year, Plumbago Press has produced a volume on the composer, edited by Thomas Hyde. The book will be released in June (available from Boydell & Brewer ISBN: 9780956600769), and covers many different aspects of Matthews’s compositional career, as well as his own writing: ‘This collection, the first on David Matthews’s work, features lively contributions from a host of distinguished musicians and writers. Matthews has supplemented his freelance career by writing extensively and personally on music, and the first part of the book includes all his important essays and reviews to date. By including extracts from his journal and letters, Thomas Hyde’s substantial editorial notes sketch out an accompanying biography. This is supplemented in the second part by extended memoirs from Roger Scruton and Peter Sculthorpe, and a collection of tributes in words and music by James Francis Brown, the Smirnov family, Maggie Hemingway, Robin Holloway, Robin Leanse, Colin Matthews, John McCabe, Sir Paul McCartney, Pavel Zemek Novák and Judith Weir. The third part offers a critical forum on Matthews’s music.

Frank Ward adds a witty, bibulous epilogue.’

PHOTO: DAVID MATTHEWS © CLIVE BARDA

‘The centrepiece of the first volume of this survey of David Matthews’s complete works for solo violin is the series of fifteen fugues… all technical difficulties are accompanied by resilient musical qualities which have resulted in a set that offers challenges both digital and expressive. Such challenges include tonal unsettlement, a Bach-inspired four part fugue, a pizzicati study, the clever insinuation of birdsong, the use of scordatura and much opportunity for expressive depth… The Three Studies… test the aspiring violinist through their concentrated technical demands, and draw on a variety of requirements… Winter Journey is inspired

by Schubert’s Winterreise from which Matthews briefly quotes two songs. Its 11 sections progress over 13 minutes and explore regions of expressive intensity that are both fragmentary and more phrasally lucid. The result… is both unsettling and poignant and represents a most compelling statement.’

Four Portraits for Piano

8.5.14, Djanogly Recital Hall, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom: William Howard

Owen Wingrave (Chamber Reduction arr.

Matthews)

13-18.6.14, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk, United Kingdom: Mark Wigglesworth/dir. Neil Bartlett/Britten-Pears Orchestra 15-17.8.14, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Britten-Pears Orchestra/cond.

Mark Wigglesworth/dir. Neil Bartlett/Edinburgh International Festival

Clarinet Quartet/ Duo Sonata/ Three Roman Miniatures 14.7.14, King’s Lynn Festival, United Kingdom: Contemporary Consort

Music Web International (Jonathan Woolf), December 2013

‘David Matthews’s music is more rooted in the tradition of Benjamin Britten than continental modernism. His idiom is large and the hour-long journey with a lonely violin fascinates with its inventiveness and variety. The Bach-inspired fifteen fugues make up most of the disc.

The music shows Matthews’s interest in exploring the classical form and tonality.’

Sydsvenskan (Staffan Storm), 2 October 2013

‘…each of these studies would make for a rewarding encore, though the fact that they are best experienced as a cumulative whole only underlines the skill with which Matthews has fashioned them into an integral cycle which instructs and entertains in equal measure.

The remaining two pieces are no less characteristic of their composer’s music for solo violin. The Three Studies … sets a stern test of the exponent’s technical skill…

This is display music pure if not so simple, whereas Winter Journey is now revealed as one of the most searching of Matthews’s earlier works.’

International Record Review (Richard Whitehouse), November 2013

The published scores of Fifteen Fugues for Solo Violin (ISBN: 0-571-52641-1) and Eight Duos for Two Violins (ISBN: 0-571-52640-3) are available from www.fabermusicstore.com

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Peter Sculthorpe - Selected forthcoming performances

Peter Sculthorpe

Phoenix Symphony to debut Hindson’s 3rd Symphony ‘The Returned Soldier’

Port Essington

3-13.4.14, Narrogin Town Hall, Narrogin, Katanning Town Hall, Katanning, Albany Entertainment Centre, Albany, Margaret River Cultural Centre, Margaret River, Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, Bunbury, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, Mundurah, Government House, Perth, Western Australia: ACO2/ Helena Rathbone

The Returned Soldier is Matthew Hindson’s third symphony. Commissioned by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, it’s to be unveiled by them under Michael Christie, with three performances from 28-30 March 2014. Cast in a single movement, the 25-minute work takes as its starting point images and scenarios faced by the veterans of wars of recent times, in particular Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and shell shock, and the effect that these can have on families and loved ones. More in the next issue.

Irkanda IV

6.4.14, Biskopshavn Church, Bergen, Norway: Bergen Unge Kammer Orkester

‘Convulsive, kinetic fury’ fuels ballet

Requiem

31.5.14, 1.6.14 Nanaimo, Brittish Columbia, Canada: A Cappella plus/Rosemary Linsdsay

Matthew Hindson - Selected forthcoming performances The Returned Soldier (Symphony No 3) (world premiere) 28-30.3.14, Phoenix, AZ, USA: Phoenix SO/Michael Christie

Faster

(Japanese premiere) 19-27.4.14 (5 perfs), New National Theatre, Tokyo, Japan: New National Theatre Ballet/ch. David Bintley/cond.

Paul Murphy

Meccanico Agitato 20-23.5.14, (education concerts) Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney, NSW, Australia: Sydney SO Sinfonia/Daniel Carter

Dangerous Creatures (extracts)

5-8.8.14, (education concerts) Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia: Sydney SO Sinfonia

Central Australian Song

22.8.14, Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne, Australia: student ensemble

Shades of light and dark in ‘Earth Cry’ Peter Sculthorpe has long found inspiration in the culture and landscape of his native Australia; not just its charms, but its malaises too. A dichotomy explored in his orchestral piece Earth Cry. ‘This country,’ explains Sculthorpe, ‘has seemed to me to be one of the last places on earth where one could honestly write quick and joyous music. I decided, therefore, to write such a piece. But it soon became clear that it would be dishonest of me to write music that is altogether quick and joyous… We need to attune ourselves to this continent, to listen to the cry of the earth…’ This mixture of light and dark characterises much of Sculthorpe’s aesthetic; he is a composer who speaks directly from the heart and his music is much loved by audiences far beyond Australian shores.

Earth Cry has already been performed over 150 times, and the latest to discover the work’s charms were the Texan Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra who performed the piece in March. The 11-minute work is scored for standard orchestra with optional didgeridoo.

Sculthorpe’s music is perfect in an educational context For the same reason that Sculthorpe’s music appeals to a wide audience – its heartfelt melodies, its colourful yet largely tonal harmonic language and its beautifully vivid sound pictures – makes it perfect for educational performances. Many major orchestras have used the composer’s works for school performances, notably in recent years, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra played From Oceania, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields played Port Essington. Several universities and conservatoires across the world have also performed Sculthorpe’s music, including the National University of Singapore SO – Concerto for Piano, Chicago College of Performing Arts – Chorale, Sydney Youth Orchestra – Djilile and Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra – Sun Music II.

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Matthew Hindson

PHOTO: PETER SCULTHORPE © MAURICE FOXALL

Hindson’s orchestral ballet, E=mc2 (his second symphony) was revived and toured by Birmingham Royal Ballet, in October last year. Choreographer David Bintley and his dance company won the Southbank Show Award for Dance for their production of E=mc2 in 2009, which has since been taken to Tokyo by Bintley:

‘…a dynamic piece for a large ensemble that bursts with fun, flavour and indignation. Energy is the name of the game, the kind that drives athletes and amour, but also creates universes and destroys Hiroshima. The choreography, set to Matthew Hindson’s dark and exciting score, changes shape as it embraces the elements of Einstein’s great physics theory and journeys through explosion into rebirth.’

The Times (Debra Craine), 17 October 2013

‘It opens with Energy, the dancers’ fluttering hands and speed-skating-like movements cleverly distilling the convulsive, kinetic fury of Matthew Hindson’s score.’

The Telegraph (Mark Monahan), 21 October 2013

‘E=mc2 is a fizzing realisation of a vivid score by Matthew Hindson.’

Financial Times (Clement Crisp), 16 October 2013

Elias Quartet premiere new commission There was universal praise for Hindson’s String Quartet No 2, following its launch by the Elias Quartet on an Australian tour in August 2013.

Commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Julian Burnside, the 20-minute work is dedicated to ‘all the scientists who strive to help us understand the machinations of the universe’:

‘It’s a work of great initial dynamism laced with memorable effects – power-packed glissandi, slithering sul ponticello, bow-bouncing and cheeky pizzicato passagework… The still, quiet, central section is handled with masterful control and concentration, conjuring up the vastness of space itself. This is music of compelling, heartbreaking beauty.’

Limelight (Clive Paget), 20 August 2013

‘…packed with ideas which hatch and morph at dizzying rates…’

The Sydney Morning Herald (Harriet Cunningham), 20 August 2013

TUNING IN

Malcolm Arnold

Carl Davis

Malcolm Arnold - Selected forthcoming performances Concerto for Trumpet 7.4.14, LSO St Lukes, London, UK: Ethan Landin/Ian Brookman/ Camden Youth Orchestra

Concerto for 28 Players 25.4.14, St Alfeges Church, Greenwich, London, UK: St Paul’s Sinfonia/Andrew Morley

Symphony No 8

(Dutch premiere) 26.4.14, Dodrecht, Netherlands: Sinfonia Koenigswinter/Tobias van der Locht

Four Cornish Dances 2.5.14, St Mary’s Church, Kidlington, UK: Oxford Sinfonia/ Paul Ingram

Symphony No 8

A compelling case for Arnold’s Concerto for Two Violins Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Two Violins forms the focal point of two recent CD releases: the Chamber Ensemble of London (EM Records) and the Mainzer Virtuosi (Sheva collection). The 17-minute piece was commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin and was premiered by him and his pupil Alberto Lysys at the Bath Festival in 1962. This distinguished send-off was followed by successful performances elsewhere and the piece has gone to become one of the corner stones in the composer’s catalogue. It has many of the elements that have made Arnold’s music so popular and the exquisite playing on both recordings makes a compelling case for this concerto. A similar sentiment is echoed in Gramophone Magazine’s review of the Chamber Ensemble of London’s recording:

‘[it] is neo-classical in scale and has all those pungently bittersweet thumbprints of the composer’s piquant harmonic language, especially in the ruminative slow movement.’

Gramophone (Jeremy Dibble), November 2013

Serious and masterful symphonies Malcolm Arnold’s symphonies, works into which the composer poured his most serious and compelling musical statements, not to mention some of his most personal and emotional music, have for too long been unjustly overlooked. Arnold might be commonly associated with light-hearted melodies and jaunty rhythms, but the symphonies show him to be a composer worthy of comparison with Shostakovich, Sibelius and Vaughan Williams. A new film on Malcolm Arnold’s dark 7th Symphony explores these very issues and can be viewed at www.fabermusic. com/news/malcolm-arnold-symphony-no-7-94.

Symphony No.8 is an equally cogent work and this spring it will be played in both the Netherlands and Germany for the first time by Sinfonia Koenigswinter and conductor Tobias van der Locht.

PHOTOS: MALCOLM ARNOLD, CARL DAVIS © RICHARD CANNON

Ecstatic London audience for ‘Napoléon’ Carl Davis is renowned for the skill and sensitivity of his silent film scores, but the 5.5 hour epic Napoléon must surely be the pinnacle of his output in this genre. It was composed in 1980 to accompany Kevin Brownlow’s restoration of Abel Gance’s classic 1927 silent film Napoléon, and has been playing to sell-out audiences around the globe since. Last November it reached London where ecstatic audiences rouse to their feet to cheer the Philharmonia Orchestra and Davis (as conductor) for their spell-binding performance. For anyone yet to experience this unique cinematic event, the Holland Festival will be showing Napoléon in June with the Het Gelders Orkest, conducted by Davis.

‘Carl Davis created his score in 1980… and the choices he made then — ample quotes from Beethoven and company, threaded with tremulous themes of his own — still seem inspired. The Philharmonia, under Davis’s baton, grew more lustrous as the hours passed. I particularly relished the scoring’s changing colours, from rustic basset horn and plangent cello to obstinate hurdygurdy and exquisite string quartet.’

The Times (Geoff Brown), 3 December 2013

‘…the screening of this silent film became memorable the moment the conductor lifted his baton… it is not just a soundtrack to the film that is being performed: The score is very tightly connected to the visuals… The precision with which all of this is executed is dazzling.’

Prague Post (André Crous), 2 December 2013

(German premiere) 18.5.14, Koenigswinter, Germany: Sinfonia Koenigswinter/ Tobias van der Locht

Carl Davis - Selected forthcoming performances Alice in Wonderland 6.4.14, The Boston Ballet School, USA: The Boston Ballet School

Safety Last 25.4.14, Five Flags Theater, Dubuque, IA, USA: Dubuque SO/ cond. Robert Tomaro

The Thief of Bagdad 26-27.4.14, La Cinémathèque de Toulouse, France: Orchestre symphonique de l’école de musique de Tournefeuille, Toulouse/cond. Claude Puysséqur

The General 9.5.14, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK: CBSO/Carl Davis

The Playhouse

(world premiere) 9.5.14, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK: CBSO/Carl Davis

The Kid Brother 18.5.14, Luzerner Theater, Switzerland: Luzerner Sinfonieorchester/Howard Arman

Napoléon

(Dutch premiere) 15.6.14, Holland Festival, Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Het Gelders Orkest/Carl Davis

More silent film performances On 25 April Safety Last is performed in Dubuque, Iowa and on 26-27 The Thief of Baghdad is performed in Toulouse. On 9 May, Davis conducts the CBSO in The General and the score premiere of The Playhouse, and on 18 May The Kid Brother will be performed in Luzern.

21

NEW WORKS STAGE WORKS

CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

FRANCISCO COLL Café Kafka (2013)

FRANCISCO COLL Ad Marginem (2013)

chamber opera in one act for 5 singers and 10 players. Duration 45 minutes. Libretto by Meredith Oakes (English). FP: 14.3.2014, Britten Studio, Snape, Suffolk, UK: Suzanne Shakespeare/Daniel Norman/ Anna Dennis/William Purefoy/Andri Björn Róbertsson/CHROMA Ensemble/Richard Baker. Commissioned

by Aldeburgh Music, Opera North and Royal Opera Covent Garden with support from Arts Council England’s ‘Britten Centenary Fund’. picc(=fl).cl.cbsn (or contraforte) - trbn (with splash.cym ) - perc(1): glsp/crot/ small cyms/susp.cym (dark)/large susp.cym/small splash.cym/2 wdbl (small and large)/3 tpl.bl (very small, medium, large)/3 opera gongs (very small, small, medium)/2 tins (small, medium)/very small tuna tin/sleigh bells/tamb/guero/bamboo/wine bottle/flamenco cajón - pno - vln.vla.vlc.db. Score and parts on hire.

viola and 12 players. Duration 15 minutes. FP: 8.12.2013: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, UK: Paul Silverthorne/London Sinfonietta/Baldur Brönnimann. Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta. picc.cl in Eb.bcl - hn.tpt - perc(1): 4 tin cans/frying pan/4 bongos/tgl/wdbl/temple block/guero/flexatone/small susp.cym/pedal BD/chamber BD/xyl/glspn - solo vla - 2 vln.vla.vcl.db. Score and parts on hire.

ORCHESTRA COLIN MATTHEWS Traces Remain (2013) orchestra. Duration 20 minutes. FP: 8.1.2014, Barbican Centre, London, UK: BBC SO/Sakari Oramo.

Commissioned by the BBC. 2(II=picc).afl.2.ca.2.2bcl.cbcl.ssax.2 – 4.2.fl.hn.3.1 – timp – perc(3): vib/ glsp/t.bells/8 tuned gongs/5 bell plates/cyms/susp.cym/sizz.cym/hi-hat/newspaper/6 tom-toms/2BD/ tam-t - harp - pno(=cel) - 10(vln I).10(vln II).10(vln III).10(vla).10(vlc).6(db). Score and parts on hire.

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TORSTEN RASCH Lycanthropy – Aria (2014) counter-tenor and chamber orchestra. Duration 11 minutes. Text by Torsten Rasch (English). Based on ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ by John Webster. FP: 21.5.2014, Transitional Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand: Tobias Cole/Christchurch Symphony Orchestra/Tom Woods. 2(II=picc).1.ca.1.bcl.1.cbsn. - 2220 - perc(2): 4 crot/tuned gong/small susp.cym/chinese cymbal/claves/2 tam-t (small & large)/low tom tom/BD strings. Score and parts on hire.

MARTIN SUCKLING Six Speechless Songs (2013) chamber orchestra. Duration 12 minutes. FP: 6.2.2014, Edinburgh Usher Hall, Scotland, UK: Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Robin Ticciati. Commissioned by the SCO to open their 40th Anniversary Concert season as part of his role as Associate Composer to the Orchestra. 2(both=picc).2.2(I=ebcl., II=bcl.).2(II=cbsn.) - 2.2(I=tpt in D).0.0 - strings. Score and parts on hire.

JOHN WOOLRICH Through paths and turnings (2013)

for 15 players. Duration 12½ minutes. FP: 3.3.2014, Auditorio 400 del Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain: Grupo Modus Novus/Santiago Serrate. Commissioned by Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical.

1.1.1.bcl.0 - 1.1(in C).1.0 - perc(2): xyl/glsp/2 crot (F&G)/splash.cym/siz.cym/chin.cym/medium susp. cym/small cyms/very high tpl.bl/wdbl/c.bell/guiro/shaker/caxixi/pandiero/2 tins (large and small)/kitchen pot (low sound – F)/Cajon (flamenco)/Wood box (mounted on a resonant, small wooden table)/glass bottle and hammer/tabla/bongos/3 taiko drums (very small, small, large)/TD/BD - pno - 2 vln.vla.vlc.db. Score and parts on hire.

DAVID MATTHEWS Tango for Counterpoise (2013) tenor saxophone, trumpet, violin and piano. Duration 3 minutes. FP: 1.12.2013, Fellowship House, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, UK: Counterpoise. Score and parts on special sale.

Love Songs (2009) – Dvorák arr. Matthews medium voice and string quintet. Duration 18 minutes. FP: 12.10.2013, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Renata Pokupic/The Nash Ensemble. Score and parts on special sale.

PETER SCULTHORPE Two Chorales (2008) clarinet quartet. Duration c. 3 minutes. FP: May 2008, Canberra International Music Festival, Australia.

Written for Nicole Canham and her clarinet ensemble Clarity (Nicole Canham, Lisa Manning, Diana Springford, Samantha Kelson). 3 cl.bcl. Score and parts on special sale.

CARL VINE Piano Trio (The Village) (2013) piano trio. Duration 17 minutes. FP: 20.3.2014, Newcastle Conservatorium of Music, Harold Lobb Concert Hall, Newcastle, NSW, Australia: Sitkovetsky Trio. Commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Julian Burnside AO QC, in honour of Carl Vine’s sixtieth birthday. vln.vcl.pno. Score and parts in preparation.

INSTRUMENTAL FRANCISCO COLL Four Miniatures (2013)

chamber orchestra. Duration 5 minutes. FP: 6.4.2014 St John’s Smith Square, London, UK: Orchestra of St John’s/John Lubbock. Commissioned by St John’s Smith Square to celebrate its 300th birthday. 2 ob - 2 hn - strings (43221). Score and parts on hire.

violin and piano. Duration 12 minutes. FP: First Miniature - Melisma: 20.6.2013, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern: Byol Kang and Boris Kusnezow. First Miniature - Melisma: Commissioned by the BorlettiBuitoni Trust for Duo Kang Kusnezow. Score and part on special sale.

STRING ORCHESTRA

COLIN MATTHEWS Berceuse for Elliott (2012)

DAVID MATTHEWS The Flaying of Marsyas (2013) concertino for oboe, violin and string orchestra. Duration 15 minutes. FP: 27.6.2013, City of London Festival, Mansion House, London, UK: Britten Sinfonia/Nicholas Daniel. New version commissioned by City of London Festival. ob - vln - strings. Score and parts on hire.

Vier Ernste Gesänge (2013) – Brahms arr. Matthews baritone and strings. Duration c. 18 minutes. FP: 25.1.2014, Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg, Germany: Thomas Hampson/Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Commissioned by Amsterdam Sinfonietta|Candida Thompson, artistic director. baritone - strings (66542). Score and parts on hire.

Rheinlegendchen (2013) – Mahler arr. Matthews baritone and strings. Duration c. 3½ minutes. FP: 25.1.2014, Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg, Germany: Thomas Hampson/Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Commissioned by Amsterdam Sinfonietta|Candida Thompson, artistic director. baritone - strings (66542). Score and parts on hire.

Three Schubert Songs (2013) – Schubert arr. Matthews baritone and strings. Duration c. 10 minutes. FP: 25.1.2014, Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg, Germany: Thomas Hampson/Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Commissioned by Amsterdam Sinfonietta|Candida Thompson, artistic director. baritone - strings (66542). Score and parts on hire.

Four Wolf Songs (2013) – Wolf arr. Matthews baritone and strings. Duration c. 12 minutes. FP: 25.1.2014, Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg, Germany: Thomas Hampson/Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Commissioned by Amsterdam Sinfonietta|Candida Thompson, artistic director. baritone - strings (66542). Score and parts on hire.

MARTIN SUCKLING Short Stories (2013) string ensemble. Duration 17 minutes. FP: Complete version first performed 21.10.2013, Music Hall, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK: Scottish Ensemble. Commissioned by the Scottish Ensemble with support from the PRS for Music Foundation. strings (43221). Score and parts on hire.

22

Liquid Symmetries (2013)

piano. Duration 3 minutes. FP: 7.1.2013, Park Lane Group Series, Purcell Room, London, UK: Joseph Houston. Score on special sale.

DAVID MATTHEWS Duo Sonata (2012) duet for violin and cello. Duration 7 minutes. FP: 14.9.2013, Oxford Chamber Music Festival, Windmill Hill, Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, UK: Priya Mitchell/Guy Johnston. Score and part on special sale.

It takes two (2013) arrangement of the tango from Symphony no 4 for cello and piano. Duration 3 minutes. FP: 24.11.2013, Fellowship House, London, UK: Robert Max/Daniel King Smith. Score and part on special sale.

MARTIN SUCKLING Nocturne (2013) violin and cello. Duration 8 minutes. FP: 18.5.2013, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, UK: Peter Gregson/Pekka Kuuisto.

Commissioned by Aldeburgh Music for the Faster Than Sound series. Score and part on special sale.

VOCAL TANSY DAVIES Song of Pure Nothingness (2013) voice and keyboard instrument. Duration 13 minutes. FP: 9.9.2013, Ultima Festival, Oslo, Norway: Elisabeth Holmertz/Kenneth Karlsson. Score in preparation.

CHORAL TORSTEN RASCH Here Dead We Lie (2013) a capella boy’s choir. Duration 2½ minutes. Text: Here Dead We Lie by A.E.Housman (English). FP: 16.11.2013, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, UK: Gloucester Choral Society. For Anwen Walker. soprano solo, SSAA. Score on special sale.

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDINGS NEW PUBLICATIONS JULIAN ANDERSON The Comedy of Change Score. 0-571-53832-8 £24.99

Prayer

NEW RECORDINGS THOMAS ADÈS Violin Concerto/Three Studies From Couperin

Peter Herresthal/Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Andrew Manze BIS-8003

Score. 0-571-533635-2 £7.99

BENJAMIN BRITTEN Three Suites for Viola Score. 0-571-53597-6 £12.99

TANSY DAVIES Neon Score. 0-571-53821-5 £17.99

HOWARD GOODALL Romance of the Epiphany

JULIAN ANDERSON Fantasia/The Crazed Moon/The Discovery of Heaven Vladimir Jurowski/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth LPO 0074

MALCOLM ARNOLD Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra

Chamber Ensemble of London/Peter Fisher EM Records CD017

Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra

Mainzer Virtuosi/Irina Borissova/Agnes Langer Sheva SH091

SATB. 0-571-57138-7 £2.25

MORTEN LAURIDSEN Prayer SATB accompanied. 0-571-53828-2 £2.99

ALEXANDER L’ESTRANGE Ahoy!

Vocal score. 0-571-53766-9 £9.99

Hodie SATB. 0-571-57135-2 £1.75

MATTHEW MARTIN Mass of St Dominic SATB. 0-571-57136-0 £3.50

O Oriens SATB accompanied. 0-571-53359-0 £1.75

Te Lucis ante terminum SATB accompanied. 0-571-57131-X £1.75

When David Heard

GEORGE BENJAMIN Shadowlines George King Odradek Records ODRCD308

NED BIGHAM Culebra

Polish National Radio SO/Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Gregory Rose/ Scottish Ensemble/Jonathan Morton Aruna Records ArunaCD001

BENJAMIN BRITTEN Movement for Wind Sextet Brisk Wind Musik Hochschule Lübeck MH P 193

JONNY GREENWOOD Suite from ‘There Will Be Blood’

Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra/André de Ridder Deutsche Grammophon 0289 479 2388 6 CD DDD GH

SATB. 0-571-57137-9 £1.75

DAVID MATTHEWS Eight Duos Score. 0-571-52640-3 £10.99

Fifteen Fugues Score. 0-571-52641-1 £15.99

JOHN WOOLRICH Capriccio Score. 0-571-53835-5 £14.99

TOBY YOUNG Stars in Heaven SATB. 0-571-57105-0 £1.75

The Swete Roose SATB. 0-571-57109-3 £1.25

JONATHAN HARVEY Little Duo

Tim Gill/Clio Gould NMC DL3015

MATTHEW HINDSON Repetepetition

Lamorna Nightingale/Jocelyn Fazzone Fluteworthy FWSOP

GUSTAV HOLST A Song of the Night

Tasmin Little/BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis Chandos Records 10796

MATTHEW MARTIN Adam Lay Ybounden

Gabrieli Ensemble/Paul McCreesh Signum SIGCD346

DAVID MATTHEWS Actaeon

Counterpose/Eleanor Bron/Donald Maxwell Deux-Elles DXL 1151

NICHOLAS MAW Music of Memory

Antonis Hatzinikolaou NMC D184

23

Gabriel Prokofiev: Seattle Symphony commission for League Conference Gabriel Prokofiev has been commissioned by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for a short orchestral work inspired by distinguished local MC and producer, Sir Mix-A-Lot. It will be premiered by the SSO and Ludovic Morlot during the League of American Orchestras Conference on 6 June 2014.

Concerto for Trumpet, Percussion, Turntables & Orchestra Prokofiev’s latest orchestral work has received its premiere performance in Pau, France. The 19-minute Concerto for Trumpet, Percussion, Turntables & Orchestra, is the result of a commission from the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn.

It launched on 5 February 2014 with soloists Marie Bédat (trumpet), Chantal Aguer (percussion), DJ Switch (turntables) and the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn under Faycal Karoui.

It received four performances in Pau, whilst The State Youth Orchestra of Armenia and conductor Sergey Smbatyan will perform the work in Yerevan, Armenia, later this year. Prokofiev commences a two-year residency with the Orchestre d Pau Pays de Béarn from October 2014.

Prior to this, the composer was in residence at the University of Toronto as the Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition. Many works, such as Cello Concerto No.1, Concerto for Turntables, Cello Multitracks, Stolen Guitars and his music-theatre piece The Ghost of Gunby Hall, featured as part of the New Music Festival, presented by the music faculty at the University of Toronto Dance.

Shobana Jeyasingh commissions Prokofiev Critics have been full of praise for Prokofiev’s commissioned 25-minute score for Shobana Jeyasingh’s new ballet, Strange Blooms. The ballet launched in Falmouth and Exeter late last year and arrived in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 3 December. It was commissioned to mark the company’s 25th anniversary and is set to Prokofiev’s ingenious reworking of a chaconne by Louis Couperin:

‘… set to a tumultuous score by Gabriel Prokofiev… The piece was inspired by the contemplation of plant forms, and opens on a tableau of frantic, teeming activity. The dancers writhe, stab and kick, their frenzy illustrative of the brutal aggression of the struggle for survival. With the stage bathed in pink and yellow light, and the score assuming a fluttery urgency, they are seized with shudders and twitches. There’s a sense of heat, of germination, of the suck and ooze of the earth. The whirr and whisper of a treated harpsichord – Prokofiev has based his composition on a chaconne by Couperin – suggest cascades of monsoon rain.’

The Observer (Luke Jennings), 8 December 2013

‘Foghorns, windstorms and sea ice’ — praise for Sigurðsson’s new orchestral work Valgeir Sigurðsson’s 13-minute orchestral commission, Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Five, received its world premiere at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival at the end of January. The piece commemorates the 125th anniversary of the arrival of Icelandic settlers in Manitoba, and was performed by the composer (electronics) and the Winnipeg SO, under Alexander Mickelthwate:

‘… epic in scale, as a haunting tribute to the settlers from his homeland… Sigurðsson’s atmospheric, textural score creates a sense of place, with muted trumpets evoking foghorns and shimmering, closely woven strings depicting the barren landscape. Horn players blowing air through their instruments effectively suggested windstorms across sea ice. It’s one you’d like to hear again; it rings with organic truth deriving from ancestral bonds between composer and content. It also received a standing ovation.’

Winnipeg Free Press (Holly Harris), 31 January 2014

Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Five will be a highlight of Ilan Volkov’s forthcoming Tectonics Festival in Reykjavik. Volkov will conduct the Icelandic premiere with the Iceland SO on 10 April, in the Harpa Concert Hall.

Sigurðsson’s Ghosts, received its world premiere in November 2013, courtesy of the Crash Ensemble who launched the 8-minute piece for 10 musicians and electronics, together with other of his chamber works, at the Project Arts Theatre in Dublin.

ASKO|Schoenberg launch Bermel’s ‘Hyllos’ US composer Derek Bermel’s Hyllos, was premiered in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden (Holland), in November last year. ASKO|Schoenberg and Veenfabriek theatre company commissioned Bermel to write a 30-minute original score for large ensemble, for Paul Koek and Herman Altena’s 2½ hour play, the ‘Greek tragedy’, Hyllos:

‘The music in this performance is of great beauty. In various formations on and around the stage, the musicians of Veenfabriek and the Asko|Schönberg performed the specially composed music by American composer Derek Bermel… Their melancholic folk inflections, infectious Balkan rhythms and poignant ballads support and illustrate the drama wonderfully… Politics rarely sounded so beautiful.’

Theatrekrant (Joke Beeckmans), 16 November 2013

24

PHOTO: ‘STRANGE BLOOMS’ © CHRIS NASH, SCORE EXTRACT FROM GABRIEL PROKOFIEV’S ‘CONCERTO FOR TRUMPET, PERCUSSION, TURNTABLES & ORCHESTRA’

Morgan Pochin’s ‘The Great Enormo’ comes to London’s Royal Festival Hall The Great Enormo, a kerfuffle in B flat for narrator, orchestra, wasps and soprano, arrived on London’s Southbank on 22 February, as one of the highlights of the Imagine Children’s Festival. Michael Rosen narrated his own text with Juliette Pochin (soprano), and the Southbank Sinfonia conducted by James Morgan. Renowned illustrator Tony Ross provided live illustration throughout the 50-minute performance.

The work was also taken up by the same soloists with the City of Birmingham SO on 27 October 2013, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham:

‘We were taken on a musical version of a time machine and the orchestra donned pirate hats, swimming goggles, stetsons and sunglasses as the music leapt from the wild west to intergalactic space.There were a few pantomime moments as Rosen invited youngsters to throw imaginary orange pips at pirates, make the sound of killer bees and even a soupçon of “oh no it isn’t!”… the concert was a great way of introducing families to the city’s fabulous orchestra.’

Coventry Telegraph (Sarah Probert), 29 October 2013

The Great Enormo was originally commissioned by the Brighton Festival and premiered there on 4 May 2013. The work lends itself perfectly as an introduction to the orchestra for young people, and encourages interaction with musical fun and madness.

Perusal materials are available on request from musicfornow@fabermusic.com.

MORGAN POCHIN

The Great Enormo (2013) A kerfuffle in B flat for narrator, orchestra/chamber orchestra, soprano and wasps Text: Michael Rosen (Eng) Duration 55 minutes Full orchestra version: picc.2.2(II=ca).2(II=bcl).2(II=cbsn) - 4.3.2.btrbn.1 - timp - perc(3) - pno - harp – strings Chamber orchestra version: 1(=picc).1.1(=bcl).1(=cbsn) - 1111 - perc(2) - strings (min 22221 players)

Howard Goodall: one of London’s most influential people Howard Goodall has been selected to be on the Evening Standard’s Power 1000 list of London’s most influential people for 2013. The composer/broadcaster was England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing, and his muchlauded six-part Story of Music for the BBC, with accompanying book, set out to demystify the power of music from prehistoric times to the present.

Goodall conducted his Eternal Light: A Requiem, for the first time ever on 9 November 2013, when he joined the Romsey Choral Society in a sell-out concert in Romsey Abbey.

He conducts it again later this year with the Danesborough Chorus and Milton Keynes City Orchestra. With its poignant setting of John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields”, Eternal Light will be much in evidence in Remembrance Day programmes later this year, as many choirs mark the centenary of the start of World War I.

Jonny Greenwood: new orchestral work and live performances The first part of 2014 looks to be an exciting one for Radiohead lead guitarist and classical composer Jonny Greenwood.

He performed the world premiere of several new works for electric guitar and ensemble with the London Contemporary Orchestra at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station on 23 February. The Greenwood and LCO collaboration is a familiar one. They recorded his original soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson film, The Master, and programmed his Doghouse in the 2012 Reverb Festival at The Roundhouse, London.

The Wapping concert also featured cues from Greenwood’s acclaimed film scores to Norwegian Wood and The Master, in addition to him performing Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint.

As part of the Barbican’s “Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records” weekend events on 18 May (to celebrate the labels 50th year anniversary), Greenwood will be performing on the ondes martenot with the BBC Concert Orchestra (under André de Ridder) in the suite from his score to the Oscar-winning film There Will Be Blood.

André de Ridder gave the US premiere of the Suite from ‘There Will Be Blood’ with the Colorado Symphony in February. Meanwhile, the premiere recording of the Suite was released on Deutsche Grammophon in March, with the ubiquitous de Ridder conducting the Copenhagen Philharmonic.

25

PUBLISHING NEWS ‘Behind Bars,’ the next chapter: ‘Hals über Kopf’ Since its publication in January 2011, Elaine Gould’s Behind Bars has been acknowledged as the most important reference book on music notation to have been published in our times. Achieving extraordinary critical acclaim – and sales – worldwide, Behind Bars has inspired composers, performers and the press to speak out and celebrate the book’s success and impact on the music community. Many simply and definitively refer to it now as ‘Gould’s Rules’.

We are therefore delighted to announce that Behind Bars is to be published in a German co-edition with Edition Peters in July 2014.

Entitled Hals über Kopf, its title captures the spirit of the original: literally meaning ‘stem over (note) head’, it is a phrase in common parlance meaning ‘head over heels’.

The author Elaine commented: ‘It was an utter delight to discover that Edition Peters had approached Faber Music to publish a co-edition of my book in German. I was thrilled that they were confident that this volume could make a contribution to the German-speaking musical world.’

The Managing Director of Edition Peters, Germany, Hermann Eckel, said: ‘It is an enormous privilege for Edition Peters to be working with Elaine Gould and the team at Faber Music to publish the German language version of the now seminal guide to music notation, Behind Bars.’

‘…an extraordinary achievement… I would pray that it becomes a kind of Holy Writ for notation in the coming century…’

Sir Simon Rattle

‘Elaine Gould’s Behind Bars is a triumph, undoubtedly the masterpiece of its genre…’

Julian Anderson (Tempo), July 2011

‘its contents are magisterial and its publication is an important event.’

Hugh Wood (Times Literary Supplement), March 2011

‘Elaine Gould’s new book… could not be more timely. Nor more useful, authoritative, meticulously researched and produced and more approachable.’

Mark Sealey (classical.net), June 2011

A reminder about the book:

‘Behind Bars’ is the ultimate reference book for composers, arrangers, teachers and students of composition, editors, and music processors. The author’s understanding of, and passion for, her subject has resulted in a book that is not only practical but also compellingly readable.

• Comprehensive sections on electro-acoustic music and microtones • Supported by 1,500 music examples, including extracts of works from Bach to Xenakis

‘Behind Bars’ is priced £65. ‘Hals über Kopf’ will be published on 1 July 2014, priced 89 Euros, and will be available to order from • The most comprehensive authority on musical notation all good German retail outlets. A special pre-publication price of 75 • Provides a complete grounding in notational principles Euros is available direct from Faber Music. For further information • Handled logically and progressively, from the contact the Faber Music sales team: sales@fabermusic.com or elementary to the complex +44 (0)1279 82 89 82.

• Provides valuable support for those using computer note-setting software

26

Sarah Warne Wins Golden Reel Award for ‘Robomax’

Jeremy Sams — ‘Le-Week-End’ & ‘Lost Honour’

We’re delighted to announce that Sarah Warne has been jointly awarded the 2014 Golden Reel award for Best Sound & Music Editing in a Student Film for her work on Robomax.

Sarah, alongside sound designer Ting Li Lim, won through amongst stiff competition to receive the award in Los Angeles. This is great news for Sarah who is one of the most promising and talented young composers in her field.

Simon Rogers — ‘The Dumping Ground’ Faber Media composer Simon Rogers has recently scored the second series of the BBC’s BAFTA winning children’s television series The Dumping Ground. The series is a spin-off from the very popular The Story of Tracy Beaker and Tracy Beaker Returns and was awarded a BAFTA for best Children’s Drama in 2013. The second series began in January 2014 and was preceded by a Christmas special in December 2013

Jeremy Sams’s score for Le Week-End has recently been released by Editions Milan Music. The film, directed by Roger Michell, written by Hanif Kureishi and starring Lindsay Duncan, Jim Broadbent and Jeff Goldblum, follows a long-married couple who visit Paris for the first time since their honeymoon in an attempt to revitalize their marriage.

Jeremy’s score uses the conventional accordion to create a sense of nostalgia for Paris and for the main characters youth. It is the latest collaboration between Sams and Michell with Jeremy having previously worked with the director on movies including Hyde Park on Hudson, Enduring Love and The Mother.

In other news, the composer is currently working on the score for ITV drama The Lost Honour. Produced by Carnival Films and also directed by Roger Michell the two part drama is based on the real events of 2010 when Christopher Jefferies was wrongfully arrested in connection with the murder of Joanna Yeates.

BOOKS ON MUSIC FROM FABER & FABER Harrison Birtwistle: Wild Tracks A Conversation Diary with Fiona Maddocks Hardback £22.50, ISBN 978-0-571-30811-8 Publication date: 15 May 2014

Harrison Birtwistle is recognised worldwide as one of the greatest of living composers. His music is both deeply original and highly personal, yet he has always been notoriously reticent about explaining either his music or himself. In this ‘conversation diary’, spanning six months, he talks openly to the distinguished writer and critic Fiona Maddocks, offering rare insights into the challenges, uncertainties and rewards that have shaped his life and work since childhood, and which remain with him today as he enters his ninth decade.

We see the composer in the privacy of his Wiltshire studio and garden, and in the public glare of the elite Salzburg and Aldeburgh Festivals. But mostly he is at his kitchen table, talking about the essential aspects of his life – family, cooking, cricket, landscape, pruning trees – and reflecting on the never-easy process of composition. What distinguishes him and his remarkable music is an ability to see the extraordinary in the everyday, giving rise to work that is as elemental as it is profound. For anyone intrigued about the nature of composition, or concerned with the future of music, this book is essential reading.

Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph Jan Swafford Hardback £25.00, ISBN 978-0-571-31255-9 Publication date: 4 September 2014

Jan Swafford’s biographies of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the world’s most iconic music. Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Enlightenment-era Bonn, where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the ideas that would shape all of his future work. Swafford then tracks his subject to Vienna, capital of European music, where Beethoven built his career in the face of critical incomprehension, crippling ill health, romantic rejection, and ‘fate’s hammer’, his ever-encroaching deafness. At the time of his death he was so widely celebrated that over ten thousand people attended his funeral.

This book is a biography of Beethoven the man and musician, not the myth, and throughout, Swafford – himself a composer – offers insightful readings of Beethoven’s key works.

More than a decade in the making, this will be the standard Beethoven biography for years to come.

WWW.FABER.CO.UK

27

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF FABER MUSIC

HEAD OFFICE Faber Music Ltd Bloomsbury House 74–77 Great Russell St London WC1B 3DA

When Benjamin Britten founded Faber Music in 1965 his wish was that the company would nurture new talent and become a vehicle for the promotion of contemporary music across the UK and far beyond. The company continues that work to this day, and year on year its growing catalogue of works reaches an ever wider audience. To give just one striking example of this reach, let’s look at one week this May…

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FRONT COVER PHOTOS: Carl Vine © Keith Saunders John Woolrich © Kate Mount BACK COVER PHOTOS: Wigmore Hall, London Carnegie Hall, New York Symphony Hall, Birmingham Coliseum, London

In a fairly typical week for the company, from 10-17 May, many of Faber Music’s composers Julian Anderson, George Benjamin,

Benjamin Britten, Jonathan Harvey, Tansy Davies and John Woolrich will be featured at

some of the most prestigious concert halls and festivals across the world including Carnegie Hall – New York, Wittener Tage fur neue Musik, Coliseum – London, Symphony Hall – Birmingham and Wigmore Hall – London.

The week includes no less than four opera performances! Julian Anderson’s major new opera Thebans is performed twice as part of its premiere run (a total of 7 performances: 3 May – 3 June) at English National Opera (see p.4-5).

George Benjamin’s extraordinary opera Written on Skin, which has received an unprecedented number of performances — over 40 in just two years (see p.10-11), is heard at Stadttheater Detmold on 16 May. And Benjamin Britten’s jazzy opera-cum-musical Paul Bunyan continues its UK-wide tour with English Touring Opera in Exeter on 16 May.

As is customary, the week also features two premieres. Julian Anderson’s Second String Quartet receives its world premiere on 15 May at the Wigmore Hall (where Anderson is composer in residence) in what is sure to be a thrilling performance by the Arditti Quartet (see p.1415). Whilst the striking antiphony of Jonathan Harvey’s chamber orchestra piece Calling Across Time will be heard in Germany for the first time on 10 May in concert by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, as part of the Wittener Tage fur neue Musik festival.

Finally, the same week includes repeat performances of three diverse works from across the catalogue. The young musicians of Ensemble ACJW and conductor Susanna Mälkki will perform George Benjamin’s ground-breaking Three Inventions for Chamber Orchestra at the Carnegie Hall on 10 May. The same day the fizzling energy of Tansy Davies’ piano concerto Nature is revived by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and conductor Oliver Knussen (see p.11). And the highly unusual and wonderfully inventive sounds of John Woolrich’s contrabassoon concerto Falling Down will echo round Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on 14 May when soloist Margaret Cookhorn takes to the stage with the CBSO and conductor Andris Nelsons (see p.2).

It’s all in a week’s work for Faber Music and its composers!

Written & devised

by Sonia Stevenson Designed by Lis Lomas

WWW.FABERMUSIC.COM

For information on forthcoming Woolrich performances please see www.fabermusic.com