LPO Debut Sounds programme 9 July 2018: Common Language

N G U A G E C o m m o n

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G U A G E

U A G E C o m m o n l a A G E C o m m o n l an G E C o m m o n l ang E C o m m o n l angu C o m m o n l angua C o m m o n l anguag C o m m o n l anguage o m m o n l a n g u a g e m m o n l anguage C m o n l anguage C O o n l anguage C OM n l anguage C OMM l anguage C OMMO l anguage C OMMO N anguage C OMMO N

Monday 9 July 2018 7.30pm Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall

Common Language: A thousand years of music inspired

by Gregorian chant Foyle Future Firsts Members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Echo Sir James MacMillan conductor Sarah Latto conductor (Echo) Including world premieres of Ailie Robertson Caoineadh Laurence Osborn Kindertotenspiel Lillie Harris Recall Karol Nepelski Psychoacoustic Models Neil Tòmas Smith Perihelion Leverhulme Arts Scholars on the LPO Young Composers Programme

Welcome

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A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium.

LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance.

RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre. Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended.

MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.

Please note that tonight’s performance will be filmed for LPO promotional and archival purposes.

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Debut Sounds

Debut Sounds is an annual celebration of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Talent programmes: LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts. This year we have been delighted to welcome Sir James MacMillan as Composer Mentor, supporting the five Young Composers in seminars and workshops to develop their new pieces. For this season’s brief, the composers were invited to use a piece of plainsong or early vocal music as the starting point for their works; drawing inspiration from the music, text, or abstract ideas their chosen chant may evoke.

Tonight, an ensemble of Foyle Future Firsts and members of the LPO, conducted by James MacMillan, present these five world premieres – each of which is preceded by an earlier a cappella choral work, based on the same piece of plainsong. Young professional vocal ensemble echo join us to perform these choral works, representing composers from the 13th to 19th centuries. We also celebrate the work of our new Composer Mentor with two of his own instrumental works, opening each half of the concert.

Visit lpo.org.uk/youngcomposers to find out more about tonight’s composers and their work, and lpo.org.uk/news to watch short films of each of the composers discussing and rehearsing their new pieces.

The LPO Young Composers programme is generously supported by The Leverhulme Trust, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music Programme, The Stanley Picker Trust and Help Musicians UK. The 2017/18 Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme is generously funded

by The Foyle Foundation with additional support from The Mercers’ Company, Help Musicians UK, The Idlewild Trust and The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust.

Foyle Future Firsts

© Benjamin Ealogeva

First Violins Kevin Lin Leader Kate Oswin* Minn Majoe† Second Violins Nynke Hijlkema Marike Kruup*

The 16 members of the Foyle Future Firsts programme are talented graduate instrumentalists who aspire to be professional orchestral musicians.

We seek to bridge their transition between college and the professional platform, developing talented players to form the base for future orchestral appointments with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and other orchestras and ensembles around the world.

Now in its 14th year, our unique programme has gone from strength to strength. Members are supported and nurtured to the highest standards and we are proud to see current and past Foyle Future Firsts taking

professional engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and other world-class ensembles.

Members of the Foyle Future Firsts programme benefit from individual lessons and mentoring from London Philharmonic Orchestra Principals, mock auditions, and the opportunity to play in full orchestral rehearsals throughout the year. They also take part in high-profile and unique chamber performances, and work alongside London Philharmonic Orchestra musicians on education and community projects. lpo.org.uk/futurefirsts

Violas Martin Wray† Lowri Thomas* Cellos Francis Bucknall Patrick Dunlea* Double Basses George Peniston Mario Torres* Flutes/Piccolo Stewart McIlwham Silvija Ščerbavičiūtė* Oboes/Cor Anglais Ian Hardwick Katherine Bryer*

Clarinets/Bass Clarinet Thomas Watmough Mary Tyler* Bassoons/Contrabassoon Simon Estell Antonia Lazenby* Trumpets Paul Beniston Cameron Johnson*

Piano Eleanor Kornas* Percussion Henry Baldwin Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Louise Goodwin*

* 2017/18 Foyle Future First † Foyle Future Firsts alumni

Horns Joseph Ryan Michael Gibbs* Trombones David Whitehouse Andrew Crampton* Bass Trombone Andrew Crampton* Tuba Stephen Calow* Harp Tamara Young

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LPO Young Composers Leverhulme Arts Scholars 2017/18

She was chosen for the 2016/17 RSNO Composers’ Hub, and awarded a BBC Performing Arts Fellowship for her work with the Elias Quartet and Eleanor Turner.

© Benjamin Ealogeva

Ailie is also an award-winning harpist, and was a Showcase Artist for Hudderfield Contemporary Music Festival. She is currently in the final year of her PhD in Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance.

Ireland and Celtic Connections, along with residencies at the Edinburgh International Festival, Berwick Sound and CALQ Montreal.

In 2016 Ailie curated and produced ‘Echoes and Traces’, a partnership between eight Scottish composers, Cappella Nova, Historic Scotland and Sound and Music. She has recently been announced as Composer in Residence at Sound Festival for the next three years. ailierobertson.com

Ailie was nominated ‘Composer of the Year’ in the Scottish Trad Music Awards, and held a BBC Performing Arts Fellowship to work as Composer in Residence with the Haddington Pipe Band. She was also awarded an Emerging Excellence Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

Laurence Osborn (born 1989) read Music at Hertford College, Oxford, studying composition with Martyn Harry and Martin Suckling, and graduating with a First in 2011. He then studied for an MMus in Composition with Kenneth Hesketh at the Royal College of Music

L–R Ailie Robertson, Laurence Osborn, Lillie Harris, Karol Nepelski, Neil Tòmas Smith Ailie Robertson (born 1983), from Edinburgh, is a multi award-winning composer and performer whose work crosses the boundaries of traditional and contemporary music. Winner of the Sofia International Composition Competition, the SCO Composition Prize, and Second Prize in the Oslo Grieg Competition, Ailie has received commissions and awards from Creative Scotland, Enterprise Music Scotland, Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, Arts Council England, Culture

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and an MA in Opera Making and Writing with Julian Philips at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he was subsequently appointed Artist Fellow in Composition. In September 2018 he will begin studying for a PhD at King’s College London, supervised by Sir George Benjamin.

Laurence’s music has been commissioned and performed by groups including the London Symphony Orchestra, Mahogany Opera Group, The Riot Ensemble, CHROMA, The Hebrides Ensemble, Consortium5, English National Ballet, The Berkeley Ensemble, Nonclassical and Tête à Tête Opera Company. His music has been programmed throughout the UK at venues such as the Royal Opera House, LSO St Luke’s, St Martin-in-theFields, Milton Court, Britten Studio (Aldeburgh), the Holywell Music Room (Oxford), Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge), and at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (where he was an International Showcase Artist) and the St Magnus International Festival. Pieces have also been programmed in Denmark, France, Hungary and Switzerland.

Laurence has won awards and scholarships including the Leverhulme Arts Scholarship (2014) and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize (2017).

Projects for 2018/19 include a Royal Philharmonic Society commission for Ensemble 360, and a commission from the New London Chamber Choir. laurenceosborn.com

Lillie Harris (born 1994) graduated with a First Class degree from the Royal College of Music in July 2016, studying with Haris Kittos and winning the Elgar Memorial Prize for her final portfolio.

Musical from a young age, her interest in composing grew out of learning various instruments and a flair for languages and creative writing. To this day, words, narrative ideas and complex emotions are still a huge source of musical inspiration for her and often form the backbone of her work.

Lillie’s pieces have been workshopped by ensembles including Florilegium, Fretwork, the Royal Scottish National

Orchestra, the Gaudier Ensemble and Ensemble Recherche, and performed at Southbank Centre, the Science Museum, Kings Place and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. She was awarded the Tenso Young Composers Award 2017, and her piece Dormientes Bestia for paetzold and tape was in the winning programme in the RCM Contemporary Competition 2016. She was selected for the National Centre of Early Music’s Composer Competition Final in 2013 and 2014, and the International Antonín Dvořák Composition Competition 2016.

After participating in the first RSNO’s Composers Hub, her orchestral work remiscipate was chosen to be performed in the RSNO’s season finale concerts.

In addition to the LPO Young Composers Programme, this year Lillie has produced an interactive setting of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue ‘My Last Duchess’ as part of the LSO Soundhub scheme. lillieharris.com

Karol Nepelski (born 1982) is a Polishborn composer of instrumental music, stage music for opera and theatre, and music for film. He is also interested in electroacoustic music, audio-video work and performance art. He started his higher education at the Department of Mechanics at Gdańsk Polytechnic in 2001, but abandoned his technical studies a year later. In 2002 he began studying composition at the Academy of Music in Kraków under Marek Stachowski. He obtained a MA degree with distinction, and a PhD in the class of Krzysztof Penderecki. He currently works as an associate lecturer at the Academy of Music in Kraków. In 2005 he was a student at the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Stuttgart. He held a scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in recognition of outstanding achievement in his studies and also a scholarship for academic merits of the Minister of Science and Higher Education. He has worked with the Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków, the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, the Jagiellonian University and the Theatre Academy in Warsaw. culture.pl/en/artist/karol-nepelski

Neil Tòmas Smith (born 1987) is a Scottish composer of chamber, orchestral and choral works. He studied in York and Stuttgart, the latter leading to a keen interest in German contemporary music.

Neil won first prize in the Acht Brücken Composition Competition with Gravitation, which was played by Schlagquartett Köln and broadcast on WDR 3. His orchestral work Habitus was also broadcast in a performance by the WDR Symphony Orchestra.

Recently, Neil took part in Making Music’s and Sound and Music’s ‘Adopt a Composer’ scheme and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Composers’ Hub. He is currently a Teaching Associate at the University of Nottingham, where he completed his PhD on German composer Mathias Spahlinger. ntsmusic.co.uk

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echo

Sir James MacMillan

Sarah Latto | conductor

conductor & Composer Mentor

echo is a new ensemble of young professional singers. Since launching in early 2017, the group intends to explore the full range of what ensemble singing means – working both with and without a conductor, including improvisation in each concert and performing music both inside and outside of the Western classical canon. The group came together through Genesis Sixteen, the prestigious young artists’ scheme run by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.

James MacMillan is the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation. He first attracted attention with the acclaimed BBC Proms premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990). His percussion concerto Veni, Veni Emmanuel (1992) has received over 500 performances worldwide, including by Evelyn Glennie with the LPO at Royal Festival Hall in 2013. In 2014 the LPO under Vladimir Jurowski gave the world premiere of MacMillan’s Viola Concerto with soloist Lawrence Power. Other major works include the cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993); Quickening (1998) for soloists, children’s choir, mixed choir and orchestra; the operas Inès de Castro (2001) and The Sacrifice (2005–06); St John Passion (2007); and St Luke Passion (2013). In 2008 the LPO released on its own label The Confession of Isobel Gowdie under Marin Alsop live in concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall (LPO-0035: see page 11).

Following highly acclaimed launch concerts in London and Birmingham, echo headlined the Sounds Sublime Festival in July 2017, and made its St John’s Smith Square debut the same month. It was one of the inaugural Chiltern Arts Festival Take Note artists for 2018, and is a featured young artist at the Ryedale Festival this summer. Looking ahead, the group will perform at Douai Abbey in September and is currently developing a site-specific performance at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, in collaboration with artist Polly Apfelbaum. echo-choir.com Sopranos Sally Carr Hilary Cronin Lindsey James Angharad Rowlands Altos Marnie Blair Emily Hodkinson Sophie Timms

Tenors Jack Granby Jonathan Hanley Chris Huggon Basses Harry Bennett Tom Herring John Laichena

Next echo concert ‘With His Song’ Saturday 21 July 2018, 1–2pm The Music Room, 26 South Molton Lane, Mayfair, London W1K 5LF Programme includes Monteverdi, Palestrina, Rose and Judith Weir, alongside an improvisation on Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly.

Tickets: £12 advance/£15 on door Buy tickets via echo-choir.com

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As the LPO’s Young Composer Mentor 2017/18, James MacMillan has led seminars with the composers across the year and provided guidance in workshops and rehearsals with the ensemble.

Programme notes first half

James MacMillan (born 1959) Exsultet, for brass quintet and percussion (1998) Exsultet is the first word of the Latin Easter Proclamation, sung at the Easter Vigil every year to celebrate the Resurrection (‘rejoice, heavenly powers!’). Fragments of the Gregorian melody are embedded in the second movement of the composer’s First Symphony: Vigil of 1997. The material for this short fanfare Exsultet is also extracted from the same movement.

It begins in the lowest registers and gradually rises through a pitch field, with very free, rhythmic notation.

As more instruments enter, the music becomes more enervated. Percussion adds a new rhythmic focus as the fanfares become more wild and joyous.

The momentum builds to a fierce climax before a sudden silence. The coda of the piece consists of a series of simple chords, juxtaposing different extremes of volume.

James MacMillan

Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (1648) Psalm 19:1–6 (German after Cæli enarrant Gloriam Dei) Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, und die Feste verkündiget seiner Hände Werk.

Ein Tag sagt’s dem andern, und eine Nacht tut’s kund der andern.

Es ist keine Sprache noch Rede, da man nicht ihre Stimme höre.

Ihre Schnur gehet aus in alle Lande, und ihre Rede an der Welt Ende.

Er hat der Sonne eine Hütte in derselben gemacht; und die selbige gehet heraus wie ein Bräutigam aus seiner Kammer, und freuet sich, wie ein Held zu laufen den Weg. Sie gehet auf an einem Ende des Himmels und läuft um bis wieder an dasselbige Ende, und bleibt nichts vor ihrer Hitz’ verborgen.

Ehre sei dem Vater und dem Sohn und auch dem Heil’gen Geiste, wie es war im Anfang, jetzt und immerdar, und von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit. Amen.

Neil Tòmas Smith (born 1987) Perihelion (world premiere)

The heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.

One day tells it to another, and one night makes it known to the next.

There is no speech or language in which their voice is not heard.

Their tale goes out to all the lands, and their story to the ends of the earth.

He has made a tabernacle for the sun within them; and it goes forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoices like a hero to run its course.

It emerges from one end of heaven and circles around again to the same point, and nothing remains hidden from its heat.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and also to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

The perihelion of an orbit is the point at which the orbiting body comes closest to the Sun; the aphelion is the point at which it is most distant. Perihelion focuses on a sense of movement and brightness – at times distant, sometimes almost painfully near.

These different perspectives also relate to the different types of movement the piece seeks to evoke. The opening, for example, is a static chord into which tiny quivering movements are introduced – as if we are viewing a bright object from a huge distance.

Two rhythmic sections give a contrasting sense of immediate speed and changes of direction.

The piece describes an arc-like shape that rises to a high, bright point before falling away. Around the apex, the twisting lines of the opening section find their way to a trumpet duet which

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Programme notes first half continued

makes extensive reference to the plainchant ‘Cæli enarrant Gloriam Dei’, which speaks of how God’s work is seen in the heavens and in the firmament – a suitable sentiment for this celestial theme. NTS

William Byrd (1538–1623) Laudate pueri dominum (1575) Psalm 113:1–2, 121:2 & 125:4 Laudate pueri sung at the Feast of the Holy Innocents Laudate pueri Dominum, Laudate nomen Domini, Sit nomen Domini benedictum Ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.

Auxilium meum a Domino, qui fecit cælum et terram.

Benefac, Domine, bonis et rectis corde.

Praise, servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord, Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and for evermore.

My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Do good, Lord, to the good and true of heart.

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Laurence Osborn (born 1989) Kindertotenspiel (world premiere)

Stabat Mater Anonymous 13th-century hymn, sung on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

Kindertotenspiel is inspired by the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a religious festival commemorating the slaughter of first-born male children by Herod following the birth of Jesus. In medieval Europe, the Feast of the Holy Innocents was a festival based around rolereversal between children and adults, meaning that children would play tricks on the adults, and preside over teaching and religious duties. Today, many countries still celebrate the slaughter of the innocents in a similar way to April Fools’ Day.

Stabat mater dolorosa, Juxta crucem lacrimosa, Dum pendebat Filius.

Cujus animam gementem, Contristatam et dolentem, Pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta Fuit illa benedicta Mater unigeniti!

Quae moerebat et dolebat, Pia mater dum videbat Nati poenas inclyti.

Quis est homo qui non fleret, Matrem Christi sivideret In tanto supplicio?

Quis non posset contristari, Christi matrem contemplari, Dolentem cum filio?

Pro peccatis suae gentis Vidit Jesum in tormentis, Et flagellis subditum Vidit suum dulcem natum Moriendo desolatum, Dum emisit spiritum.

Eja Mater, fons amoris, Me sentire vim doloris

The music for Kindertotenspiel constantly switches between silliness and violence. Some of the music is both silly and violent at the same time. The title Kindertotenspiel roughly translates as ‘play on the death of children’. LO

The mother stood in pain, At the cross, crying, Where her Son was hanging.

Through her gentle soul, Compassionate and sweet, Passed a sword.

O how sad, and afflicted Was that blessed Mother with an only son!

Who mourned and suffered, Dutiful mother, when seeing The torment of her glorious child.

Who is the man who would not weep, Seeing the mother of Christ In so much agony?

Who could not be sorry Contemplating the mother of Christ, Grieving with her son?

For the sins of his people She saw him in torment And subjected to torture She saw her sweet son, Dying, desolate, As he gave up his soul.

Oh Mother, fountain of love Make me feel the strength of your sorrow

Ailie Robertson (born 1983) Caoineadh (world premiere)

Fac, ut tecum lugeam.

Fac ut ardeat cor meum In amando Christum Deum, Ut sibi complaceam.

Sancta mater, istud agas, Crucifixi fige plagas Cordi meo valide.

Tui nati vulnerati, Tam dignati pro me pati, Poenas mecum divide.

Fac ut portem Christi mortem, Passionis fac consortem, Et plagas recolere.

Fac me plagis vulnerari Fac me cruce inebriari Et cruore Fillii.

Flammis ne urar succensus, Per te Virgo, sim defensus In die judicii.

Christe, cum sit hinc exire Da per Matrem me venire Ad palmam victoriae.

Quando corpus morietur, Fac ut animae donetur Paradisi gloria.

Amen.

That I may grieve with you.

Grant that my heart may burn In the love of Christ my Lord That I may please Him. Holy mother, make that the wounds Of the crucified drive deep into my heart.

Your vulnerable son, Who so deigned to suffer for me Share his pain with me.

Let me bear the suffering of Christ’s death Let me share and renew the wounds.

Let the wounds of the Cross harm me And the blood of your Son intoxicate me.

When I am in fire and I burn, May I be defended by you, Virgin, On the day of Judgement.

Christ, when it is time to pass away, Grant that through your Mother I may come to the path of victory.

When my body dies May my soul be given The glory of Paradise.

Amen.

The word ‘caoineadh’ or ‘keening’ is used to describe mournful cries of people all over the world. It is a combination of sung improvised text and ritual wailing ‘weeping’, constituted by a variety of vocables, sounds, throat songs, screeches and wails expressing praise, anger and sadness. Traversing the parallel worlds of this world and the next, traditionally the keener was believed to use her voice to guide the dead person’s soul. She entered into a kind of ‘divine madness’ which allowed her to express the collective outpouring of grief through her voice, helping those present to release grief.

a haunting mantra of collective sorrow.

After the funeral, when the keening suddenly stopped, there was an abrupt emptiness, an unnerving silence in which the cadence of grief seems to pulse, unheard but still present.

The tradition died out in Scotland and Ireland in the 1950s, as priests deemed the practice – often regarded as a pagan ritual – as inappropriate, and families began to fear it would make them appear backward. The tradition is almost universal, however, and still continues in different forms in many countries around the world. AR

Interval: 20 minutes

Keeners could mourn over the body for days. The repetitive rise and fall of the death cadence became a hypnotic counterpoint to the funeral events, the sound becoming an almost tangible force filling the air, reverberating in

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Programme notes second half

James MacMillan (born 1959) For Sonny, for string ensemble (2011)

Karol Nepelski (born 1982) Psychoacoustic Models (world premiere)

This is a little miniature written in memory of a little boy, the grandson of a friend, who died a few days after his birth. It was originally written for string quartet and later arranged for string ensemble. A simple fragment, like a nursery rhyme, repeats over and over again throughout, pizzicato. The ensemble provides an ever-changing context for this little tune, sometimes accompanying it with easy harmonies, sometimes straying into stranger territory.

James MacMillan

Psychoacoustic Models emerged as a continuation of my research into the neurobiological principle of aesthetic experience. In contrast to neuroaesthetic theories – searching for the reasons why we admire music – I wanted to concentrate on acoustic phenomena themselves, in particular the way sound tests our perception, thus ‘psychoacoustics’.

Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300–77) Hoquetus David (c.1360) A ‘hocket’ is a device used in medieval music in which a melody is distributed between two or more instruments or voices. The term is etymologically related to the word ‘hiccup’, and Machaut’s Hoquetus David does indeed sound like a rhythmic disruption or hiccup. It is wordless; the only one of his 143 works without a text.

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I chose two auditory stimuli that became motifs in my piece: pitches and beats. For the first motif, the inspiration came directly from nature – the phenomenon of birds’ songs being heard by other birds. As scientific surveys have demonstrated, birds perceive melodic sequence in the way we perceive harmony. Hence, basic melodic themes (melodies scattered in different registers) evolve into harmonic themes. In this way, over the

Anton Bruckner (1824–96) Tantum ergo (1846) From Pange Lingua, written by St Thomas Aquinas, c.1264 whole piece, I would like to ‘teach’ the audience the principles of how birds – presumably – hear their own songs.

Another very important aspect of psychoacoustics consists of perception of metre, beat and periodicity, represented in my work by the second motif. It is a simple sequence of samepitch impulses. Both motifs start to crossfade in the process of musical development – the rhythm overtakes melodic contour and the melody gains rhythmic traits. Both motifs are constantly scattered among various instrumental groups in the orchestra.

Somewhere in between these values, another dimension of psychoacoustics is being born – and maybe the most important. KN

Tantum ergo sacramentum Veneremur cernui: Et antiquum documentum Novo cedat ritui: Præstet fides supplementum Sensuum defectui.

Genitori, Genitoque Laus et jubilatio, Salus, honor, virtus quoque Sit et benedictio: Procedenti ab utroque Compar sit laudatio. Amen Such a sacrament, therefore, let us venerate with bowed heads, And let the ancient testimony give way to a new ritual, Let faith provide a supplement for the inadequacy of the senses.

To Father and Son let there be praise and jubilation, Salvation, honour, virtue and blessing too, And to Him who proceeds from both of them let there be equal praise. Amen.

Date for your diary: Foyle Future Firsts Wednesday 7 November 2018 | 6.00–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Foyle Future Firsts: Free pre-concert performance

Lillie Harris (born 1994) Recall (world premiere)

The first time I heard the plainsong on which this piece is based, Pange Lingua from the Liber Usualis, I was struck by its familiarity but could not immediately recognise why. It took some time, but eventually I realised it had similar leaps and melodic patterns to the mermaids’ song from the fourth Harry Potter film.

This concept of recollection is one familiar to many people, and it can be an intensely absorbing and emotive process, which is why I found it to be fertile inspiration for this piece.

When we are unable to remember or explain a connection or sensation of familiarity instantly, we must go on a journey of frustration, revelation, and (hopefully) ultimately joy. Sometimes it only takes a few seconds, but sometimes it can take days to find the

connection at last, and that process can be confusing and disorienting, convoluted and disarming.

Recall explores the emotional experience of remembering, and in places reflects the bizarre electrical networks in our brains that bring us to the correct solution in the end. Its fast, constant pace reflects the constancy of brain activity, and throughout the piece, short motifs and gestures overlap, repeat in various combinations, just like our brain makes connections and joins separate thoughts together as it searches for the answer. Moments of unison that rise up from almost chaotic contrapuntal textures represent the ‘correct answer’ getting closer, but are not always fully within the piece’s grasp. LH Watch short films of tonight’s five composers discussing and rehearsing their new works: lpo.org.uk/news

Our new cohort of Foyle Future Firsts 2018/19 present their first performance of the year.

Free entry (no ticket required)

James MacMillan on the LPO Label James MacMillan The Confession of Isobel Gowdie Thomas Adès Chamber Symphony Jennifer Higdon Percussion Concerto Marin Alsop conductor Colin Currie percussion £9.99 | LPO-0035

‘These live LPO recordings are the best possible advert for new classical music.’

Financial Times CDs available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets.

Download or stream online via Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify and others.

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The right is reserved to substitute artists and to vary the programme if necessary.

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