Fortissimo Autumn 2019

FABER MUSIC NEWS — AUTUMN 2019 

fortissimo! 

MARTIN 

SUCKLING 

‘An exciting, distinctive 

voice and a rigorous 

ear for detail.’ 

THE OBSERVER (FIONA MADDOCKS) 

Plus 

LA Philharmonic and Royal Ballet stage Thomas Adès dance extravaganza 

Soul Canoe: a new ensemble work by Tansy Davies 

George Benjamin at 60: celebrations planned for Paris in 2020 

Kopatchinskaja and Gabetta premiere Francisco Coll Concerto 

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

Martin Suckling 

When Martin Suckling burst onto the scene in 2011 with 

Candlebird, a spectacular setting of poems by Don 

Paterson for baritone and ensemble commissioned by the 

London Sinfonietta, audiences were introduced to a vibrant 

and staggeringly assured new voice. With each finely-crafted 

work that has followed, Suckling has continued to combine 

innovative microtonal investigations with a direct and lyrical 

communicative instinct. 

In 2017 The Times selected Suckling as one of Five British 

Composers to watch and singled out his ‘absorbing mood piece’ 

Psalm for harp and spatialised groups for special praise. The range of 

Suckling’s influences is wide ranging – from Rădulescu and Grisey to 

Celan and Goya – but what unites all his music is a fastidious ear and 

the tireless pursuit of rich new modes of expression. 

Dear colleagues, 

Diversity is the buzz word in cultural circles these days and it 

would be impossible and ill-advised for a music publisher to 

be outside a trend which is recognising a wide range of cultural 

activity, and promoting it to mainstream platforms. You will see 

inside these pages reports on music of many different types. In 

our case I feel we are representing stylistic diversity rather than 

jumping on any box-ticking bandwagons. 

Different composers have different ambitions, different outlets, 

different hopes for their music. Some of these are hard to 

categorise, although we try to make approximate attempts to 

represent these clearly. We hope that the music we publish is 

effective in realising the purpose for which it was created whether 

by commission or volition. 

Throughout the diversity and the recent signings our aim is to 

find quality in all its manifestations. 

Turning to our current roster and the choices we make in 

choosing composers to invest in, it is always a balance between 

our own belief in what he/she is doing, and how this is either 

already reflected by performing institutions, or whether we think 

it is likely to be! 

One inspiring affirmation of a good choice is Francisco Coll. 

He came to us as little more than a student, and he now has not 

only major commissions from international orchestras, but there 

are soloists including Sol Gabetta, Xavier de Maistre, and Javier 

Perianes all lining up with requests for concertos. Although the 

request for a second opera from Music Theatre Wales and Royal 

Opera here is now unlikely to be fulfilled in the immediate 

future, it is great to have the recognition that Francisco, as a 

major talent, is receiving. Read more about Francisco on page 8. 

Sally Cavender 

Performance Music Director/Vice Chairman, Faber Music 

The coming months will see the premieres of two substantial works 

commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic and Oxford Lieder Festival, 

as well as the recording of an all-Suckling orchestral disc for NMC 

with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov. 

BBC Philharmonic commission 

The BBC Philharmonic will soon announce the premiere of a 

substantial new 20-minute orchestral work entitled This Departing 

Landscape as part of the series of studio concerts. ‘Morton Feldman 

used this phrase to highlight how music slips away from us even as 

we are hearing it’ explains Suckling. ‘The sometimes-hyperactive 

energy of my new work is far removed from Feldman’s soundworld, 

but his characterisation of music’s elusiveness provided the starting 

point for a journey across an imaginary landscape in constant flux.’ 

There are two movements, which run together without a break. The 

first presents a kaleidoscope of sharp-edged fragments constantly 

shifting into new configurations. There are abrupt changes of 

material and tempo: patterns loop, repeat and transform irregularly. 

In the second movement the pace is radically reduced. This is music 

of glacial energy: extremely heavy, extremely slow, an inexorable 

continuity of gradual transformation. Tone becomes microtone 

becomes noise – and out of the noise, pulsation returns, a series of 

accelerations spiralling unceasingly, and then suddenly cut off. 

An orchestral disc on NMC 

In February the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov 

will record a selection of Suckling’s orchestral music for NMC’s 

Debut Discs series. Tamara Stefanovich will record the compendious 

five-movement Piano Concerto (2014-16), whilst flautist Katherine 

Bryan performs The White Road, the flute concerto she premiered in 

2017. The disc will also include the orchestra’s live recording of the 

audacious 12-minute concert opener Release, recorded at Volkov’s 

2013 Tectonics Festival in Glasgow, and the BBC Philharmonic’s 

recording of This Departing Landscape. 

Release unfolds as a vivid drama covering a dizzying range of 

emotions and a vast orchestral canvas. Loud common-chord strikes 

by the whole orchestra leave behind a trace of microtonal clusters, 

which eventually blossom into rich, resonant harmonies; a viola and 

cor anglais melody gradually expands to fill the available space; and 

chaotic, dense harmonic exhalations which gradually coalesce into 

simple pulses. In the uppermost register of the violins, a song begins 

to emerge. 

2

HIGHLIGHTS 

Martin Suckling 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Songs unlock the magic of Donaghy 

Five new songs by Suckling, entitled The Tuning will be 

premiered by Marta Fontanals-Simmons and Christopher 

Glynn at the Oxford Lieder Festival on 19 October 2019. 

Commissioned by the Oxford Lieder Festival, they all set poems 

by Michael Donaghy. 

‘The musicality of Donaghy’s poetry is often remarked upon, 

and perhaps this is what drew me to his texts’ writes Suckling. 

‘It’s a musicality that is more than just pervasive lyricism, one 

that extends to his precision of gesture and cadence and a 

delight in the union of formal elegance with expressive heft. 

But I think what I love is the magic, and with it the makingstrange, 

whether of poem-as-spell or of a seemingly quotidian 

observation. The magic holds me.’ 

The five poems in the set are selected from across Donaghy’s 

output and are unrelated. They are not intended to present a 

coherent narrative, nor are they a cycle – though the music 

offers cyclic elements, and a narrative could be constructed if 

desired. ‘I chose them because I could hear them sung as I read 

them’ explains Suckling. ‘With the exception of ‘The Tuning’, 

whose exposition-heavy text required a different approach – I 

set them as songs: simple, often strophic vocal lines and a piano 

part focusing on a single figuration, as in classic Lieder.’ 

After an extended introduction, ‘The Present’ places cycling 

pairs of vocal phrases against ever-expanding piano descents. 

‘The River in Spate’ and ‘Tears’ both offer types of musical 

near-suspended animation. In ‘The Tuning’ the piano takes the 

melodic lead, sinuous counterpoint enveloping the narrator’s 

arioso. ‘Two Spells for Sleeping’ practices a hypnotism of 

unceasing pulsation and not-quite-repeating loops. 

Concerto makes Monaco Prize shortlist 

Suckling’s flute concerto, The White Road, has been shortlisted 

for the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco’s prestigious 

Musical Composition Prize. Described as a ‘sonic feast’ by The 

Scotsman after its premiere by Katherine Bryan and the Royal 

Scottish National Orchestra in 2017, the 14-minute concerto 

is a work of great subtlety and delicacy. Commissioned by the 

Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony 

Orchestra, the concerto takes its inspiration from the work of 

the artist and author Edmund De Waal (see image above). 

Melody is the guiding force, and the flute leads us through a 

number of beguiling landscapes, often inventively coloured 

with metallic percussion. An extended song, marked ‘almost a 

lullaby’, leads to a short virtuoso conclusion with gruff brass 

chords launching the soloist into the stratosphere. 

Scottish Ensemble revisit Postcards 

To celebrate their 50th anniversary later this year, the Scottish 

Ensemble will tour a programme made up of significant 

snapshots and fragments from across its history, from pieces 

that have particularly resonated with their audiences, to some of 

their most significant commissions. Pride of place amongst these 

is Chimes at Midnight, one of the Postcards for string ensemble 

that Suckling wrote across the Ensemble’s 12/13 season. 

Each of these four miniatures not only perfectly captures a 

poetic mood but also crystallises the composer’s style: radiant 

melodies that glow with microtones, shimmering textures that 

reveal dark undercurrents. The first postcard, entitled Chimes 

at Midnight, begins with a series of bells, but from within their 

resonance echoes of a dance emerge and a high violin sings. 

Melding joy and grief 

Next summer the Scottish Chamber Orchestra will revive 

Suckling’s Meditation (after Donne) for a tour of south Scotland. 

Commissioned by the SCO as part of the Armistice Centenary 

commemorations in 2018, the 11-minute work for chamber 

orchestra and electronics takes as its inspiration the massed 

ringing of bells as Armistice was declared. Suckling describes it 

as ‘a simple song for orchestra, with performers and audience 

surrounded by a constantly evolving tapestry of tolling 

bells created by live electronics’. The work is a tremendous 

achievement, melding together with uncanny ease the 

somewhat contradictory senses of celebration, anger and grief. 

Meditation was the final work to emerge from Suckling’s time 

as Associate Composer with the SCO, a remarkably rich 

partnership which has seen the creation of a clutch of brilliant 

new works: Six Speechless Songs (premiered by Robin Ticciati 

then revived by Oliver Knussen), and the dazzling Piano 

Concerto for Tom Poster. 

The Tuning 

World premiere 

19.10.19, Oxford Lieder Festival, 

St John the Evangelist, Oxford; 

6.12.19, Barber Institute of Fine 

Arts, University of Birmingham, 

UK: Marta Fontanals-Simmons/ 

Christopher Glynn 

‘Chimes at Midnight’ 

from Postcards 

3.12.19, Christ Church, Cockermouth; 

4.12.19, Caird Hall, Dundee; 5.12.19, 

St Machar’s Cathedral, Aberdeen; 

6.12.19, Inverness Cathedral; 7.12.19, 

St John’s Kirk, Perth; 8.12.19, 

Crichton Memorial Church; 10.12.19, 

Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh; 11.12.19, 

Wellington Church, Glasgow, UK: 

Scottish Ensemble 

This Departing 

Landscape 


January 2020, MediaCityUK, Salford, 

UK: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra 

Meditation (after 

Donne) 

June 2020, Tour of South Scotland, 

UK: Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ 

Nicolas Altstaedt 

PHOTOS: SALLY CAVENDER © MAURICE FOXALL; MARTIN SUCKLING © MAURICE FOXALL 

3

Adès Dance Spectacular in Los Angeles 

Standing ovations greet the premiere of a new Thomas 

Adès ballet in Los Angeles. 

At its concert premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and 

Gustavo Dudamel in May, Adès’s ballet score Inferno elicited huge, 

spontaneous applause following its penultimate section. Two months 

later, the success was repeated in an ambitious all-Adès dance 

production which saw the LA Philharmonic combine forces with 

The Royal Ballet and Wayne MacGregor. Conducted by Adès, the 

evenings also included Outlier (MacGregor’s existing choreography to 

the Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz), and the Company Wayne 

MacGregor in new choreography for In Seven Days developed with 

AI technology from Google (Kirill Gerstein was the pianist). Inferno 

featured striking designs by none other than Tacita Dean. 

Lisztiana 

The first part of what will become an evening-length ballet based 

on Dante’s Divine Comedy, the 45-minute score to Inferno unfolds 

over 13 sections. A riotous carnival of the macabre, it is imbued with 

the spirit of Liszt. ‘Liszt really owns hell and the demoniacal’ Adès 

explained to the LA Times. ‘I looked at what he’d done, and those 

sounds that arose in him were still completely live cultures. I could 

put them in passages and new things would happen. So the music in 

Inferno moves from absolutely 100% me, to 100% Liszt and every 

gradation in between. I wanted to have this strange feeling that you 

were almost falling down into the past.’ 

In his first score designed specifically for ballet, Adès demonstrates 

in no uncertain terms his total intuitive understanding of writing for 

dance. From the arresting opening ‘Abandon Hope’ to the final pages 

which depict Satan in the frozen lake, before Dante and Virgil climb 

out of Hell and see the stars, Adès keeps us spellbound. A dark-hued 

rendering of Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondola ushers in The Ferryman 

who rows dead souls across the river Styx whilst extraordinary 

orchestrations of the Bagatelle sans tonalité and the Grand Galop 

Chromatique transfigure the virtuosic piano writing of the originals 

into great visceral riots of orchestral sound, further amplifying the 

music’s manic, devilish energies. 

‘ambitious and electrifying’ 

‘Spectacular… Inferno, the first half of what will eventually 

be a full-length Dante ballet, makes an uproarious heaven 

of hell… It proved the most ambitious and electrifying of 

more than five-dozen commissions celebrating the Los 

Angeles Philharmonic’s centennial season and a bonanza 

for choreographer Wayne McGregor… McGregor’s style fits 

Adès’ well. The choreographer’s characteristic mix of fluid 

movement and sudden change of direction for this limb 

or that, effortless lifts that suggest flight, limn the bigger 

gestures of the music… Dean’s cavernous black-and-white 

backdrop was remarkable for its ability to change character 

through inventive lighting design… Each movement has a 

vivid musical character, with Adès’ flamboyant and whimsical 

take on Liszt appearing to be what interested McGregor 

most… The wildly galloping thieves at the end were a 

showpiece of whirling dervishes transformed into rocketpropelled 

worms.’ 

The LA Times (Mark Swed), 14 July 2019 

Inferno will form the first part of a whole evening choreographed by 

Wayne McGregor for the Royal Ballet in London entitled The Dante 

Project which opens on 6 May 2020. Adès will conduct and Tacita 

Dean will once again design sets and costumes. 

4 

PHOTOS: INFERNO (PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY CRAIG MATHEW IMAGING AT THE WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE 

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION)

HIGHLIGHTS 

Kopatchinskaja and Gabetta premiere Coll Concerto 

‘What fascinates me most about this concerto (and Francisco’s music 

in general) is that it is rooted in tradition but sounds totally new,’ 

said Gabetta. ‘It is rhythmically alive – dancing and singing – but at 

the same time it is abrupt, always in search of extremes’. ‘Francisco 

is an original and captivating composer,’ adds Kopatchinskaja. ‘His 

compositions do not only come from the brain, they have a visceral 

appeal. He makes my instrument or voice sound so crazy as I never 

would have expected, enlarging technical and expressive limits.’ 

‘The highlight of the programme… A tight, effective piece.’ 

SRF (Jenny Berg), 12 June 2019 

‘Filigree craftsmanship’ 

Francisco Coll conducted a dream duo of soloists in a 

compelling new Double Concerto with Camerata Bern. 

Commissioned by Camerata Bern as part of Coll’s year as their 

Composer-in-Residence, the Double Concerto Les Plaisirs Illuminés 

for violin, cello and small orchestra was premiered in June with 

Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta as soloists. Coll himself 

conducted, and shortly after the performances the 4-movement 

concerto was recorded for release on the Alpha label. 

The sheer density of invention present in this 20-minute work 

(which takes its title from Dalí) is staggering. The solo writing veers 

from rapt interior moments of dialogue to wild gestures of brilliant – 

but barbed – bravura. A small orchestra (20 players, each with their 

individual part) is utilised with extreme precision and flair, nowhere 

more so than in the hallucinatory third movement ‘Alegrías’ where 

the orchestral violins echo Kopatchinskaja’s forced, hyper-expressive 

channelling of cante flamenco in thrilling heterophony. 

‘Filigree craftsmanship… Although Coll alludes to a 

nearly-100-year-old work by Dalí in the title, and flirts 

with Flamenco borrowings, his composition is utterly 

contemporary. Coll’s art is of a physical intensity that 

demands a lot of stamina: in some raging episodes, the 

motives contest each other’s places, the solo instruments 

remain entangled in a never-ending dialogue, in the sombre 

“Lullaby” and the final emotionally disturbing “Lamento” the 

constant changes of expression come to a head.’ 

Der Bund (Stefan Bucher), 18 June 2019 

‘The undisputed highlight of the concert… diverse timbres 

and very sophisticated rhythms brought the ear pleasures 

in “Alegrias”. “Lamento” ended with a climax which drew 

seconds of silence before the tension erupted in an 

enthusiastic and prolonged standing ovation.’ 

Badische Zeitung (Erich Kreiger), 13 June 2019 

Soul Canoe: a new work for ensemble by Tansy Davies 

Watery dreamscapes and dark, uncanny energies combine 

in Soul Canoe, the culmination of Davies’s time as 

Composer-in-Residence at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. 

Commissioned by the Concertgebouw and scored for an ensemble of 

ten players, Soul Canoe was premiered in May by the Asko|Schönberg 

Ensemble conducted by Tom Goff. Davies’s inspiration for the 

20-minute work was twofold: visiting an exhibition of the art and 

artefacts of Oceania, a Wuramon (or ‘Soul Canoe’ made by the 

Asmat people of West Papua) rekindled for her memories of an old 

dream of Amsterdam, long before she had ever been there, its canals 

eerily filled with empty barges. 

Electric guitar cuts a lonely figure through much of the atmospheric 

four-movement work, obsessively returning to two ominous bluestinged 

idées fixes. Meanwhile, an accordion provides growling bass 

pedals and long, swelling, harmonies. The iridescent first movement 

repeatedly circles around itself – pulsating and flickering – whilst 

similar looping processes play out in the second movement, 

which riffs on some searingly elemental material from Davies’s 

2018 chamber opera Cave. The third, and longest, movement sees 

mournful flugelhorn and guitar melodies snagging behind nervous 

web-like textures. 

The striking last movement contains the work’s simplest but in 

many ways most mysterious music. Imbued with a lucid calm, the 

pared-back rhythmic writing and hushed dynamics seem to denote 

an opening out of some kind. It’s a luminous and compelling 

conclusion, with wind instruments tracing sinuous, echoing patterns 

that glide over a smooth but fast-moving soundstream. 

Soul Canoe was co-commissioned by the Red Note Ensemble and 

Sound Scotland, who will present its UK premiere in Aberdeen on 1 

November. A German premiere, by long-standing Davies supporter 

Konstantia Gourzi and her ensemble oktopus, follows in February at 

Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater. 

PHOTOS: PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA, FRANCISCO COLL AND SOL GABETTA © LUKAS FIERZ; 

TANSY DAVIES © RIKARD ÖSTERLUND 

5

Tansy Davies 

Forthcoming 

performances 

grind show (electric) 

Australian premiere 

26.9.19, Salon, Melbourne Recital 

Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia: 

Syzygy Ensemble 

Antenoux/Falling 

Angel 

US premieres 

26.9.19, Auer Performance Hall, 

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 

USA: Indiana New Music Ensemble/ 

David Dzubay 

Plumes 


27.9.19, The Sage Gateshead, UK: 

Royal Northern Sinfonia/Giedre 

Slekyte 

Dark Ground 

31.10.19, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: 

Colin Currie 

Soul Canoe 

UK premiere 

1.11.19, Sound Festival, The Lemon 

Tree, Aberdeen, UK: Red Note 

Ensemble 

German premiere 

7.2.20, Hochschule für Musik und 

Theater, Munich, Germany: ensemble 

oktopus/Konstantia Gourzi 

Iris 

6.11.19, St George’s Hall, Liverpool: 

Rob Buckland/Ensemble 10/10/ 

Clark Rundell 

The Beginning of the 

World 

9.11.19, Aberdeen Music Hall; 

10.11.19, Caird Hall, Dundee; 

12.11.19, SWG3 Galvanizers Yard, 

Glasgow; 13.11.19, Assembly Roxy, 

Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Ensemble 

new work 


9.11.19, Kings Place, London, UK: 

Elaine Mitchener/London Sinfonietta 


17.10.20, Donaueschinger Musiktage, 

Germany: Elaine Mitchener/ 

Manufaktur für aktuelle Musik 

grind show (electric)/ 

Undertow/Loopholes 

& Lynchpins/salt box/ 

neon 


London Sinfonietta/Richard Baker 

Christmas Eve 


The Choir of St Catherine’s College, 

Oxford/Edward Wickham 

neon 

7.2.20, Royal Academy of Music, 

London, UK: Musicians from the 

Royal Academy of Music 

loure 

19.5.20, Imperial College London, 

UK: Darragh Morgan 

Tansy Davies 

Bloomington appointment 

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music 

has appointed Tansy Davies Associate Professor of 

Composition, effective from 1 August 2019. 

‘Davies has established herself as a highly individualized 

voice in composition today,’ said Gwyn Richards, David 

Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean. ‘Her music doesn’t reside 

in an airtight box, but is, rather, out on the street, friendly, 

aggressive, mingling with rock. Her arrival at Indiana 

University is highly anticipated.’ 

The Indiana New Music Ensemble and David Dzubay 

will present the US premieres of Antenoux and the Anselm 

Kiefer-inspired Falling Angel on 26 September. 

Jolts and Pulses, Cycles and Circles 

Following the huge success of Davies’s chamber opera 

Cave, and the remarkable part Elaine Mitchener played 

in it, the London Sinfonietta and Kings Place have 

commissioned a new work for voice and ensemble of 5 

players, to be premiered on 9 November 2019. The work 

will be premiered as part of a portrait concert entitled 

‘Jolts and Pulses’ which will also include neon, grind show 

(electric) and Undertow. The work is a co-commission with 

the 2020 Donaueschinger Musiktage, where Mitchener 

will be joined by players from Manufaktur für aktuelle 

Musik. 

Davies has been generating material for the piece using 

numbers from sacred geometry – inspired by the writings 

of Plato and harmonious forms from nature – whilst 

Sylvia Wynter’s writings on colonial repression provide 

a contemporary undercurrent. ‘The piece is very much 

about rhythm’ says Davies. ‘The voice begins as a drum; 

a percussive utterance. Elaine will play drum kit and the 

vocal part emerges as another layer of her (4-part) drum 

pattern. Rhythms and patterns cycle and circle around 

each other in ever-changing internal relationships.’ 

Other forthcoming works include Plumes, a 5-minute 

chamber orchestra work commissioned by Royal Northern 

Sinfonia to mark their 60th anniversary. 

A contemporary carol 

Christmas hath a darkness 

Brighter than the blazing noon 

In her imaginative and thoughtful response to Christina 

Rossetti’s Christmas Eve, Davies has created a beguiling 

6-minute carol. Premiered at the 2011 Festival of Nine 

Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, this 

modern but accessible work for unaccompanied SATB 

choir would make an interesting pairing with the betterknown 

Rossetti setting In the Bleak Midwinter. The work 

will be performed at Kings Place, London this December 

by the Choir of St Catherine’s College, Oxford under 

Edward Wickham 

Crash Ensemble record Antenoux 

The Crash Ensemble, who premiered Davies’s Antenoux 

last year will release a recording of the 5-minute work 

in September on their own label Crash Records. 

Commissioned as part of CrashLands – a ground-breaking 

project to mark the 20th anniversary of the ensemble – 

the work is scored for ten players and fluctuates between 

two kinds of energy: sultry and brooding cycles of highly 

rhythmic material in guitar, bass, and percussion, and 

more streamlined linear phrases. 

Variation on a round 

In November the Scottish Ensemble will give four 

performances of Davies’s The Beginning of the World for 

strings. Commissioned for the 2013 BBC Proms as part 

of a suite of variations on Sellinger’s Round, this 5-minute 

work pulsates with energy. Fresh, vigorous textures 

maintain a poise and momentum throughout. 

Like Davies’s other works for strings, Residuum and 

Dune of Footprints – the music is both elegant and highly 

personal. The latter work, a beguiling and richly sonorous 

15-minute work, received its New Zealand premiere in 

April, with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra conducted 

by Peter Scholes. 

6 

PHOTO: TANSY DAVIES © RIKARD ÖSTERLUND; THE SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE

TUNING IN 

David Matthews 

Ninth Symphony recorded 

The English Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Woods 

have released a disc of David Matthews’s music on 

Nimbus. His Symphony No.9 features alongside the 

Variations for Strings and the Double Concerto for violin, 

viola and strings (where Sara Trickey and Sarah-Jane 

Bradley are the soloists). 

‘The Variations deserve a place in the canon of 

celebrated English string literature from Purcell 

through to Elgar, Bridge and Tippett.’ 

Gramophone (Peter Quantrill), July 2019 

‘This is easy music to love… we’re beguiled at 

Matthews’ ability to write defiantly tonal music 

which nonetheless sounds contemporary. [The 

Symphony] is a compelling work and an irresistibly 

positive musical statement… The euphonious 

Double Concerto is another find.’ 

The Artsdesk (Graham Rickson), 29 June 2019 

‘Matthews is a genuine symphonist and squeezes 

every drop of interest out of his theme.’ 

Limelight (Phillip Scott), 13 August 2019 

‘A work unafraid to be in dialogue with tradition.’ 

BBC Music Magazine (Rebecca Franks), September 2019 

This latest addition to the extensive Matthews discography 

will soon be joined by a release on Signum featuring the 

Eighth Symphony, Sinfonia, Towards Sunrise and A Vision 

of the Sea with the BBC Philharmonic and Jac van Steen. 

Towards Opera 

Generous support from the PRS Composers Fund will 

help Matthews to realise a long-awaited dream in one of 

the few genres he has yet to tackle: opera. 

The proposed piece – to be workshopped next year – is 

set in a central European country during the 1989 

revolutions, and deals with the seismic fall of communism, 

with its unforeseen and disturbing consequences. It’s a 

subject close to the hearts of Matthews and his librettist 

Sir Roger Scruton, who knew Czechoslovakia well in the 

communist period when they were part of an underground 

university and met many dissidents. 

PHOTO: DAVID MATTHEWS © CLIVE BARDA; NICHOLAS MAW © MAURICE FOXALL 

Revisiting: Dark Pastoral 

With Matthews’s Dark Pastoral – an 11-minute work 

based on the surviving fragment of the slow movement of 

Vaughan Williams’s Cello Concerto (1942) – cellists have 

gained a fascinating addition to the repertoire. The work 

was premiered by Steven Isserlis and the BBC Concert 

Orchestra at the 2010 BBC Proms, and in the past year 

has been performed in Cologne (by Piotr Skweres, the 

WDR Funkhausorchester and Frank Strobel) and in 

Glasgow (by Dai Miyata, the BBC Scottish Symphony 

Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard). 

Matthews, who has a close link with Vaughan Williams, 

both as an editor of his music and as a fellow member of 

the English symphonic tradition, orchestrated the four 

minutes of music that make up the extant short score 

before adding around six minutes of original music. 

Other Matthews works with Vaughan Williams links 

include the Sixth Symphony from 2007 – which is 

permeated by his hymn tune ‘Down Ampney’ – and 

Norfolk March for chamber orchestra (2016), which is a 

creative reconstruction of the lost Norfolk Rhapsody No.3. 

Nicholas Maw 

Revisiting: Dance Scenes 

An exuberant and vigorous set of four orchestral dances, 

Nicholas Maw’s Dance Scenes (1995) might almost be 

called a concerto for orchestra in the way it imaginatively 

puts each group of instruments through their paces. Maw’s 

debts to his English forebears are clearly signposted in this 

kaleidoscopic 19-minute work – the brassy extravagance 

of the first dance sounds like Walton whilst later the 

tangy woodwind writing recalls Britten. The whole 

piece is breathtakingly scored, filled with a profusion of 

scintillating invention. 

David Matthews 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Sinfonia 

16.11.19, Princes Hall, Aldershot, UK: 

Farnborough Symphony Orchestra/ 

Johann von Stuckenbruck 

White Flame 

27.1.20, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, UK: 

Nash Ensemble 

Nicholas Maw 

Selected 

forthcoming 

performances 

Dance Scenes 

30.6.20, St John’s Smith Square, 

London, UK: Kensington Symphony 

Orchestra/Russell Keable 

7

Francisco Coll 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Liquid Symmetries 


26.9.19, Alte Oper, Frankfurt am 

Main, Germany: Ensemble Modern/ 

Pablo Rus 

Cantos 

Korean, Japanese and French 

premieres 

18.10.19, Tongyeong, South Korea; 

20.10.19, Daejeon Culture & Arts 

Center, South Korea; 22.10.19, LG 

Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea 

25.10.19, Tokyo, Japan; 26.10.19, 

Kawanishi, Japan; 11.11.19, Alicante, 

Spain; 14.11.19; Salamanca, Spain; 

16.11.19, Vic, Spain; 21.1.20, 

Théâtre d’Orléans, France: Cuarteto 

Casals 

Hidd’n Blue 

US premiere 

25-26.10.19, Cincinnati Music Hall, 

OH, USA: Cincinnati Symphony 

Orchestra/Gustavo Gimeno 

20-21.2.20, Monumental Theater, 

Madrid, Spain: Orquesta Sinfónica de 

RTVE/Nuno Coelho 

Four Iberian Miniatures 

Austrian premiere 

8-9.11.19, Innsbruck, Austria: 

Annedore Oberborbeck/Orchester der 

Akademie St. Blasius/Michael Koeck 

Brass Quintet 


14.11.19, Younger Hall, University 

of St Andrews, UK: The Wallace 

Collection/Stockholm Chamber Brass 

Violin Concerto 

world premiere 

13.2.20, Philharmonie Luxembourg: 

Patricia Kopatchinskaja/Orchestre 

Philharmonique du Luxembourg/ 

Gustavo Gimeno 

Netherlands premiere 

23.5.20, NTR ZaterdagMatinee, Het 

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, The 

Netherlands: Patricia Kopatchinskaja/ 

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic/ 

Gustavo Gimeno 

Lilith*/Turia 


8.5.20, Palau de la Música, 

Valencia, Spain: Jacob Kellermann/ 

Orquesta de Valencia/Christian 

Karlsen/*Francisco Coll 

Francisco Coll 


Patricia Kopatchinskaja will premiere Francisco Coll’s 

new Violin Concerto in February with the Orchestre 

Philharmonique du Luxembourg under Gustavo Gimeno. 

One of the world’s most distinctive violinists, 

Kopatchinskaja has already performed Coll’s Four Iberian 

Miniatures, Hyperludes, Rizoma, LalulaLied, and the double 

concerto Les Plaisirs Illuminés (see highlights section). 

The concerto has been co-commissioned by the OPL & 

Philharmonie Luxembourg, the NTR ZaterdagMatinee, 

London Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony and 

Bamberger Symphoniker, an impressive list of partners 

that is a testament to Coll’s growing international 

reputation. The partnership of composer and interpreter, 

meanwhile, is nothing short of ideal: not only do both 

artists constantly push their disciplines to extremes, they 

also both delight in exploring the absurd and surreal. 

Other forthcoming projects include a Brass Quintet for 

The Wallace Collection and Stockholm Brass, a piano 

trio, and Lilith – a 12-minute work for the Orquesta de 

Valencia, with whom Coll is Composer in Residence. 

Liquid Symmetries in Frankfurt 

Following on from recent performances by the London 

Sinfonietta and Aspen Festival Contemporary Ensemble, 

Coll’s Liquid Symmetries for 15 players (2013) receives its 

German premiere on 26 September at Frankfurt’s Alte 

Oper. Pablo Rus conducts Ensemble Modern. 

Whilst the instrumental line up of this 13-minute work 

is modelled after the Chamber Symphony of Coll’s close 

mentor Thomas Adès, the soundworld created is far spikier 

and more astringent. Several virtuoso solo lines wind their 

way through the musical fabric – notably a jittery and 

gyrating muted trumpet solo and recurring, murmured 

viola statements. Surrealistic juxtapositions abound, 

no more so than in the work’s final movement, with its 

strange, cavernously empty near-unison passages and the 

lone, slightly droll, cowbell – hitherto unheard – that sets 

up a typically enigmatic conclusion. 

Recording News 

In February, the Orchestre Philharmonique du 

Luxembourg and Gustavo Gimeno began recording an 

all-Coll disc which will include Mural, the new Violin 

Concerto, Four Iberian Miniatures, and a revised version of 

his opus 1 Aqua Cinerea. The disc will also feature Coll’s 

short orchestral work Hidd’n Blue which will receive its 

US premiere in February with Gimeno conducting the 

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It was most recently 

performed back in May as part of Coll’s residency with the 

Orquesta de Valencia. Ramon Tebar conducted. 

‘Outstanding music, fresh and full of meaning and 

feeling. Coll is a talent of the first order, both in 

what he says and how he says it. His expressive 

language – rich with pictorial imagination – 

explores timbres and sonorities in the most extreme 

tessituras. Coll explores and stretches the limits in 

a way that is intelligent and never faddish, making 

easy use of the endless opportunities offered by 

the orchestra… A work that triumphs in its attempt 

to be, in the composer’s words ‘a sort of collective 

schizophrenia’. 

Levante (Justo Romero), 10 May 2019 

Major addition to trombone repertoire 

Faber Music is pleased to announce that Coll’s Chanson et 

Bagatelle for trombone and piano will be published later 

this year. With this masterful 8-minute work Coll – a 

trombonist himself – has created a major addition to the 

instrument’s repertoire. The Chanson is almost Bergian 

with its dark harmonies and slow-burning passion, 

unfolding as a song without words whose broad lines 

exploit the whole compass of the instrument, from pale 

heights to baleful, gritty depths. The angular Bagatelle 

which follows could not be more contrasted, drawing 

much of its characteristic mood and colour from the use of 

a harmon mute. 

Score and part | 0-571-54078-3 | £16.99 

8 

PHOTO: FRANCISCO COLL © JUDITH COLL

TUNING IN 

Carl Vine 

Hymns to Earth, Moon, and Sun 

In June, the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago 

presented the US premiere of Vine’s Choral Symphony, 

with Carlos Kalmar conducting the Grant Park Orchestra 

and Chorus. 

Scored for SATB choir, organ and orchestra, the Choral 

Symphony sets four ancient hymns in exotic languages 

that have not been spoken for thousands of years: ‘Enuma 

Elish’, an Akkadian creation myth describing the creation 

of the world from primeval chaos, and three Homeric 

Hymns to the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun (in Greek 

‘Epic Dialect’). The vocal writing in this 26-minute 

symphony (Vine’s sixth) is homophonic throughout, 

reflecting the composer’s wish for the work to ‘revel in the 

power of the human community’. 

‘resplendent choral writing’ 

‘A contemplation of humanity’s timeless quest for 

peace and understanding… The resplendent choral 

writing of the opening, the staccato utterances of 

“Eis Gen Metera Panton” (“To the Earth, Mother of 

All”), the other worldly yearnings of “Eis Selenen” 

(“To the Moon”) and the orchestral/choral 

exultations of “Eis Helion” (“To the Sun”) made for 

an epic statement on the meanings of life.’ 

Chicago Tribune (Howard Reich), 16 June 2019 

‘It was the music of Vine that proved the true 

discovery of the night… inspired and finely 

crafted… arresting, strangely beautiful sonorities… 

[Here is] a composer who truly understands voices 

and knows how to write music for large chorus. 

Vine writes in a tonal, melodic style yet wields a 

rich and subtle palette, ranging from the hushed 

stealing in of voices at the start of the first section 

to the resplendent final hymn to the sun. Most 

striking was the second section where the music 

for women’s voices alone was rapt and gorgeous.’ 

Chicago Classical Review (Lawrence A. Johnson), 15 June 2019 

Fantasia recording 

Vine’s 16-minute piano quintet, Fantasia, has been 

recorded by the Jupiter String Quartet and pianist 

Bernadette Harvey on the Marquis Classics label. Vine 

described this single-movement work as a ‘Fantasia’ 

because it doesn’t follow a strict formal structure and 

contains little structural repetition or recapitulation. 

‘The central section is generally slower than the rest and 

is followed by a presto finale’ he writes, ‘but otherwise 

related motifs tend to flow one from the other organically 

through the course of the work.’ 

‘Another find: Vine’s disparate ideas knitted with 

rare skill into a 15-minute movement… new music 

which deserves to become standard repertoire.’ 

Piano Sonata No.4 

The Artsdesk (Graham Rickson), 13 July 2019 

A skilled pianist himself, Vine has created a substantial 

body of work for the instrument, displaying a scintillating 

command of sonority and space as well as a versatility 

and wit, which has led to the pieces being performed 

across the world. He recently completed his Fourth Piano 

Sonata, commissioned by American pianist Lindsay 

Garritson who will give the first performance at the Weill 

Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, on 11 November. She will 

then present the 15-minute work in performance and 

workshop at London’s Royal College of Music and at the 

Melbourne Recital Centre in early 2020. 

Other upcoming premieres include Then & Now, a setting 

of words by the remarkable activist and artist Oodgeroo 

Noonuccal, for Katie Noonan and the Australian String 

Quartet. The 5-minute work will be performed in an 

extensive Australian tour beginning at the Sydney Opera 

House on 30 October. 

Peter Sculthorpe 

Revisting: Nourlangie 

One of Peter Sculthorpe’s most evocative works, 

Nourlangie, will be revived on 21 February by David 

Tanenbaum and the members of the San Francisco 

Conservatory conducted by Nicole Paiement. 

Scored for solo guitar, strings and percussion (1 player) 

with optional didjeridu, it unfolds as one 20-minute 

movement. It was premiered by the guitarist John 

Williams and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and 

takes its name from an enormous rock formation (now 

known as Burrunggui) in the Kakadu National Park. 

‘While writing this music,’ wrote Sculthorpe ‘I often 

dreamed of a lost guitar in the sea, lying there since 1606, 

when a Spanish expedition led by Luis Vaz de Torres 

vainly sailed through waters to the north.’ 

Carl Vine 

Forthcoming 

performances 

V 

12.9.19, Queensland Performing Arts 

Centre, Brisbane, QLD, Australia: 

Queensland Symphony Orchestra/ 

Alondra de la Parra 

Smith’s Alchemy 

20.10.19, Carnegie Hall, New York 

City, NY, USA: Melbourne Symphony 

Orchestra/Dale Barltrop 

Then & Now 


30.10.19, Sydney Opera House, 

NSW, Australia: Katie Noonan/ 

Australian String Quartet (12-date 

national tour) 

String Quartet No.6 

9.11.19, Ukaria Cultural Centre, Mt 

Barker Summit, South Australia; 

17.11.19, Huntington Estate Music 

Festival, Mudgee, NSW; 21.11.19, 

Goldner String Quartet 

Piano Sonata No.4 


11.11.19, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie 

Hall, New York City, NY, USA: 

Lindsay Garritson 

UK premiere 

28.1.20, Royal College of Music, 

London, UK: Lindsay Garritson 

Australian premiere 

16.4.20, Melbourne Recital Centre, 

Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Lindsay 

Garritson 

Peter Sculthorpe 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Small Town 

8.9.19, Springwood, NSW, Australia: 

Blue Mountains Orchestra 

A Song for Neilma 

15-16.10.19, Melbourne, VIC, 

Australia: Genevieve Lacey/Flinders 

Quartet 

From Oceania 

Japanese premiere 

20.10.19, Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan: 

Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony 

Orchestra/Kentaro Kawase 



30.11.19, Shibuya Hall, Tokyo, 

Japan: Renko Sugihara/Yukiko 

Ikeda/Kiyoshi Shigemichi/Minoru 

Nagasue/Kenichi Mizukoshi 

Nourlangie 

21.2.20, Caroline H Hume Concert 

Hall, San Francisco Conservatory 

of Music, San Francisco, CA, USA: 

David Tanenbaum/San Francisco 

Conservatory/Nicole Paiement 

PHOTOS: CARL VINE 

9

Colin Matthews 

Forthcoming 

performances 


14.9.19, Barbican Hall, London, UK: 

Leila Josefowicz/London Symphony 

Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle 

Spiralling 

Romanian premiere 

19.9.19, George Enescu Festival, 

Bucharest, Romania: Britten 

Sinfonia/Andrew Gourlay 

Little Suite 

26.9.19, Music@Malling, Malling 

Abbey, UK: Hugh Webb 

Metamorphosis 

10.12.19, Royal Festival Hall, London, 

UK: London Philharmonic Orchestra 

& Chorus/Vladimir Jurowski 

Hidden Variables 

10.12.19, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 

Los Angeles, CA, USA: Los Angeles 

Philharmonic New Music Group/ 

Susanna Mälkki 

Hidden Agenda 

21.2.20, Wye Valley Chamber Music 

Festival; 31.3.20, Wigmore Hall, 

London, UK: London Bridge Trio 

Orchestrations 

Fauré Seven Songs 

29.9.19, Hatfield House Chamber 

Music Festival, UK: Siobhan Stagg/ 

Faust Chamber Orchestra/Mark 

Austin 

Debussy La Puerta 

del Vino/Les collines 

d’Anacapri 

20.3.20, Tobin Center, San Antonio, 

TX, USA: San Antonio Symphony 

Benjamin Britten 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Death in Venice 

21.11-6.12.19, Royal Opera House, 

London, UK: Padmore/Finley/Mead/ 

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera 

House/Sir Mark Elder/dir. David 

McVicar 

22.11-5.12.19, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 

Germany: Bostridge/Carico/Oney/ 

Orchester der Deutschen Oper/ 

Markus Stenz/dir. Graham Vick 

4.4-7.5.20, GöteborgsOperan, 

Sweden: Nilon/Zetterstrom/Carlsson/ 

Göteborgs Operans/Steuart Bedford/ 

dir. David Radok 

9-30.5.20, Staatsoper Stuttgart, 

Germany: Klink/Eiche/ 

Staatsorchester Stuttgart/Bas 

Wiegers/dir. Demis Volpi 

3.5-25.6.20, Theater Münster, 

Germany: Sinfonieorchester Münster/ 

Golo Berg/dir. Carlos Wagner 

24.5-24.6.20, Theater Bonn, 

Germany: Mertes/Morouse/Wessel/ 

Beethoven Orcheter Bonn/Hermes 

Helfricht/dir.Hermann Schneider 

Children’s Crusade 

28.3.20, Philharmonie, Paris, France: 

Etudiants du CNSMD/Choeur de 

l’Orchestre de Paris/Choeur d’enfants 

de l’Orchestre de Paris/Lionel Sow 

Colin Matthews 

Rattle conducts Violin Concerto 

On 14 September, Leila Josefowicz performs Colin 

Matthews’s Violin Concerto with Simon Rattle and 

London Symphony Orchestra. This dazzling and mercurial 

work was written for Josefowicz, with her distinctive 

musical personality in mind, and is one of Matthews’s 

most vivid scores. A sustained, high-flying lyricism is 

one of score’s hallmarks, and it inhabits the rich yet airy 

soundworld typical of his post-Debussy Préludes pieces. 

Cast in two movements of equal length, the 22-minute 

concerto is scored for an economical orchestra of only 

36 string players, winds and seven brass and percussion. 

Flugelhorns replace trumpets, and the distinctive bass 

sonorities of the lujon are prominent. 

Revisiting: A Land of Rain 

2021 marks 200 years since the birth of one of art’s great 

modernists: Charles Baudelaire. What better excuse for 

revisiting Matthews’s Spleen: A Land of Rain for medium 

voice and ensemble, an intriguing 25-minute work that 

sets 10 eccentric translations of the same Baudelaire poem 

‘Je suis comme le roi d’un pays pluvieux’ from Les Fleurs 

du mal. 

Mostly written under pseudonyms for a competition in 

the Sunday Times, the eccentric translations by Nicholas 

Moore embrace a vast stylistic diversity – sometimes 

serious, more often parodistic – an approach which 

Matthews has mirrored in his settings. Whilst the more 

light-hearted songs recall something like the madcap 

energy of William Walton’s Façade, the overriding mood 

is of a deep and listless ennui. After a brief ‘Envoi’, the 

work ends with the Baudelaire poem in French, set in 

the style of Duparc or perhaps Chausson. When this too 

evaporates, leaving just a spectral piano accompaniment, 

it feels like we have been transported back to a Parisian 

salon. Capricious, incisive and unruly, Spleen: A Land of 

Rain is also a fascinating meditation on the inexact nature 

of translation. 

Spiralling 

Britten Sinfonia will give the Romanian premiere of 

Matthews’s Spiralling this summer at the Enescu Festival, 

Bucharest. Originally written for Spira Mirabilis (who 

premiered it unconducted!), this 25-minute work for 

chamber orchestra is constantly in motion: sometimes 

in rapid, scherzo-like figuration, sometimes in a slow 

unfolding, and sometimes in bold statements which turn 

in on themselves (as in the striking opening). 

Everything is renewed 

Metamorphosis for chorus and orchestra will be performed 

by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir 

Jurowski in October. The final part of Renewal, 

Matthews’s vast quartet of orchestral works from the 

90s, this 13-minute work for chorus and orchestra sets 

a text derived from Ovid’s Metamorphoses describing the 

philosophy of Pythagoras: ‘Nothing in the whole world 

endures unchanged… everything is renewed’. Much of the 

music is underpinned by deep pedal C, and its hushed, 

mysterious mood will make it an excellent curtain-raiser 

to Mahler’s Second Symphony, with which it shares the 

programme. 

Benjamin Britten 

The Wilderness of night 

Children’s Crusade, a setting of Bertold Brecht for children’s 

voices, two pianos, electric organ, and percussion, is one 

of Benjamin Britten’s most austere and unsettling pieces. 

The 19-minute work takes the form of a ballad telling the 

story of a group of children trying to flee the ‘wilderness of 

night’ that was World War II Poland, searching for peace 

but ultimately becoming lost without trace in the snow. 

Composed for the 50th anniversary of the Save the 

Children Fund, Children’s Crusade was completed in 

January 1969, immediately before two other works 

preoccupied with war: Who are these Children? and Owen 

Wingrave. Britten himself referred to this hard-hitting 

work as a ‘very grisly piece’, and its icy, claustrophobic and 

violent music offers almost no hope. Originally in English, 

it also exists in a German translation by Hans Keller. 

The work will next be performed at the Philharmonie de 

Paris in February, with Lionel Sow conducting the Chœur 

d’enfants de l’Orchestre de Paris and students from the 

Paris Conservatoire. The Paris programme also includes 

the Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris singing another Brecht 

setting: Weill’s Berliner Requiem. 

To peruse works by from all Faber Music’s 

composers, please visit: 

scorelibrary.fabermusic.com 

10 

PHOTO: COLIN MATTHEWS © MAURICE FOXALL

TUNING IN 

Jonathan Harvey 

…towards a pure land in Warsaw 

Jonathan Harvey’s …towards a pure land (2005) will 

receive its Polish premiere in September at the Warsaw 

Autumn Festival, with Ryan Bancroft conducting the 

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. 

The first fruit of Harvey’s extraordinary partnership with 

Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, 

this radiant 15-minute work won the 2007 RPS Large- 

Scale Composition Award. It begins with the ‘Ensemble 

of the Eternal Sound’ – a small group of strings, hidden 

on the stage – which provides a backdrop of quietude 

onto which Harvey paints monumental, gradually shifting 

sheets of divisi strings (moving from toneless to pitched 

material). Towards the end, the wind players evocatively 

whisper fragments of words. 

‘The work’s heart’, Harvey wrote, ‘is not solid, rather it is 

an emptiness, an empty presence… In the surrounding 

music, the tempi are often fluid, the ideas are fleeting: 

things arise, then cease, in an unending flow. To grasp 

them and fix them would be to distort them falsely. A Pure 

Land is a state of mind beyond suffering where there is no 

grasping.’ 

Sussex Electronic studio 

This Autumn, the Music Department at the University 

of Sussex will open a new resource honouring Harvey’s 

long association with the institution and his extraordinary 

legacy to British music. The launch of The Jonathan 

Harvey Electronic Music Studio will be marked on 9 

October, with a brief concert including Harvey’s seminal 

electronic work Mortuous Plango Vivos Voco (1980). 

Mortuous Plango will also be heard in Los Angeles this 

December, as part of a concert by the LA Philharmonic 

New Music Group curated by Susanna Mälkki and Leila 

Josefowicz. 

Riot Ensemble record Song Offerings 

A new recording of Harvey’s Song Offerings – the second to 

date – will be released in September on Coviello Classics. 

The performers are Sarah Dacey and the Riot Ensemble 

conducted by Aaron Holloway-Nahum. Premiered in 

1985, Song Offerings for soprano and chamber ensemble 

of eight players remains one of his most celebrated works. 

An intimate cycle of four ecstatic Tagore poems (sung in 

English), this 17-minute work abounds in exotic colours, 

torrents of gleaming effects and masterful word setting. 

A new edition of Speakings 

Faber Music is pleased to announce the publication of a 

new edition of what is undoubtably one of Harvey’s most 

important and ambitious works: Speakings for orchestra 

and electronics. Composed in 2008, during Harvey’s 

time as Composer in Association with the BBC Scottish 

Symphony Orchestra, it utilises a unique process of 

electronic transformation developed at IRCAM to explore 

the possibility that an orchestra could be made to ‘speak’. 

Winner of the prestigious Monaco Prize, the 25-minute 

work belongs to that fascinating clutch of works composed 

around the time of Harvey’s final opera, Wagner Dream, 

which contain musical allusions to Wagner, in this case 

Parsifal. Unfolding over three continuous movements, the 

music moves from the babbling of a baby and the frenetic 

chatter of human life in all its expressions, to music of 

unity, a hymn which is close to Gregorian chant in which, 

in Harvey’s words ‘the paradise of the sounding temple is 

imagined’. 

Typeset, and with input from Gilbert Nouno who 

collaborated with Harvey on the electronic element, this 

long-awaited new edition undertaking will make this 

stunning piece even more accessible to conductors and 

enthusiasts. 

Jonathan Harvey 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Bird Concerto with 

Pianosong 

21.9.19, Festival Musica, Strasbourg, 

France: Bertrand Chamayou/Sound 

Intermedia/Orchestre national de 

Metz/David Reiland 

27.2.20, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, 

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Laura 

Sandee/Ensemble Insomnio/ 

Ulrich Pohl 

Tendril 

Israeli premiere 

21.9.19, Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, 

Israel: Israeli Contemporary Players/ 

Zsolt Nagy 

...towards a pure 

land 

Polish premiere 

28.9.19, Warsaw Autumn Festival, 

Poland: Polish National Radio 

Symphony Orchestra/Ryan Bancroft 

Sringara Chaconne 

7.11.19, Conservatorio Amadeo 

Roldán, Havana, Cuba; 9.11.19, 

Basílica de San Francisco de Asís, 

Havana, Cuba; 18.11.19, Studio des 

Ensemble Musikfabrik, Cologne, 

Germany: Studio Musikfabrik/ 

Peter Veale 

Vajra 

19.11.19, Conservatoire à 

rayonnement régional de Paris, 

France: Ensemble Court-Circuit/ 

BCMG/BCMG NEXT/Jean Déroyer 

Mortuos Plango, 

Vivos Voco 

9.10.19, Attenborough Centre for 

the Creative Arts, University of 

Sussex, UK 

10.12.19, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 

Los Angeles, CA, USA: Los Angeles 

Philharmonic New Music Group 

Pre-echo for Jean- 

Guihen 

4.4.20, Milton Court, Guildhall School 

of Music and Drama, London, UK: 

Jean-Guihen Queyras 


11.6.20, Salle des Concerts, Cité 

de la musique, Paris, France: 

Quatuor Béla 

Full technical details for all Harvey’s works 

involving electronics can be found online at: 

jonathanharveysoundsources.com 

Score | 0-571-53888-6 | £39.99 

PHOTO: JONATHAN HARVEY © MAURICE FOXALL 

11

Thomas Adès 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Asyla 

12.9.19, Konserthuset, Malmö, 

Sweden: Malmö Symphony 

Orchestra/Robert Trevino 

Three Studies from 

Couperin 

13.9.19, Ultima Festival, Oslo, 

Norway: Norwegian Radio Orchestra/ 

Geoffrey Paterson 

3-4.10.19, Opéra National de 

Bordeaux, France: Orchestre National 

de Bordeaux/Paul Daniel 

17.10.19, Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland: 

Marko Ylönen/Lahti Symphony 

Orchestra/Leo McFall 

21.11.19, Kuopio Music Hall, Finland: 

Kuopio Symphony Orchestra/ 

Jessica Cottis 


8-9.12.19, Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo, 

Japan: Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony 

Orchestra/Alan Gilbert 

Concerto for Piano 

and Orchestra 

Danish premiere 

3.10.19, Koncerthuset DR Byen, 

Copenhagen, Denmark: Kirill 

Gerstein/Danish Radio Symphony 

Orchestra/Nicholas Collon 

11-12.10.19, Severance Hall, 

Cleveland, OH, USA: Kirill Gerstein/ 

Cleveland Orchestra/Alan Gilbert 

UK premiere 

23.10.19, Royal Festival Hall, 

Southbank Centre, London, UK: 

Gerstein/London Philharmonic 

Orchestra/Adès 

Finnish premiere 

29.11.19, Music Centre, Helsinki, 

Finland: Gerstein/Helsinki 

Philharmonic Orchestra/Adès 

27-28.2.20, Herkulessaal, Munich, 

Germany: Gerstein/Bavarian Radio 

Symphony Orchestra/Adès 


19-21.3.20, Concertgebouw, 

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Gerstein/ 

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/ 

Adès 

2-4.4.20, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 

Los Angeles, CA, USA: Gerstein/LA 

Philharmonic Orchestra/Adès 

Luxury Suite from 

Powder Her Face 


10-12.10.19, Het Concertgebouw, 

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Royal 

Concertgebouw Orchestra/Adès 


6,8.12.19, Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, PA, 

USA: Augustin Hadelich/Pittsburgh 

Symphony Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä 


UK: Anthony Marwood/London 

Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew 

Manze 

14.2.20, Music Centre, Helsinki, 

Finland: Pekka Kuusisto/Finnish 

Radio Symphony Orchestra/Nicholas 

Collon 

29.3.20, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, 

Germany: Leila Josefowicz/NDR 

Elbphilharmonie Orchester/Krzsystof 

Urbanksi 

12 

Thomas Adès 

Piano Concerto 

After the rapturous response at its world premiere with 

the Boston Symphony (its sole commissioner) in March, 

and its European premiere with the Leipzig Gewandhaus 

in April, many expected that Thomas Adès’s Concerto 

for Piano and Orchestra was set to enter the repertoire. 

What no-one could have predicted, however, was the 

astonishing and unprecedented speed with which it has 

been taken up by orchestras. At the time of writing there 

are 35 forthcoming performances planned – all with Kirill 

Gerstein, the pianist who premiered it, at the keyboard. 

In October Nicholas Collon will conduct the concerto 

with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, swiftly 

followed by Alan Gilbert and the Cleveland Orchestra. In 

the 19/20 season alone, Adès will conduct the work’s UK 

premiere with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and 

further performances with the Helsinki Philharmonic, 

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal 

Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the LA Philharmonic. 

This audacious 22-minute work (Adès third concertante 

work with piano) is almost bewildering in its wealth of 

invention. Throughout its three movements a highly 

sophisticated yet vital approach to rhythmic feel is married 

to a totally personal harmonic sense, and the resulting 

work is by turns playful, sombre, rowdy and ravishingly 

beautiful. Adès and Gerstein have worked together many 

times, both in concertos and as duo partners, and the solo 

writing is tailor-made for the latter’s combination of jawdropping 

virtuosity and musical intelligence. 

‘The Adès’s soundworld is as exciting as it is 

individual… With the European premiere of this 

concerto the Gewandhaus have landed a real 

coup… It begins with a timpani upbeat followed by 

a memorable piano motif – full of earworm potential 

– that is passed through the orchestra, its many 

facets questioned by Gerstein in a stupendous 

virtuoso manner. The unanimous enthusiasm of the 

audience proved that this fantastic concerto will 

quickly be taken up by other orchestras.’ 

Bachtrack (Michael Vieth), 26 April 2019 

PHOTO: THOMAS ADÈS © BRIAN VOCE 

‘Gerstein is ideally cast to explore the pristine 

sensuality of this outwardly traditional yet modern 

concerto… After an initial timpani beat as a starting 

signal, the thoroughbred virtuoso is immediately 

in his element in the Allegramente with its double 

octaves, glissandi and crazy trills. Such spectacles 

never remain and end in themselves, but are 

integrated into powerful lines, wide arcs of a 

gigantic orchestral kaleidoscope… It certainly isn’t 

the last time we will hear this piece…’ 

Leipziger Volkszeitung (Werner Kopfmüller), 26 April 2019 

‘O Albion’ for string orchestra 

Ever since its premiere in 1994, Adès’s first string quartet, 

Arcadiana has been captivating audiences with its stunning 

evocations idylls vanishing, vanished, or imaginary. Its 

6 commercial recordings to-date demonstrate just how 

successful it is in fusing contemporary sonority, formal 

familiarity and imaginative depth. 

Of all the quartet’s movements it is ‘O Albion’ that has 

most captured the imagination of listeners: seventeen 

sighing, devotissimo bars in E-flat (the key of Elgar’s 

Nimrod). Last year the vocal consort Voces 8 recorded a 

version for Decca and now, due to many requests from 

performers, Adès has made an arrangement for string 

orchestra. It was commissioned by The Orchestra of the 

Swan (and partners) and will be premiered by them at 

Theatre No.8, Pershore, on 15 October. 

Three Berceuses in Verbier 

Adès has created a set of Three Berceuses from The 

Exterminating Angel for viola and piano. They have 

been commissioned for Lawrence Power, by the Verbier 

Festival; Moritzburg Festival; BBC Radio 3; Aspen 

Festival; UKARIA Cultural Centre, South Australia; 

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam; and underwritten by 

The Viola Commissioning Circle. Power gave the premiere 

at Verbier in July when he was joined by pianist George Li. 

The pieces – which last 9 minutes in total – are exclusive to 

Power until July 2021. 

The Berceuses include some of the opera’s most exquisite 

music – the first two drawing on the yearning melancholy 

duets of the doomed lovers Beatrice and Egardo, the last a 

version of Silvia’s eerie berceuse macabre from Act III. 

An Angel Symphony 

In May 2020 the City of Birmingham Symphony 

Orchestra and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla will premiere the 

Angel Symphony. Drawing on Adès’s extraordinary score 

to The Exterminating Angel, the work will be around 

20 minutes long and has been commissioned by the 

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland 

Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Kölner Philharmonie, Helsinki 

Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestra of Spain and 

the Barbican Centre. 

Other forthcoming projects include a set of violin-piano 

pieces and a work for string orchestra.

TUNING IN 

Tom Coult 

New piano pieces 

Tom Coult’s new collection of piano pieces, entitled 

Inventions (for Heath Robinson) was premiered by Riot 

Ensemble’s Adam Swayne at the Petworth Festival in 

August. 

The title Inventions has always had an attraction for 

Coult, who writes: ‘firstly, it suggests that the composer 

is intentionally reducing their means – evoking Bach’s 

Inventions, it implies rigour, concision, transparency 

and craft. Secondly, the word suggests a composer’s 

imagination taking flight – conjuring worlds that don’t 

exist yet, embracing the elation of creating artistic things. 

Lastly, it conjures for me the idea of a mad inventor – 

working with pulleys, cogs, engines and sellotape. Creating 

contraptions whose complexity far exceeds their use value, 

but whose ingenuity has a charm in direct proportion to 

their uselessness.’ 

A Violin Concerto, Pleasure Garden, for Daniel Pioro and 

the BBC Philharmonic will be premiered in June, with 

Ilan Volkov conducting. 

Violet 

A co-production by Music Theatre Wales, Aldeburgh 

Festival and Theater Magdeburg, Coult’s chamber opera 

Violet with playwright Alice Birch will be staged across the 

UK in the summer and autumn of 2020. A full-length 

piece of around 80 minutes, for four singers and ensemble 

of 14 players, the opera has already been shortlisted for 

the prestigious FEDORA – GENERALI Prize for Opera. 

Richard Baker will conduct the London Sinfonietta, with 

Elizabeth Atherton in the title role. The creative team will 

also include director Rebecca Frecknall and designer Tom 

Scutt. 

Loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Devil in the 

Belfry, the opera concerns the inhabitants of a village 

which begins losing hours from its day – one night, an 

hour disappears. On day two, two hours are missing, on 

day three, three are gone. Our story takes place over 24 

increasingly short days, as time drains from the world, 

until the opera snaps shut as the final hour vanishes. 

Diotima take up String Quartet 

Quatuor Diotima will give the French premiere of Coult’s 

String Quartet in February as part of Radio France’s 

Présences Festival. 

Commissioned by the Hepner Foundation and premiered 

by the Arditti Quartet, the 12-minute work is characterised 

by the unusual tunings of half of the instruments – the 

2nd violin has all its strings tuned down a semitone, and 

the viola has all its strings tuned down a tone. This greatly 

expands the number of different pitches available to be 

played as open strings – unlike the conventional tuning 

of a quartet, this combination contains 16 unique strings 

– and all the piece’s five movements are in some sense 

explorations of the distinctive timbre of open strings. It’s 

an ingenious work, perhaps Coult’s most compellingly 

original yet, with a fascinating mix of clarity and 

strangeness. 

Thomas Adès 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Three-piece Suite 

from Powder Her 

Face 

2-3.12.19, Nationaltheater, 

Munich, Germany: Bayerisches 

Staatsorchester/Thomas Søndergård 

Tevot 

Lithuanian premiere 

12.10.19, Vilnius Festival, Lithuania: 

Lithuanian State Symphony 

Orchestra/Modestas Pitrenas 

In Seven Days 

Lithuanian premiere 

19.10.19, Vilnius Festival, Lithuania: 

Nicolas Hodges/Lithuanian State 

Symphony Orchestra/Adès 

28-30.11.19, Konzerthaus, Berlin, 

Germany: Vikingur Olafsson/ 

Konzerthausorchester Berlin/Cristoph 

Eschenbach 


UK: Nicolas Hodges/London 

Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir 

Jurowski 

Three Berceuses 

UK premiere 

21.10.19, Wigmore Hall, London, 

UK: Lawrence Power/Simon 

Crawford-Phillips 

Powder Her Face 

Greek premiere 

25.10-9.11.19, Kallithea, Greece: 

Greek National Opera/Ergon 

Ensemble/dir. Alexandros Efklidis 

Angel Symphony 


13-14.5.20, Symphony Hall, 

Birmingham, UK: City of Birmingham 

Symphony Orchestra/Mirga 

Gražinyte-Tyla 

Inferno 


18-19.6.20, Het Concertgebouw, 

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Royal 

Concertgebouw Orchestra/Adès 

Tom Coult 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Études 

3.11.19, Omnibus Theatre, London, 

UK: Fenella Humphreys 

String Quartet 

French premiere 

8.2.20, Festival Présences, Maison 

de Radio France, Paris, France: 

Quatuor Diotima 

Schumann – Studies 

in Canonic Form 

28.3.20, St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, 

UK: Oxford Sinfonia/Robert Weaver 

Pleasure Garden 


4.6.20, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 

UK: Daniel Pioro/BBC Philharmonic 

Orchestra/Ilan Volkov 

Violet 


June 2020, Aldeburgh Festival, 

Snape, UK: Music Theatre Wales/ 

London Sinfonietta/Richard Baker/ 

dir. Rebecca Frecknall 

PHOTO: TOM COULT © MAURICE FOXALL; EXCERPT FROM INVENTIONS © FABER MUSIC 

13

Matthew Hindson 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Arrival 

16.9.19, Lake Burley Griffin, 

Canberra, ACT, Australia: National 

Carillon/Lyn Fuller/Dr Thomas Laue 

Light Music 

5.10.19, Joan Hammond Hall, 

ABC Southbank, Melbourne, VIC, 

Australia: Orchestra Victoria 


UK and Spanish premieres 


UK; 16.10.19, Two Moors Festival, 

Chagford, UK; 17.10.19, Leicester 

International Music Festival, UK; 

19.11.19, Las Palmas de Gran 

Canaria, Spain; 25.11.19, Penrith, 

UK: Elias String Quartet 

Rush 

3.12.19, St David’s Hall, Cardiff, 

UK; 4.12.19, Royal Concert Hall, 

Nottingham, UK: Craig Ogden/ 

Manchester Camerata 

Malcolm Arnold 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Peterloo 

8.9.19, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 

UK: Chetham’s School of Music/ 

Stephen Threlfall (choral version) 

22.9.19, Christchurch Town Hall , 

New Zealand: Burnside High School 

Orchestra/Helen Renaud 

16.11.19, Chester Cathedral, UK: 

Chester Philharmonic Orchestra/ 

Marco Bellasi 

23.11.19, Blackpool, UK: Blackpool 

Symphony Orchestra/Helen Harrison 

9.5.20, Scarborough, UK: 

Scarborough Symphony Orchestra/ 

Shaun Matthew 

Concerto for Clarinet 

No.2 

15.9.19, Miyaji Gakki Koganei Shop, 

Tokyo, Japan: Hiromi Takahashi/ 

Ensemble Grune/Kazuki Wada 

10.11.19, Die Glocke, Bremen, 

Germany: Orchester Musikfreunde 

Bremen/Matthias Reckhardt 

1.2.20, Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent, 

UK: Emma Johnson/Maidstone 

Symphony Orchestra/Brian Wright 

The Turtle Drum 

12.10.19, Malcolm Arnold Festival, 

Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 

UK: Hilary Davan Wetton 

Four Irish Dances 

29.10.19, LaGrange College, 

LaGrange, GA, USA: LaGrange 

Symphony Orchestra/Richard Prior 

Matthew Hindson 

Saxophone Concerto premiere 

Amy Dickson premiered Matthew Hindson’s Soprano 

Saxophone Concerto, a commission from the Tasmanian 

Symphony Orchestra, on 25 August in Hobart. Benjamin 

Northey conducted. The 22-minute work in three 

movements was broadcast on ABC Classic FM radio. 

Elias tour 2nd Quartet in Europe 

A stunning musical depiction of an exploding supernova, 

Hindson’s String Quartet No.2 is one of his finest works 

in the medium. It was commissioned by Musica Viva 

Australia for the Elias String Quartet, who will perform it 

in the UK and Spain later this year, including the London 

premiere at the Wigmore Hall on 14 October. 

‘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… music of compelling, heart-breaking beauty.’ 

Limelight (Clive Paget), 20 August 2013 

‘A skilful depiction of a supernova exploding, 

building from silence to chaos in an adrenalin-rush 

of notes… tough and rangy, packed with ideas 

which hatch and morph at dizzying rates.’ 

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

‘Requiem for a City’ wows audiences 

in Spain 

Hindson’s Requiem for a City for symphonic wind band 

was co-written with renowned Australian DJ Paul Mac in 

2015 and has since been taken up by numerous ensembles. 

Moreover, the 16-minute work was immediately recorded 

for Naxos. In recent months it has been performed – in 

a slightly reduced version – in Buñol, Spain at the World 

Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Annual 

Conference. It was presented by its original commissioners, 

the Sydney Conservatorium Wind Orchestra conducted by 

John Lynch, who also performed it in Sydney in May. 

Malcolm Arnold 

Arnold Centenary 

In 2021, the centenary of Malcolm Arnold’s birth 

provides the ideal opportunity to reassess this fascinating 

and indispensable figure in 20th century British Music. 

There can’t be any professional musician trained in the 

UK who is not familiar with the engaging and directly 

communicative qualities of Arnold’s work, but behind 

the popular image of Arnold is a much more complex 

personality, with a remarkably diverse output to match. 

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. His Seventh Symphony, completed in 1973 

is a startlingly original work (arguably the most deeply 

personal of all Arnold’s nine symphonies) and now boasts 

four separate commercial recordings. 

Peterloo Overture at the BBC Proms 

Malcolm Arnold’s dramatic Peterloo Overture received a 

thrilling account at this summer’s Proms from the BBC 

Philharmonic Orchestra and Ben Gernon. The 9-minute 

work was last heard at the Proms in 2014, when a new 

choral version with lyrics by Sir Tim Rice featured as part 

of the Last Night. 

The overture powerfully portrays the terrible events of the 

Peterloo Massacre but, after a lament for the killed and 

injured, it ends in triumph, in the firm belief that all those 

who have suffered and died in the cause of unity amongst 

mankind, will not have died in vain. 

Revisiting: the concerto for 3 hands 

Commissioned 50 years ago for the 1969 BBC Proms, 

Arnold’s vibrant Concerto for Two Pianos (3 hands) was 

written for the husband and wife team of Phyllis Sellick 

and Cyril Smith. Unashamedly popular and direct in style, 

this concise 13-minute work contrasts dark tragedy with 

melting romantic melodies, closing with a brilliantly witty 

and uplifting rumba. 

14 

PHOTOS: MATTHEW HINDSON; MALCOLM ARNOLD

TUNING IN 

Torsten Rasch 

John Woolrich 

A new opera for Dresden 

The unique expressive make-up of Rasch’s music – his 

fluency, assurance on the largest scale, and his uncanny 

ability to spin a vivid and personal sound-world around 

the ghosts of others – makes him a natural composer for 

the stage. His first opera Rotter (2007) was adapted from a 

play by the East German dissident writer Thomas Brasch, 

whilst a second, The Duchess of Malfi (2010), saw him join 

forces with the radical theatre company Punchdrunk for a 

critically acclaimed immersive adaptation of John Webster’s 

gripping revenge tragedy. Die Formel – an ambitious 

interdisciplinary work for singers, actors and orchestra – 

followed last year at Konzerttheater Bern. 

Rasch is now at work on his next opera: Die Andere Frau 

for the Semperoper Dresden. To a libretto by writer 

Helmut Krausser exploring the biblical story of Abraham, 

Sarah and Hagar, the work will both offer an exciting love 

story and trace the origins of the Abrahamic religions. 

What’s more, Immo Karaman’s production will literally 

place the audience in the middle of the action: on the stage 

of the Semperoper itself. Roland Kluttig will conduct. 

Seven 

As well as providing the libretto for Rasch’s next opera 

(and inspiring his dramatic Violin Concerto Tropoi), 

Helmut Krausser has also been pivotal in a new work 

commissioned by the RIAS Kammerchor. Scored for SATB 

choir and solo cello, and setting texts by Krausser, Seven 

takes the form of interpolations in the St Luke Passion by 

Heinrich Schütz. The choir will premiere the 17-minute 

work with cellist Anna Carewe at the Schütz Musikfest, 

Weißenfels, in October. 

‘Schütz’ Lukas-Passion is a masterwork of austerity and 

expressiveness’ writes Rasch. ‘According to the Secrets of 

Enoch (from the apocrypha), man was created using seven 

consistencies: Earth, Dew, Sun, Stone, Clouds, Grass and 

Wind. Within the Lukas-Passion there are statements that 

correspond to these elements and Helmut wrote poems 

dealing with them. My aim was to be expressive; to elevate, 

construe and enhance the Passion within the context of 

these new poems. 

Trumpet Concerto for Alison Balsom 

From Ulysses Awakes, his iconic reworking of Monteverdi, 

to his much-loved Viola Concerto, John Woolrich has 

consistently made his own work a fascinating echo 

chamber for musical voices from the past. In May 2020, 

a new work for trumpet and chamber orchestra – Hark, 

the echoing air – will be premiered by Alison Balsom and 

the Britten Sinfonia. The new commission will be heard 

alongside Woolrich’s characterful, pungent, transcriptions 

of Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. 

Revisiting: the Violin Concerto 

The Britten Sinfonia will also take Woolrich’s music to 

Romania this summer, where they will be joined by the 

winner of the Enescu Competition and conductor Andrew 

Gourlay for a performance of the Violin Concerto. 

When the 21-minute work was premiered at the 2008 

Aldeburgh Festival by Carolin Widmann and Northern 

Sinfonia conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, the Guardian 

found in it ‘a wilful intensity’ and praised its ‘flights of 

imagination and lyrical soul-searching.’ Conceived as a 

single movement, the concerto begins in medias res and it 

quickly becomes apparent that its character and internal 

dramaturgy fit no existing mould. ‘I’ve never done the 

19th-century virtuosic thing of pitting the soloist against 

the orchestra, trying to get the soloist to shut it down’ 

says Woolrich. ‘With my Viola Concerto everything 

is pianissimo, supported by flute and harp. The Cello 

Concerto alternates between solo and tutti, or solo with 

hushed tutti. But the Violin Concerto is full of ensemble 

playing, because the violin is on top so it can sing out more 

easily. It’s exciting to find a way of keeping the poetry of 

this uneasy balance between the one and the many. All the 

ideas that come out of that thought become the beginning 

of how you think about the concerto.’ 

View a score of John Woolrich’s Violin Concerto 

at scorelibrary.fabermusic.com 

Torsten Rasch 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Seven 


13.10.19, Heinrich-Schütz-Musikfest, 

Weißenfels, Germany: Anna Carewe/ 

RIAS Chamber Choir 

Die andere Frau 


3-24.6.20, Semperoper Dresden, 

Germany: Marquardt/Herlitzius/ 

Pucalkova/Deyhim/Sinfoniechor 

Dresden/Staatskapelle Dresden/ 

Roland Kluttig/dir. Immo Karaman 

John Woolrich 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Concerto for Violin 

Romanian premiere 

19.9.19, George Enescu Festival, 

Bucharest, Romania: winner of the 

Enescu Competition/Britten Sinfonia/ 

Andrew Gourlay 

Pianobooks II, VI, VII, 

IX, XII, XIV, XV 

2.11.19, Homerton College, 

Cambridge, UK: Clare Hammond 

A Book of Studies 

Set 2 

7.11.19, Royal Academy of Music, 

London, UK: RAM students 

The Turkish Mouse 

14.3.20, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; 

15.3.20, Berlin Konzerthaus, 

Germany: Ensemble/Ben Voce 

Three Capriccios 

29.3.20, Folkestone, UK: Melinda 

Maxwell 

Hark, the echoing 

air*/Scarlatti Sonatas 

Set 2 

*world premiere 

14.5.20, Milton Court, Guildhall 

School, London; 16.5.20, Saffron 

Hall, Saffron Walden, UK: Alison 

Balsom/Britten Sinfonia 

PHOTOS: TORSTEN RASCH © MAURICE FOXALL; 

JOHN WOOLRICH © MAURICE FOXALL 

15

Anders Hillborg 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Bach Materia 

2.10.19, Ayr Town Hall; 3.10.19, 

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh; 4.10.19, 

City Halls, Glasgow, UK: Pekka 

Kuusisto/Scottish Chamber Orchestra 

26.3.20, Stillwater; 27-29.3.20, 

Ordway Center for the Performing 

Arts, St Paul; 14.5.20, St Paul, MN; 

16.5.20, Lincoln Center, New York 

City, NY, USA: Pekka Kuusisto/The 

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra 

Rap Notes 

4-5.10.19, Filharmonii Narodowej, 

Warsaw, Poland: Eva Vesin/Orkiestra 

Symfoniczna Filharmonii Narodowej/ 

Andrzej Boreyko 

Mouyayoum 

5.10.19, Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, 

Sweden: Swedish Radio Choir/ 

Andrew Manze 

The Breathing of the 

World 


12.10.19, Saint James’s Church, 

Stockholm, Sweden: Theo Hillborg/ 

Filip Graden/St Jacobs Chamber 

Choir/Gary Graden 

Exquisite Corpse 

22.11.19, National Concert Hall, 

Dublin, Ireland: RTÉ National 

Symphony Orchestra/Anja Bihlmaier 

Tampere Raw 


Martin Fröst/Roland Pöntinen 

new orchestral work/ 

King Tide 


3.2.20, Centro Cultural Miguel 

Delibes, Valladolid, Spain: Orquesta 

Sinfónica de Castilla y León/Andrew 

Gourlay 

Opening Fanfare/ 

Brass Quintet/ 

Kongsgaard 

Variations/The 

Peacock Moment/ 

Tampere Raw/Duet/ 

Duo/Six Pieces for 

Wind Quintet 


School of Music and Drama, London: 

GSMD Students 

The Breathing 

of the World*/ 

Mouyayoum/O 

Dessa Ögon/Cradle 

Song/Lilla Sus Grav/ 

Stella Maris 

*UK premiere 

22.2.20, St Giles Cripplegate, 

London, UK: Theo Hillborg/BBC 

Singers/Ragnar Rasmussen 

new work*/Eleven 

Gates/Beast 

Sampler/Peacock 

Tales (Millennium 

Version)*/Violin 

Concerto No.1* 

*UK premieres 

22.2.20, Barbican Hall, London, UK: 

Martin Fröst/Carolin Widmann/BBC 

Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo 

Anders Hillborg 

Major BBC SO focus 

After giving the UK premieres of both Sirens and the 

Violin Concerto No.2 in 2017, the BBC Symphony 

Orchestra will return to Hillborg’s music in February 

2020 for one of their ‘Total Immersion’ days. They will be 

joined by musicians from the Guildhall School of Music 

and Drama, as well as the BBC Singers under Ragnar 

Rasmussen. The latter will place Hillborg’s rich body of 

choral music alongside works by Messiaen, Sanström, 

Stucky and Salonen before presenting the UK premiere 

a new work for choir and saxophone (see below). The 

day will culminate in an orchestral concert conducted by 

Sakari Oramo which will include the UK premieres of a 

new orchestral work and the Violin Concerto No.1 with 

Carolin Widmann. 

Composed in the early 90s, the Violin Concerto No.1 is 

a pivotal work in Hillborg’s development as a composer. 

Written in the wake of his highly experimental Clang 

& Fury and Celestial Mechanics – both of which employ 

complex and unconventional tuning systems – the 

concerto displays a more pragmatic approach, though 

the drama it sets up is far from conventional, with a very 

fluid soloist-orchestra relationship. Esa-Pekka Salonen, 

who recorded it with Anna Lindal and the Swedish Radio 

Symphony Orchestra for Ondine, has described it as one 

of Hillborg’s best pieces. 

The Breathing of the World 

Hillborg has composed a new work for mixed choir, 

soprano saxophone and cello, entitled The Breathing of 

the World. The 10-minute piece was commissioned by 

conductor Gary Graden who will conduct its premiere 

in Stockholm on 12 October 2019 with soloists Theo 

Hillborg and Filip Graden. The text for the work, which 

will also be performed at the BBC’s Total Immersion 

day, is Hillborg’s own: a lyrical celebration of nature with 

melancholic undertones reflecting on the state of our 

planet. 

Conversations with Bach 

Hillborg seems to have an intuitive knack for getting the 

most out of his soloists, be it Martin Fröst in the now 

iconic Clarinet Concerto ‘Peacock Tales’, Lisa Batiashvili 

in the Violin Concerto No.2, or Pekka Kuusisto in Bach 

Materia, an inventive and witty companion piece to Bach’s 

Third Brandenburg Concerto. The 19/20 season will 

see Kuusisto tour the latter work with both the Scottish 

Chamber Orchestra and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. 

A zany 15-minute work, Bach Materia contains numerous 

opportunities for the soloist to improvise. This spirit fits 

well with the Bach, the central Adagio of which consists 

of just two chords upon which the soloist elaborates. 

Bach Materia has received over 20 performances since its 

premiere in March 2017, and a recording with Kuusisto 

and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra will soon be released 

on BIS. 

Revisiting: Exquisite Corpse 

Back in February, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and 

Alan Gilbert gave four performances of Hillborg’s thrilling 

orchestral piece Exquisite Corpse. The 14-minute work took 

its name from the surrealist parlour game where multiple 

artists would contribute sections to a drawing, with the 

bizarre finished composite image only revealed at the end 

of the process. 

Familiar musical objects melt and buckle in what one 

critic described as the sonic equivalent of one of Dali’s 

paintings: material from Hillborg’s own work butts up 

against a chord from Stravinsky’s Petrushka, a salute to 

Ligeti and, towards the end, a passage from Sibelius’s 

Seventh Symphony, barely visible through a mist of strings. 

Like the Sibelius Symphony (with which it makes an ideal 

partner in concert programmes), Exquisite Corpse was 

commissioned by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra 

who recorded it with Gilbert for one of Hillborg’s several 

portrait discs on the BIS label. 

In November Exquisite Corpse will be performed in Dublin 

by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Anja 

Bihlmaier. 

Looking ahead 

February 2020 sees the premiere of a new orchestral work 

by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León conducted 

by Andrew Gourlay. The 15-minute piece has been cocommissioned 

by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal 

Stockholm Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and 

Helsinki Philharmonic. 

Hillborg will then compose concertos for Nicolas Altstaedt 

(cello) and Lawrence Power (viola) before embarking on a 

substantial new work for large ensemble. 

16 

PHOTO: ANDERS HILLBORG © MATS LUNDQVIST

TUNING IN 

Carl Davis 

40 years of Napoléon 

2020 marks the 40th anniversary of a major landmark 

in Silent Film: the unveiling of Carl Davis score to Abel 

Gance’s epic 1927 silent film Napoléon. The impact on 

the audience was overwhelming and Live Cinema – the 

fusion of film and live music – was reborn. The same team, 

Kevin Brownlow, the late David Gill and Carl Davis, 

subsequently worked together on over thirty restorations 

of silent films, initially financed by Thames and later by 

Channel Four Television. Their efforts have resulted in a 

worldwide revival of this lost art form. 

Napoléon is a tour-de-force of experimental filming 

techniques using multiple cameras, the mounting of 

cameras on sleds, horseback and overhead pendulums to 

achieve stunning visual effects ahead of their time, the 

visual culmination of the film being the triptych in the last 

20 minutes when three screens are used to show Napoleon 

leading his army into Italy. Davis’s suitably epic musical 

accompaniment uses quotations from Haydn, Mozart 

and Beethoven, Corsican folk tunes and a variety of other 

musical allusions and leitmotifs. All in all, this is an aweinspiring 

live cinema experience. 

Remembering the Kindertransport 

One of Davis’s most gripping and important concert 

works, Last Train to Tomorrow is also one of the pieces 

closest to his heart. The 45-minute dramatic narrative for 

children’s choir, actors (or speakers) and orchestra based on 

the moving story of the Kindertransport was performed 

at the Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester, in August. The 

semi-staged performance was the culmination of work 

with children from across Gloucestershire. Just as with its 

previous performances in London, New York, Manchester 

and Prague, the work was received to great acclaim. The 

poignant piece reimagines the thoughts and feelings of the 

Jewish children fleeing persecution, the families they left 

behind, and the open-hearted British people who took 

them in. 

Ballets across the world 

The Slovak National Theatre have announced further 

performances of Davis’s ballet based upon the life and 

work of Charlie Chaplin. Davis’s silent film score work 

makes him the ideal composer for the subject. 

In other ballet news, the Shanghai Ballet will perform 

Davis’s The Lady of the Camellias in Shanghai and Brisbane 

in February and March next year. 

Intolerance reissued on disc 

A recording of Davis’s 160-minute score for the 1916 D. 

W. Griffith epic Intolerance has been released by the Carl 

Davis Collection. Davis himself conducts the Luxembourg 

Radio Symphony Orchestra. 

Conceived on an even grander scale than Griffith’s earlier 

movie, The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance was immediately 

recognised as a powerful humane statement and a towering 

work of art. The film’s four tales are set in 539BC Babylon, 

1st-century Judea, 17th-century France and contemporary 

America, and they culminate in a rapidly cut climax that 

brings together the crucifixion, the plotting against the 

peace-loving Belshazzar in Babylon, the St Bartholomew’s 

Day massacre in 1572 Paris, and a woman’s heroic dash 

across the American countryside to save her wrongly 

convicted husband from the gallows. 

‘How exciting to revisit this recording made in 

Luxembourg in 1986’ writes Davis of this release. ‘The 

recording of the score followed two live performances of 

the film with the RTL Orchestra so they were more than 

ready. Since the initial burst of performances in Leeds, 

London and Luxembourg, there have been performances 

in France and Germany as well as in New York of its 

recent reissuing on DVD with remastered sound and 

new material from the Library of Congress. Performing 

my 160-minute score to this extraordinary film is always 

challenging but deeply rewarding. The film’s subject has 

never dated and the international crises of 1917 are as 

relevant today... When will we learn?’ 

Carl Davis 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Paul McCartney’s 

Liverpool Oratorio 

14-15.9.19, Lübeck, Germany: Kunst 

am kai Orchester/Gabriele Pott 

16.11.19, La Seine Musicale, Paris, 

France: YSO Orchestra/les Chœurs 

et Orchestres des Grandes Écoles 

26.4.20, Palais des Congres, 

Perpignan, France: Perpignan 

Mediteranee Communaute Urbaine/ 

Daniel Tosi 

The General 

12.10.19, Salzburg University, 

Austria: Philharmonie Salzburg 

21.11.19, Stadthalle Reutlingen, 

Germany: Württembergische 

Philharmonie Reutlingen/Stefan 

Geiger 

Chaplin, The Tramp 

19.10.19-27.6.20, Slovak National 

Theatre, Bratislava, Slovakia: 

Orchestra of the Slovak National 

Theatre/Dušan Štefánek/chor. Daniel 

de Andrade 

The Lady of the 

Camellias 

16.11-1.12.19, Shanghai Culture 

Square, China; 12-14.3.20, 

Queensland Performing Arts Centre, 

Brisbane, QLD, Australia: The 

Shanghai Ballet/chor. Derek Deane 

Safety Last 

16-17.11.19, Opera de Toulon, 

France: Opera de Toulon/Hugo 

Gonzalez Pioli 

PHOTO: CARL DAVIS © JASPER FRY 

17

Oliver Knussen 

Forthcoming 

performances 

...upon one 

note/Study for 

“Metamorphosis”/ 

Songs without 

Voices 

9.9.19, BBC Proms, Cadogan Hall, 

London, UK: Emily Hultmark/ 

Knussen Chamber Orchestra/Ryan 

Wigglesworth 

Coursing 

18.9.19, Ormiston Church, UK: Red 

Note Ensemble/Simon Proust 

Songs without 

Voices 


School of Music and Drama, London, 

UK: Britten Sinfonia/Andrew Gourlay 

2.11.19, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory 

of Music School, Singapore: London 

Sinfonietta 


Nash Ensemble/Jonathan Berman 

The Way to Castle 

Yonder 

17.10.19, Symphony Hall, 

Birmingham, UK: City of Birmingham 

Symphony Orchestra/Michael Seal 

1.3.20, University of Singapore: 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra/ 

Robert Spano 

Where the Wild 

Things Are 

Russian premiere 

20.10.19, St Petersburg, Russia: 

Shadwell Opera/Finnegan Downie 

Dear 

Processionals 


31.10.19, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t 

IJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands: New 

European Ensemble/Jonathan 

Berman 

Secret Psalm 


Tamsin Waley-Cohen 

Songs and A Sea 

Interlude 

20-21.11.19, Berwaldhallen, 

Stockholm, Sweden: Sophie Bevan/ 

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ 

Ryan Wigglesworth 

Mussorgsky Miniatures 


28.11.19, Ishikawa Prefectural 

Concert Hall, Kanazawa, Japan: 

Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa/ 

Kentaro Kawase 

Reflection/Ophelia 

Dances/Two Organa 

10.12.19, Walt Disney Concert 

Hall, Los Angeles, CA, USA: 

Leila Josefowicz/Los Angeles 

Philharmonic New Music Group/ 

Susanna Mälkki 

Violin Concerto/ 

Flourish with 

Fireworks 

6-8.12.19, Walt Disney Concert 

Hall, Los Angeles, CA, USA: 

Leila Josefowicz/Los Angeles 

Philharmonic Orchestra/Susanna 

Mälkki 


Tributes in Paris and Amsterdam 

Oliver Knussen will be remembered with concerts in Paris 

and Amsterdam, both of which include his masterful final 

work O Hototogisu!. Brad Lubman will conduct Ensemble 

intercontemporain and soloists Claire Booth and Sophie 

Cherrier in February. In Amsterdam, the 8-minute work 

for soprano, flute and large ensemble of 22 players will be 

heard alongside the Requiem and Two Organa. Bas Wiegers 

conducts Asko|Schönberg and its Ensemble Academie. 

A secret uncovered 

A new article by Dr Felix Meyer at the Paul Sacher 

Stiftung has shed fascinating new light on Knussen’s 

Secret Psalm. This touching 5-minute work for solo violin, 

written in memory of the London Sinfonietta’s Michael 

Vyner, displays all the composer’s gifts as an accomplished 

miniaturist. Secret Psalm clearly references the Bruch Violin 

Concerto in its repeated refrain, but Meyer’s article uses 

Knussen’s sketchbooks to demonstrate that, in fact, most 

of the pitch material in the piece is also derived from the 

concerto. Moreover, the rhythmic material for the piece is 

taken from a transcription Knussen made of the Mourner’s 

Kaddish being recited. The Sacher Stiftung acquired 

Knussen’s manuscripts and sketches in 2018, and this is 

the first of what will surely be many remarkable findings. 

Ditson Conductor’s Award 

The 2018 Ditson Conductor’s Award has been presented 

posthumously to Knussen. Established in 1945, the Award 

honours conductors who have a distinguished record of 

championing contemporary American music. The citation 

made special mention of Knussen’s remarkable impact on 

the international musical community around the world 

which was a testament to his ‘unconditional generosity and 

inspiring curiosity as a musician’. 

Publication news 

Faber Music is pleased to announce two new Knussen 

publications: a typeset score of O Hototogisu! and a 

manuscript facsimile of Eccentric Melody for solo cello. For 

more details please see page 28. 

The Third Symphony on DVD 

The London Symphony Orchestra have released a DVD 

of Sir Simon Rattle’s critically acclaimed first concert as 

Music Director, which included performances of Knussen’s 

Symphony No.3 and Thomas Adès’s Asyla. 

Composed in 1979 when Knussen was just 27 and the 

result of six years working, thinking, revising, and refining, 

Knussen’s Third Symphony is a 15-minute tour de force, 

which traverses a massive musical and emotional spectrum. 

Originally inspired by the trauma, madness and drowning 

of Shakespeare’s Ophelia, this indisputable modern classic 

displays a kaleidoscopic brilliance, from the careering 

clarinet melodies and raucous Perotin-inspired trombone 

interjections of its first part to the unnerving submerged 

horn sonorities towards its close. 

In other recording news, the London-based Berkeley 

Ensemble have released a brilliant account of Knussen’s 

…upon one note (based on Purcell’s five-part fantasia) for 

clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Available from Resonus 

Classics, the disc also includes premiere recordings of 

Purcell transcriptions by Colin Matthews and George 

Benjamin. 

Wild Things in Russia 

Where the Wild Things Are, the enchanting first part of 

Knussen’s double bill of fantasy operas written with 

Maurice Sendak, receives its Russian premiere in October, 

with Shadwell Opera conducted by Finnegan Downie 

Dear. 

The opera tells the story of Max, a boy yearning for 

adventure, who runs away from home and sails to an 

island filled with creatures that take him in as their king. 

Marinated in French and Russian opera, and containing 

allusions to Debussy’s La boîte à joujoux and the 

Coronation Scene from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, the 

40-minute work peaks in a boisterous ‘danse générale’ (à la 

Borodin or Ravel) as Max and the Wild Things dance the 

Wild Rumpus – a dazzling 4-minute orchestral gem that 

also exists as a stand-alone concert work. 

18 

PHOTO: OLIVER KNUSSEN © ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC; A VOCAL ‘MODEL’ FROM THE SCORE OF WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE © 

FABER MUSIC

TUNING IN 

Julian Anderson 

Revisiting: Transferable Resistance 

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where 

Anderson is Professor of Composition and Composer 

in Residence, featured his 2010 work for brass ensemble 

Transferable Resistance in its second annual Chamber 

Festival back in July. 


Forthcoming 

performances 

(cont.) 

O Hototogisu!*/ 

Requiem 

*French premiere 

10.12.19, Philharmonie, 

Paris, France: Claire Booth/ 

Sophie Cherrier/Ensemble 

Intercontemporain/Brad Lubman 

Ondine disc shortlisted for award 

A new disc from Ondine, featuring premiere recordings of 

Julian Anderson’s Heaven is Shy of Earth and The Comedy of 

Change has been shortlisted for a Gramophone Award. 

Susan Bickley joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra and 

Chorus for the oratorio whilst the London Sinfonietta 

perform the ballet score. Both works appear in live 

recordings conducted by the much-missed Oliver Knussen. 

Heaven is Shy of Earth for mezzo-soprano, chorus and 

orchestra sets poems by Emily Dickinson alongside the 

High Mass and Psalm 84. Commissioned for the 2006 

BBC Proms (where The Sunday Times described it as ‘a 

revelation’), this 30-minute ‘secular mass’ is a beautiful 

and beguiling work. In 2008 it won a British Composer 

Award, then in 2010 it was extended with a further 

movement, ‘Gloria (with Bird)’, which highlights the 

piece’s intention to reflect and celebrate the natural 

world. The Comedy of Change for ensemble of 12 players 

pays tribute to Charles Darwin and celebrates the 150th 

anniversary of the publication his The Origin of Species. 

Commissioned by Rambert Dance Company and 

choreographed by Mark Baldwin, the work has also had a 

vivid life in concert 

Dialogues on and around music 

Following the one day conference presented in 2017 

by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the 

Guildhall School of Music and Drama, ‘Heaven is Shy 

of Earth: Julian Anderson at 50’, John Fallas, Rebecca 

Thumpston and Edward Nesbit gave a three-paper session 

on Anderson’s music at the Society for Music Analysis 

annual conference earlier this year at the University of 

Southampton. These three papers will serve as drafts for 

chapters in a book that Fallas is putting together together 

with Christopher Dingle. 

Dingle has also collaborated with Anderson on a book 

of conversations entitled Composing, Listening: Dialogues 

on Music, Culture and Creativity by Julian Anderson and 

Christopher Dingle which will be published by Boydell & 

Brewer in 2020. 

This 3-minute work for four spatialised brass groups 

(16 players in all) was commissioned to mark the 350th 

anniversary of the Royal Society, and was premiered by the 

brass section of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It is 

underpinned by a slow, majestic sequence of chords which 

swing antiphonally between the groups before blending 

smoothly amongst them. Faster celebratory fanfares from 

six trumpets eventually burst out above these chords, 

and the fanfares gradually spread to all instruments. The 

conclusive final chord, however, suddenly fades. ‘Instead of 

ending assertively’ Anderson explains, ‘my piece disappears 

inconclusively: the elusive search for scientific truth goes 

on’. 

Poetry Nearing Silence 

Following NMC’s 2007 Gramophone Award-nominated 

Anderson portrait disc Book of Hours, in September the 

company will release a disc of chamber pieces performed 

by the Nash Ensemble. The album will include The Colour 

of Pomegranates for alto flute and piano, Another Prayer 

for solo violin, The Bearded Lady for clarinet and piano, 

and the violin-duo version of Ring Dance, alongside three 

works originally composed for the Nash players: the viola 

solo Prayer, and two works for chamber ensemble, Van 

Gogh Blue and Poetry Nearing Silence. 

Composed in 1997, Poetry Nearing Silence is a collection 

of eight engagingly quirky miniatures inspired by the work 

of artist Tom Phillips. In this work, commissioned by 

the Nash Ensemble, the highly contrasted, often bizarre, 

juxtapositions of Phillips’s The Heart of a Humument – 

which sees him ‘treating’ an obscure late Victorian novel by 

selecting certain words and phrases, and then painting over 

the rest of each page – are mirrored in vividly imagined 

music whose pithy energy creates a playful, virtuoso tour 

de force for all seven instruments. 

Whitman Settings 


UK: Claron McFadden/Alexander 

Melnikov 

Two Organa 

16, 18,19.1.20, Atlanta Symphony 

Hall, Atlanta, GA, USA: Atlanta 

Symphony Orchestra/Robert Spano 


6,8.2.20, Severance Hall, Cleveland, 

OH, USA: Leila Josefowicz/Cleveland 

Orchestra/Susanna Mälkki 


Southbank Centre, London, UK: Leila 

Josefowicz/London Philharmonic 

Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko 

Coursing/Songs 

without Voices 


de la Radio, Paris, France: London 

Sinfonietta/Christian Karlsen 

Choral 


Southbank Centre, London, UK: 

Philharmonia Orchestra/George 

Benjamin 

O Hototogisu!*/Two 

Organa/Requiem 

*Netherlands premiere 

14.5.20, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, 

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Katrien 

Baerts/Asko|Schönberg Ensemble/ 

Bas Wiegers 

Julian Anderson 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Alhambra Fantasy 

8.9.19, Klangspuren Festival, 

Innsbruck, Austria: IEMA/Huber 

Khorovod 

14.5.20, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t 

IJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands: 

Asko|Schönberg/Wiegers 

PHOTO: JULIAN ANDERSON ©MAURICE FOXALL 

19

George Benjamin 

Forthcoming 

performances 

Written on Skin 

27.9.19, La Biennale di Venezia, 

Teatro Goldoni, Venice, Italy: Hall/ 

Jarman/Murray/Purves/Orchestra 

Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai/Schuldt 

14.2.20, Festival Présences, 

Philharmonie, France; 16.2.20, 

Wiener Konzerthaus, Austria: 

Hannigan/Ramgobin/Mead/Orchestre 

Philharmonique de Radio France/ 

Benjamin 

Canadian stage premiere 

25.1-2.2.20, Théâtre Maisonneuve, 

Place des Arts, Montréal, QC, 

Canada: Magali Simard-Galdès/ 

Okulitch/Schifano/Bourget/Richer/ 

L’Opéra de Montréal/Paiement/ 

dir. Gauthier 

Shadowlines 

27.9.19, Stresa, Italy; 20.1.20, 

Ostrava, Czech Republic; 13.2.20, 

Festival Présences, Philharmonie, 

Paris, France: Aimard 

Ringed by the Flat 

Horizon 

28.9.19, Symphony Hall, 

Birmingham, UK; 9.10.19, 

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany; 

10.10.19, Kölner Philharmonie, 

Germany; 11.10.19, Festspielhaus, 

Baden-Baden, Germany: City of 

Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/ 

Gražinyte-Tyla 

Viola, Viola 

29.9.19, Kronberg Academy, 

Kronberg im Taunus, Germany: 

Tamestit/Zimmermann 

9.1.20, Boulez Saal, Berlin, Germany: 

Zimmermann/la Marca 


de Radio France, Paris, France: 

Mohamed/la Marca 

Dance Figures 

4.10.19, Festival Musica, Strasbourg, 

France: Orchestre Philharmonique de 

Strasbourg/Hermus 

24-25.11.19, Badisches 

Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, Germany: 

Badisches Staatskapelle/Moritz 

Gnann 

Duet 

5.10.19, WDR Funkhaus am 

Wallrafplatz, Cologne, Germany: 

Millet/WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln/E 

Schwarz 

8.11.19, Théâtre du Châtelet, 

Paris, France: Soules/Orchestre de 

chambre de Paris/Lee 

Into the Little Hill 

6-7.11.19, Opéra de Lille, France: 

Élise Chauvin/Camille Merckx/ 

Ensemble Carabanchel/Cemin/ 

dir. Osinski 

11-15.2.20, Teatro del Canal Festival, 

Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain: Jenny 

Daviet/Julia Riley/Teatro Real/ 

Murray/dir. Morau 

16.2.20, Festival Présences, 

Maison de Radio France, Paris, 

France: France/Rasker/Ensemble 

Intercontemporain/Bleuse 

7.3.20, 92nd Street Y, New York City, 

NY, USA: Mundy/Dhegrae/Talea 

Ensemble/Baker 


Focuses in Paris and Stockholm 

George Benjamin’s 60th birthday will be marked in Paris 

early in 2020 where he will be the featured composer at 

Radio France’s Présences Festival. There will be 11 works 

featured across 15 events, including concert performances 

of Written on Skin and Into the Little Hill. 

Another major focus is planned at the Stockholm 

International Composer Festival in November 2019. 

Highlights include a performance of dramatic scena 

Sometime Voices for baritone, choir and orchestra, with 

Gyula Orendt (who created the role of Gaveston in Lessons 

in Love and Violence). Benjamin is only the fifth British 

composer to have been featured there (the others being 

Tippett, Knussen, Musgrave and Adès). 

Dream of the Song 

Another piece that features in the Stockholm festival is 

Benjamin’s most recent concert work: Dream of the Song. 

A beguiling 20-minute piece for countertenor, women’s 

voices and orchestra, it will be sung by Bejun Mehta, who 

premiered it back in 2015 with the Netherlands Chamber 

Choir and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted 

by the composer. 

Employing a reduced orchestra (two oboes, four horns, 

two percussionists, two harps and strings), the work sets 

verse by three major poets who spent formative years 

in Granada; two Hebrew poets of mid-11th century, 

Samuel HaNagid and Solomon Ibn Gabirol (sung by 

solo countertenor in English versions by Peter Cole), and 

Gabriel Garcia Lorca (sung by the female chorus in the 

original Spanish). This inspired pairing of texts creates a 

rich, melancholy and strange poetic conjunction, expressed 

most beautifully in the final movement which, overlaying 

soloist and choir, offers two simultaneous visions of dawn, 

conceived a millennium apart. 

The work receives its Argentinian premiere in Buenos 

Aires in December, with Flavio Oliver and the Argentine 

National Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Natalia 

Salinas. Next year, Benjamin conducts performances 

with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the London 

Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Written on Skin in Tokyo and Venice 

Kazushi Ono conducted the Tokyo Metropolitan 

Symphony Orchestra in Written on Skin at Tokyo’s Suntory 

Hall at the end of August. The two performances featured 

spectacular stage designs by Dr Shizuka Hariu (see design 

sketch below). 

Meanwhile, La Biennale di Venezia has awarded George 

Benjamin the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 

in Music 2019. Benjamin is the first British musician to 

receive the award. The honour, one of the most prestigious 

of its kind, will be awarded before a concert performance 

of Written on Skin by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale 

della RAI which will open the 63rd International 

Contemporary Music Festival on 27 September. Clemens 

Schuldt will conduct a cast including Georgia Jarman, 

Christopher Purves, and James Hall. 

Early 2020 will see concert performances in Paris and 

Vienna with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio 

France conducted by Benjamin (when Barbara Hannigan 

will reprise the role of Agnès) and the opera’s Canadian 

stage premiere at L’Opéra de Montréal where Alain 

Gauthier directs a new production (the eighth to date!). 

‘Lessons’ on stage 

Following its initial run of performances in London 

and Amsterdam, George Benjamin’s third opera with 

Martin Crimp, Lessons in Love and Violence, travelled 

to the Hamburg State Opera and Opéra de Lyon. The 

performances were conducted by Kent Nagano and 

Alexandre Bloch respectively. The original Katie Mitchell 

production will now travel to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, 

Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona and Teatro Real, Madrid. 

Meanwhile, a new production directed by Florentine 

Klepper will open at Theater St. Gallen on 17 May 2020. 

‘Crimp’s text suggests more than it explains, which 

leaves the music to reveal all that is unspoken. 

Benjamin excels in animating this puzzle of 

impulses, with a restraint that occasionally gives 

way to strong outbursts (what brass!)… Benjamin 

preserves all of the text’s comprehensibility, 

working with accents and articulations to underline 

envy, sarcasm, and ferocity… There’s no doubt 

about it: Benjamin is one of the masters of 

contemporary opera.’ 

Le Soir (Serge Martin), 29 May 2019 

20 

PHOTO: GEORGE BENJAMIN © MATTHEW LLOYD; SCENOGRAPHY PROPOSAL FOR WRITTEN ON SKIN AT SUNTORY HALL © SHIZUKA HARIU

TUNING IN 

‘The opera fascinates, both musically and 

dramatically… The relations between vocal and 

instrumental elements achieves a balance that is 

rather rare amongst contemporary works…’ 

PHOTO: ROBERT SIMPSON 

Le Temps (Sylvie Bonier), 16 May 2019 

‘A tight and ingeniously constructed drama… a 

thrilling score.’ 

…in concert… 

Opernglass (Michael Lehnert), May 2019 

Following his 2017 tour of Written on Skin, Oliver 

Zeffman conducted the Russian premiere of Lessons in Love 

and Violence in St Petersburg with the London Chamber 

Orchestra. The semi-staged performance featured Mark 

Stone (King), Susanna Hurrell (Isabel), Ross Ramgobin 

(Gaveston) and Toby Spence (Mortimer). 

‘Benjamin writes operas in which everyone can find 

something… pure art.’ 

…and on disc 

Delovoy Peterburg (Olga Komok), 12 July 2019 

Nimbus records have released a CD recording of Lessons 

taken from the 2018 Dutch National Opera performances 

conducted by Benjamin. Experienced together with 

excellent DVD from Covent Garden (directed for screen 

by Margaret Williams, released on Opus Arte, and also 

conducted by Benjamin) it offers further fascinating 

insights into this gripping work. 

‘The music is wonderfully inventive and varied… 

Nimbus have again done Benjamin proud.’ 

MusicWeb International (Stephen Barber), June 2019 

‘a masterpiece’ 

‘The score does not cease for a moment to 

overpower the listener, from its theatrical sense 

and the virtuosity of an orchestra teeming with 

invention, to its alluring atmospheres, barely 

audible subtleties, sumptuous brilliance… a 

masterpiece.’ 

Classica (Pierre Flinois) – review of DVD, May 2019 

‘Benjamin’s score is constantly arresting, its sense 

of dramatic pace, development and architecture 

fabulously judged, its moving and impactful 

unfolding delivered by way of an extraordinary 

sound fabric… This [DVD] release is a triumph.’ 

Opera Magazine (Christopher Balantine), June 2019 

Robert Simpson 100 

‘I’m not interested in vogue... What is in the substance of the 

music is what is important.’ 

2021 marks the centenary of the birth of Robert Simpson, 

a composer’s composer whose impressively single-minded 

– but now almost entirely neglected – body of work is 

crowned by 11 symphonies and 15 string quartets. 

A distinguished BBC producer and broadcaster in the 

1960s and 70s, Simpson also wrote extensively on the 

work of Beethoven, Bruckner, Nielsen and Sibelius – all 

composers who influenced his own mission of creating 

dynamic musical architectures linked to tradition through 

the gravitational forces of tonality. His unashamedly tonal 

style, however, was deeply unfashionable, and Simpson’s 

trenchant criticisms of modernist musical establishment 

further reinforced an over-simplified image of him as a 

backward-looking regressive. Listening to his music now, 

with the benefit of several decades distance, it is clear 

to anyone willing to open their ears that the best of his 

work displays a far more positive and progressive spirit: a 

burning belief in the ability for the great traditional forms 

of the past to continue to grow and live on well into the 

second half of the 20th century and beyond. 

Symphonic mastery 

Described by the Guardian as ‘one of the best-kept secrets 

of post-war British music’, Simpson’s 11 symphonies 

display an incredibly vivid creativity. Simpson never 

repeats himself; his approach always seems formally and 

harmonically fresh, without ever slavishly following a tonal 

agenda (the level of dissonance is often quite high). 

One of Simpson’s most thrilling and concise statements 

is the Seventh Symphony, a gritty work from 1977 

whose harmonies seethe with troubled energy. Beginning 

with a determined statement in the bass regions of the 

orchestra, it ends 28 minutes later with a drawn-out, eerily 

expressionless C-sharp in the strings. Some wondered 

whether Simpson was portraying nuclear annihilation or 

some other apocalyptic event. He answered, ‘The end is 

C-sharp,’ but added that it could be ‘a picture of people 

not facing a fact that stares them in the face.’ 

Other Faber works include his epic 50-minute Symphony 

No.9 – which has been conducted by Sir Simon Rattle – 

and the String Quartet No.9, which also lasts almost an 

hour and takes the form of 21 variations and a fugue on a 

theme of Haydn. 


Forthcoming 

performances 

Dream of the Song/ 

Sometime Voices/ 

Palimpsests/Duet 

21, 23.11.19, Stockholm, Sweden: 

Mehta/Orendt/Eric Ericson Chamber 

Choir/Stockholm Philharmonic 

Orchestra/Benjamin 

A Mind of Winter/ 

Dance Figures/ 

Ringed by the Flat 

Horizon 

22.11.19, Stockholm, Sweden: 

Andersson/Norrköping Symphony 

Orchestra/Karlsen 

At First Light/Viola, 

Viola/Into the Little 

Hill 

24.11.19, Stockholm, Sweden: 

Powell/Siffert/Komsi/Summers/ 

Members of Stockholm Opera 

Orchestra/Ollu 

Dream of the Song 

Argentinian premiere 

6.12.19, Buenos Aires, Argentina: 

Oliver/Argentine National Symphonic 

Orchestra/Salinas 

12.1.20, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, 

Germany: Mead/SWR Vokalensemble 

Stuttgart/Junge Deutsche 

Philharmonie/Benjamin 

Sudden Time 

9-10.1.20, Herkulessaal, Munich, 

Germany: Symphonieorchester des 

Bayerischen Rundfunks/Ticciati 


de la Radio, Paris, France: Orchestre 

National de France/Rophé 

Duet/Palimpsests 


de la Radio, Paris, France: Benelli 

Mosell/Orchestra National de 

France/Benjamin 

At First Light 


de la Radio, Paris, France: London 

Sinfonietta/Karlsen 

Sometime Voices 


de la Radio, Paris, France: Orendt/ 

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio 

France/Nagano 

Upon Silence 


de Radio, Paris, France: Breton/ 

SIT FAST 

Dream of the Song/ 

Duet 


UK: Mehta/Aimard/Philharmonia 

Orchestra & Chorus/Benjamin 

Lessons in Love and 

Violence 

Swiss premiere 

17.5-12.6.20, Theater St Gallen, 

Switzerland: Schöne/Owens/ 

Hofmann/Curievici/Sinfonieorchester 

St. Gallen/Pitrenas/dir. Klepper 

US premiere 

Oct 2020, Lyric Opera of Chicago, 

USA: Davis/dir. Mitchell 

Spanish premiere 

Feb 2021, Gran Teatro del Liceu, 

Barcelona; April 2021, Teatro Real, 

Madrid, Spain: Pons/dir. Mitchell 

21

NEW WORKS 

Stage works 

THOMAS ADÈS 

Inferno (2019) 

orchestra c.40 minutes 

3(III=picc).3(III=ca).3(I in Bb+A, II in A, III in A=bcl).3(III=cbsn) – 4331 – timp(=rototom[s]) – perc(3): glsp/t.bells/tgl/ 

sleigh bells/clash.cyms/susp.cym/anvil/tam-t/whip/rattle(ratchet)/cast/washboard/wooden spatulas (2 pairs – thin)/tamb/2 

SD/2 TD (with snares)/BD and mounted clash.cym(s) (‘machine’)/concert BD – harp – piano – strings (recommended 

12.10.8.8.6) 

Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Music and Artistic Director and the Royal Opera House 

Covent Garden Foundation for ballet performances with the generous support of the Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund. 

Co-commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam for concert performances. 

FP: Concert Prem: 10.5.2019, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA, USA: Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Gustavo 

Dudamel. Ballet Prem: 12.7.2019, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, The Music Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA: Los Angeles Philharmonic 

Orchestra/Thomas Adès/chor. Wayne McGregor/The Royal Ballet/Company Wayne McGregor 

Score and parts in preparation 

Orchestra 

FRANCISCO COLL 

Aqua Cinerea (2005, rev. 2019) Op.1 

large orchestra 12 minutes 

picc.2.2.ca.ebcl.1.bcl.2.cbsn – 4.ptpt.2.3.1 – timp – perc(4): glsp/anvil/xyl/t.bells/splash.cym/clash.cym/3 susp.cym/china. 

cym/ride.cym/tam-t/2 tgl/sleigh bells/3 c.bells/frying pan/tin box/metal oil drum (approx. 200 ltr.)/cabasa/2 hardback 

books/plastic bag full of scrap paper/tamb/bongos/cajon/4 tom-t/SD/BD – harp – pno – strings 

FP: 18.9.2007, Palau de la Música, Valencia, Spain: Orquesta Filarmónica de la Universitat de Valencia/Cristóbal Soler 

Score and parts for hire 

DEBUSSY ORCH. COLIN MATTHEWS 

‘Et la lune descend sur la temple qui fut’ from Images Book II 

orchestra c.4 minutes 

2(II=picc).afl.2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn – 4320 – timp – perc(1-2): crot/tam-t – cel – 2 harps – strings 

FP: Recording: 10.5.2019, Hallé Orchestra/Mark Elder 


JONNY GREENWOOD 

Horror vacui (2019) 

solo violin and 68 solo strings (18.18.12.12.8). c.25 minutes 

Commissioned by the BBC Proms 

FP: 10.9.2019, BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: Daniel Pioro/BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Proms Youth 

Ensemble/Hugh Brunt 


JOHN HARLE 

Briggflatts (2019) 

soprano saxophone and orchestra. 21 minutes 

2(II=picc+afl).2(II=ca).2(II=bcl).2(II=cbsn) – 4.2(I+II=flhn).2.btrbn.1 – timp – perc(3): vib/2 glsp/tam-t/2 bowed cym/ 

claves/mar/crot/BD/cym (soft sticks)/xyl/African shakers/SD (rim-shot)/ride cym (soft sticks)/bongo (on stand, near SD)/ 

whip – harp – pno(=cel+Fender Rhodes)* – strings. *Fender Rhodes is optional, but preferable. All players clap written rhythms 

in the first movement. Where possible, the harp, piano/keyboards and the three percussion players should be placed together 

in a position close to the conductor. 

FP: 16.5.2019, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London, UK: Jess Gillam/BBC Concert Orchestra/Bramwell Tovey 


MATTHEW HINDSON 

Concerto for Soprano Saxophone & Orchestra (2019) 

22 mins. 

2.2.2.2(II=cbsn) – 4.2.2.btrbn.1 – timp – perc(1): glsp/vib/t.bells/splash cym/cyms/susp.cym/ride cym/tgl/sligh bells/cowbell (high)/ 

tamb/squeaky toy/whip/flexatone/3 wdbl (high, med & sml)/tpl.bl/sandpaper blocks/bongos/hi-hat/SD/BD – strings (86543) 

Commissioned by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, through the philanthropic support of the TSO Commissioning Circle 

FP: 25.8.2019, Federation Concert Hall, Hobart, TAS, Australia: Amy Dickson/Tasmanian SO/Benjamin Northey 

Score and parts for hire, solo part and piano reduction on special sale from the Hire Library 

DAVID MATTHEWS 

Le Lac (2017) 

soprano and chamber orchestra c.18 minutes 

Text: Alphonse de Lamartine – Le Lac (French) 

1(=picc).1(=ca).1.1 – 2100 – harp – strings 

Commissioned by the Orchestra of the Swan 

FP: 28.5.2019, Stratford Arts House, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, UK: April Fredrick/Orchestra of the Swan/Kenneth Woods 

Full score, vocal score and parts for hire 

String Orchestra 

THOMAS ADÈS 

‘O Albion’ from Arcadiana (2019) 

arranged for string orchestra by the composer. c.3 minutes 

FP: 25.10.2019, Number 8, Pershore, Worcestershire, UK: Orchestra of the Swan 

Commissioned by The Orchestra of the Swan (and partners) 


DVORÁK ARR. DAVID MATTHEWS 

Love Songs (2009, rev. 2019) 

high voice and string orchestra 18 minutes 

Text: Gustav Pfleger-Moravský (Czech) 

FP: 31.7.2019, Fishguard International Music Festival, St Mary’s Church, Haverfordwest, Wales: Rebecca Evans/Welsh National Opera 

Chamber Ensemble 


Ensemble 

TANSY DAVIES 

Soul Canoe (2019) 

ensemble of 10 players c.20 minutes 

fl(=afl+picc).cl(=abcl†+bcl).flhn*(=c tpt**).perc(1): mar/sleigh bells or jingles/mark tree/caxixi or small basket shaker/BD.pno.electric 

gtr. accordion.vln.vlc.db † ossia: Eb clarinet, * ossia: trumpet in Bb, ** C trumpet preferable but not essential 

FP: 17.5.2019, Kleine Zaal, Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Asko|Schönberg Ensemble 

Commissioned by Het Concertgebouw, Red Note Ensemble and Sound Scotland 

The commission has been made possible by a financial contribution from the Composition Commission Fund of The Royal 

Concertgebouw. The Composition Commission Fund is set up by a private donor with the intention of stimulating the development of new 

music and reaching a larger audience. The fund is managed by Het Concertgebouw Fonds. 


Chamber 

THOMAS ADÈS 

Three Berceuses from ‘The Exterminating Angel’ (2018) 

viola and piano c.9 minutes 

Commissioned for Lawrence Power, by Verbier Festival; Moritzburg Festival; BBC Radio 3; Aspen Festival; UKARIA Cultural Centre, 

South Australia; Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam; [others tbc] and underwritten by The Viola Commissioning Circle, supported by its 

Underwriting Members: Barbara and Michael Gwinnell; David and Elizabeth Challen; Christopher and Julia Hum; Alan Sainer; Vernon Ellis 

Foundation; Nicholas and Judith Goodison; Christopher and Lorna Bown; Rosemary and Jeremy Cook; John and Gilly Baker; The Boltini 

Trust; Graham Nicholson; Peter and Jenny Smart; Anonymous; Erica Stary 

FP: 21.7.2019, Verbier Festival, Eglise de Verbier Station, Verbier, Valais, Switzerland: Lawrence Power/George Li 

Score in preparation (exclusive until 22 July 2021) 

TANSY DAVIES 

Hawk (2018) 

violin and piano 2½ minutes 

Commissioned by London Music Masters for Many Voices, a collection of new violin and piano works for young people, in the charity’s 

10th Anniversary year 

Score and part in preparation 


Cuatro a tango (2019) Op.51h 

arrangement of the Tango movement from Symphony No.4 for violin, accordion, piano and double bass c.5½ minutes 

For Tangissimo 


22 

PHOTO: INFERNO (PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY CRAIG MATHEW IMAGING AT THE WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE LOS 

ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION)

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDINGS 

Solo Instrumental 

TOM COULT 

Inventions (For Heath Robinson) (2019) 

piano 15 minutes 

Commissioned by the Riot Ensemble 

FP: 2.8.2019, Petworth Festival, St Mary’s Church, Petworth, West Sussex, UK: Adam 

Swayne 

Score in preparation 

CARL VINE 

Piano Sonata No.4 (2019) 

piano c.15 minutes 

Piano Sonata No.4 was commissioned by Lindsay Garritson 

FP: 11.11.2019, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, USA: Lindsay Garritson 


Vocal 

MARTIN SUCKLING 

The Tuning (2019) 

mezzo-soprano and piano 20 minutes 

Text: Michael Donaghy (Eng) 

Commissioned by Oxford Lieder Festival 

FP: 19.10.2019, Oxford Lieder Festival, St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford, UK: Marta 

Fontanals-Simmons/Christopher Glynn 


Choral 

JESSICA CURRY 

I Loved You First: But Afterwards Your Love (2019) 

unaccompanied SATB chorus 5 minutes 

Text: Christina Rossetti (Eng) 

Commissioned by the London Oriana Choir as part of its five15 commissioning 

project 

FP: 30.6.2019, Stationers’ Hall, London, UK: London Oriana Choir/Dominic 

Ellis-Peckham 

Score on special sale from the Hire Library or as a digital download from the Faber 

Music Store 

ANDERS HILLBORG 

The Breathing of the World (2019) 

SATB choir with soprano saxophone and cello 10 minutes 

Text: Anders Hillborg (Eng) 

Commissioned by S:t Jacobs Chamber Choir, Gary Graden, conductor 

FP: 12.10.2019, Saint James’s Church, Stockholm, Sweden: Theo Hillborg/Filip 

Graden/St Jacobs Chamber Choir/Gary Graden 


Lilla Sus Grav (1978) 

SATB choir (min. 32 singers) 4 minutes 

Text: Li He, translated Göran Sommardal (Swedish) 

FP: 20.4.1983, Köping, Sweden: Eric Ericsons Kammarkör/Eric Ericson 

Score on special sale from the Hire Library 

ELIZABETH MACONCHY 

I Sing of a Maiden (1966) 

carol for unaccompanied mixed voices (SSAT) c.3 minutes 

Text: anonymous from the 15th century (Eng) 


Music Store 

This Day (1966) 

carol for unaccompanied high voices (SSA) c.3 minutes 

Text: anonymous (c.1450) (Eng) 


Music Store 

TORSTEN RASCH 

Seven (2019) 

an interpolation for the Schütz St Luke Passion for SATB choir and solo cello 

c.17 minutes. Text: Helmut Krausser (Ger) 

Ein Kompositionsauftrag des RIAS Kammerchores, ein Ensemble der Rundfunk- 

Orchester und -Chöre gGmbH Berlin Commissioned by RIAS Kammerchor, an 

ensemble of the Rundfunk-Orchester und –Chöre GmbH Berlin 

FP: 13.10.2019, Heinrich-Schütz-Musikfest, Weißenfels, Germany: Anna Carewe/ 

RIAS Kammerchor/Justin Doyle 

Score with Schütz St Luke Passion, standalone score and cello part in preparation 

New Publications 

GEORGE BENJAMIN 

Lessons in Love and Violence 

Full Score 0-571-53884-3 £100.00 

FRANCISCO COLL 

Chanson et Bagatelle 

Score and part 0-571-54078-3 £16.99 

JONATHAN HARVEY 

Songs and Haiku 

Score 0-571-53887-8 £14.99 

Speakings 

Score 0-571-53888-6 £39.99 

OLIVER KNUSSEN 

Eccentric Melody 

Playing score 0-571-54127-5 £9.99 

O Hototogisu! 

Score 0-571-54127-5 £24.99 

New Recordings 

THOMAS ADÈS 

Asyla 

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle 

LSO Live DVD 

JULIAN ANDERSON 

Prayer/Another Prayer/Poetry Nearing Silence/Colour 

of Pomegranates/The Bearded Lady 

Nash Ensemble 

NMC 

GEORGE BENJAMIN 

Lessons in Love and Violence 

Degout/Hannigan/Orendt/Hoare/Boden/France/Szabó/Róbertsson/Netherlands 

Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/George Benjamin 

Nimbus Records 

BENJAMIN BRITTEN 

Cello Suites 

Cameron Crozman 

Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo 

JOHN HARLE 

RANT! 

Jess Gillam/BBC Concert Orchestra/Jessica Cottis 

Decca 

IMOGEN HOLST 

As I Sat Under a Holly Tree 

Blossom Street/Hilary Campbell 

Naxos 

OLIVER KNUSSEN 

Symphony No.3 

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle 

LSO Live DVD 

ELIZABETH MACONCHY 

This Day 

Blossom Street/Hilary Campbell 

Naxos 


Symphony No.9/Variations for Strings/Double 

Concerto 

Sara Trickey/Sarah-Jane Bradley/English String Orchestra/Kenneth Woods 

Nimbus Records 

OLIVIER MESSIAEN 

La Fauvette Passerinette 

Alexander Soares 

Rubicon Classics 

PURCELL arr. BENJAMIN, C. MATTHEWS 

and KNUSSEN 

Fantasia VII/...upon one note/Fantazia XIII 

Berkeley Ensemble 

Resonus Classics 

VALGEIR SIGURÐSSON 

Dust 

Daniel Pioro and Valgeir Sigurðsson 

Bedroom Community 

Hatching; Somnoptera 

Liam Byrne 

Bedroom Community 

Nebraska 

Siggi String Quartet 

Sono Luminus 

ROGER SMALLEY 

Piano Pieces I-V/Capriccio No.1 

James Cuddeford/David Herscovitch 

Toccata Classics 

CARL VINE 

Fantasia 

Bernadette Harvey/Jupiter String Quartet 

Marquis Classics 

23

Pablo Nouvelle 

Swiss producer, DJ and composer Pablo Nouvelle has signed an 

exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with Faber Alt. 

Nouvelle first gained international attention in 2012 with his selfreleased 

and self-titled album. His EP You Don’t Understand followed 

on Black Butter records, and later two critically acclaimed albums, 

All I Need and Wired, released via Armada Music. At the beginning 

of the year he released Piano Pieces, his first neo-classical solo album. 

Nouvelle has established himself as a prolific remixer and producer, 

having worked with the likes of Anne-Marie, Aurora, Gorgon City, 

Jessie Reyez, Josef Salvat and Marina & the Diamonds. He is also an 

acclaimed animator with three award-winning short films to his name. 

In A Nutshell, his latest, was longlisted for an Oscar. 

‘I’m very excited to start working with Faber Alt.’ said Nouvelle. 

‘Our collaboration will go far beyond neo-classical music. As Faber 

is evolving in such an interesting direction with their small but smart 

roster, they are the perfect home for my upcoming releases, which will 

be very versatile too.’ 

Film and TV 

Sarah Warne has recently scored BBC1’s Dark Money – a four-part 

drama written by BAFTA nominee David Addai, directed by Lewis 

Arnold and starring Jill Halfpenny, Rebecca Front and Babou Ceesay. 

The full soundtrack album featuring Sarah’s haunting and electronicbased 

score was recently released on Silva Screen Records. 

Meanwhile, Laurence Love Greed has completed the second series 

of the hit BBC Welsh drama Keeping Faith which returned last 

month. This followed on from the acclaimed first series which earned 

Laurence a BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Original Music, and was 

the fifth most-viewed TV series on BBC iPlayer to date. 

BC Camplight 

Faber Alt. has also signed an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement 

with BC Camplight, the moniker of maverick songsmith Brian 

Christinzio. Christinzio’s discography, which acts as a soundtrack to a 

life rife with bad fortune, mental illness and running afoul of the law, 

has afforded him a reputation as one of indie music’s most forwardthinking 

artists. 

Christinzio has released four albums to date, Hide, Run Away (2005), 

Blink of a Nihilist (2007), How To Die in the North (2015) and the 

critically acclaimed Deportation Blues (2018). With a slew of tours 

and festivals on the horizon, Christinzio – a remarkably relentless 

entertainer – will tour an immense live show to the UK and Europe 

ahead of a new album, expected in early 2020. 

‘Brian is exactly the sort of artist that we feel compelled to champion’ 

said Lucy Holliday, Faber Music’s Head of Pop Publishing/A&R. ‘His 

music is original, important, honest and well-crafted. He’s a natural 

songwriter and to be able to support him to make the music he needs 

to make feels like a gift. We are so excited to hear what he puts out 

next.’ 

Faber is also excited to welcome Jonathan Rhys Hill on a 

representation and publishing deal. The composer’s most recent work 

includes the BAFTA nominated The Long Song (Heyday Television), 

a BBC1 three-part TV adaptation of the award-winning, critically 

acclaimed bestselling novel by Andrea Levy, written by Sarah Williams, 

directed by Mahalia Belo, and starring Tamara Lawrance, Hayley 

Atwell, Jack Lowden and Sir Lenny Henry. Jonathan is currently 

scoring BBC1 drama The Trial of Christine Keeler, starring James 

Norton and Emilia Fox. 

Faber also welcomes media composer Niall Byrne, whose notable 

television dramas include BAFTA award-winning ITV drama series 

Little Boy Blue and most recently Manhunt, which is ITV’s highest 

rated new drama series since Broadchurch. He is currently working on 

The White House Murders. 

In other news, Adrian Johnston has scored the critically acclaimed 

drama Summer of Rockets – the latest BBC Stephen Poliakoff series on 

which he has worked (he has scored all the director’s BBC dramas over 

the past 20 years). Harry Escott has composed the score for 6-part 

series Wild Bill which recently aired on ITV, and Simon Lacey is 

currently scoring the upcoming US feature film The Postcard Killings, 

which stars Famke Hanssen and Denis O’Hare. 

24

EDUCATIONAL, MEDIA AND BÄRENREITER 

A major milestone for Behind Bars 

Sales of Behind Bars, Elaine Gould’s seminal and allencompassing 

guide to music notation, have now exceeded 

10,000 copies. This extraordinary achievement is further 

proof, if any were needed, that ‘Gould’s Rules’, are now seen 

by many as definitive. 

In this compendious work – the most thorough guide ever published 

in this field – Faber Music’s Senior New Music Editor provides a 

comprehensive grounding in notational principles. An essential 

resource for composers, editors, music-setters, students and teachers, 

Behind Bars covers everything from basic rules of mainstream practice 

to complex instrumental and vocal techniques and new technologies. 

Charlotte Seither is best-known to UK audiences for her 

Language of Leaving (premiered at the 2013 BBC Proms by 

the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and Josep Pons). 

Seither’s subtle – often mysterious and ambiguous – music has been 

performed by the likes of Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten 

Stuttgart, and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2014 she 

was awarded the Deutscher Musikautorenpreis for Contemporary 

Choral Music. This November will see a new solo piano work unveiled 

at Wien Modern. Here we take a closer look at two recent orchestra 

works written in response to composers of the past. 

Supported by 1,500 music examples, Behind Bars encourages 

new standards of excellence and accuracy. Currently in its eighth 

impression, and also available as an eBook, it was shortlisted for the 

Music Industry Association’s Music Awards 2011 (Printed Music 

Awards, Best Classical Publication). The author’s understanding of, and 

passion for, her subject has resulted in a book that is not only practical 

but also compellingly readable. Sir Simon Rattle has described the 

book as ‘a reference for musicians for decades to come’. A Germanlanguage 

edition – Hals über Kopf – was published in 2014 and a 

Chinese-language edition is scheduled for release in 2020. 

Behind Bars | 0-57151-456-1 | £75.00 

Bärenreiter focus: the music of Charlotte Seither 

A ‘distant encounter’ with Beethoven 

To mark the Beethoven anniversary year 2020 the German Orchestra 

Competition commissioned Seither to write a new work for chamber 

orchestra. Entitled Ferne Begegnung – Trois Adieux für Ludwig van 

B, the resulting 7-minute piece contains references to the famous 

‘Lebewohl’ motif from the Piano Sonata Op.81a, though the material 

becomes so stretched that any reference to its context is increasingly lost 

and it no longer sounds “Beethovenian” 

‘Beethoven appears only from a distance, as if through burnt glass 

which becomes ever more blurred’ explains Seither. ‘The further I 

distance myself from Beethoven, the greater the closeness becomes – 

this paradoxical idea of the “distant encounter” interested me greatly 

when writing this piece.’ 

“she who speaks” 

Premiered in 2019, Seither’s “she who speaks” for orchestra responds 

to the life and work of one of the most important women in music 

history: Clara Schumann. It was commissioned to mark the 200th 

anniversary of Schumann’s birth by the Schumann-Fest Zwickau 

and Beethoven Orchester Bonn, with generous support from the 

Kunststiftung NRW. In September this fascinating 11-minute work 

will be heard in Frankfurt (the city where Schumann taught piano) 

as part of a collaboration between Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium, the 

Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt and the Frankfurt University of 

Music and Performing Arts. 

Faber Music is the exclusive hire agent for Bärenreiter in the UK 

PHOTOS: ELAINE GOULD WORKING WITH THE CASTALIAN QUARTET © JAMES HOPKIRK; 

CHARLOTTE SEITHER © SEBASTIAN LINDNER 

25

The Silent Film Scores of Neil Brand 

cues do… the ‘trip’ is full of incident and the exhilarating 

climax of the finale shows his prowess and relish for the big 

gesture but also a deeper instinct by resisting the big finish 

and returning to the lachrymose beginnings of the piece.’ 

Gramophone (Edward Seckerson), June 2019 

‘A substantial four-movement work, a full-on fusion of 

lush late-Romanticism and feverish 20th-century rhythmic 

fire… Luxuriously scored, it also possesses the gold label 

charisma of film music, tracts of irrepressible lustre and a 

whopping great cinematic climax. Playing it calls for more 

than straightforward musicianship; it calls for performance 

art, which is what Cameron delivered with pinpoint finesse 

and agility.’ 

Faber Music is delighted to announce a new agreement with respect 

to the much-lauded silent film scores of Neil Brand. Brand is wellknown 

for his remarkable work as a composer, accompanist and 

broadcaster, and Faber already publish his concert works. The new 

live cinema catalogue includes orchestral and chamber scores for 

films including Hitchcock’s Blackmail, the 1922 version of Robin 

Hood, Anthony Asquith’s Underground, and the Laurel and Hardy 

short, You’re Darn Tootin’. Recent and upcoming performances 

include Hitchcock’s The Lodger at both the New Zealand 

International Film Festival and Indiana State University, and the 

1922 version of Oliver Twist at the Dartington Summer School. 

BBC Proms commission for Greenwood 

A new violin concerto from Jonny Greenwood, Horror vacui, is set 

to be one of the highlights of this year’s BBC Proms. The 25-minute 

work will be the culmination of a late-night event curated by 

Greenwood on 10 September and is scored for solo violin and 68 

individual string parts (18.18.12.12.8). The soloist is long-time 

Greenwood advocate Daniel Pioro, who will be joined by the BBC 

National Orchestra of Wales, the Proms Youth Ensemble, and 

conductor Hugh Brunt. 88 No.1 for piano, and one of the Three 

Miniatures from Water will also be featured and the composer himself 

will take to the stage playing tampura and bass guitar. The concert 

will be broadcast on both Radio 3 and BBC4. 

‘Propulsive and exhilarating’ Elfman Concerto 

Widespread praise has greeted the premiere recording of Danny 

Elfman’s Violin Concerto ‘Eleven Eleven’, with Sandy Cameron, the 

Royal Scottish National Orchestra and John Mauceri, which is now 

available from Sony Classical. The RSNO and Thomas Søndergård 

included the 40-minute concerto in their US tour in March, joining 

Cameron for performances in Tucson and Northridge. 

The Scotsman (Ken Walton), 1 April 2019 

Elfman focus at Paris Philharmonie 

Elfman’s Violin Concerto and the Piano Quartet will be centre-stage 

in Paris on 14 and 15 September, as part of an Elfman Weekend at the 

Philharmonie. Sandy Cameron and John Mauceri will join the Brussels 

Philharmonic, whilst the Piano Quartet’s commissioners – the Berlin 

Philharmonic Piano Quartet – will give its European premiere of their 

commission. The UK premiere of the Quartet takes place as part of 

Music@Malling in September, with Chamber Domaine. 

Elfman’s next concert work will be a percussion quartet for Third Coast 

Percussion, to be premiered as part of Philip Glass’s Days and Nights 

Festival in Big Sur, California on 10 October. 

Scottish Ensemble debut Sigurðsson 

Exploring the extraordinary story of a transplanted heart, We Are 

In Time is a new theatrical work by Valgeir Sigurðsson and writer 

Pamela Carter. Jointly produced and commissioned by Scottish 

Ensemble and Untitled Projects, the 70-minute work is scored for 

two singers, strings and electronics. It premieres on a 7-date Scottish 

tour in February and March 2020. 

Sigurðsson’s Dust released by Daniel Pioro 

Sigurðsson’s Dust is the title track of the debut album by violinist 

Daniel Pioro, out now on the Bedroom Community label. Pioro 

describes the three-movement work for solo violin and electronics as ‘a 

bed of electronic sound and layers of improvised violin playing, pulled 

around, re-shaped, and improvised over again.’ The result is a hypnotic 

15 minutes of perfectly blended acoustic and electronic sounds. Dust 

has frequently been performed live by the duo, and they will include it 

in a forthcoming Bedroom Community night at the Philharmonie de 

Paris on 8 November. 

The concerto receives its UK premiere later this year with Cameron 

and Mauceri rejoining the RSNO for performances in Edinburgh and 

Glasgow on 29 and 30 November. Cameron joins JoAnn Falletta for 

performances with the Buffalo Philharmonic in October and gives 

the London premiere with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Bramwell 

Tovey at the Royal Festival Hall on 21 April. 

‘The solo writing - not least in the cadenzas (gatecrashed in 

the motor second movement by the percussion section) - is 

propulsive and exhilarating. On the flipside of the coin is 

the darkly lyric minimalism of Shostakovich and I like the 

composerly way in which Elfman has the soloist emerge 

from the string oration at the start of the third movement 

‘Fantasma’, the four-note idea hooking us like the best film 

26 

PHOTO: IMAGE FROM NEIL BRAND SILENT FILM PERFORMANCE, DAVID RUSSELL HULME CONDUCTING © KEITH 

MORRIS

Keaton Henson’s ‘Six Lethargies’ travels 

Keaton Henson’s large-scale string orchestra work Six Lethargies has 

been presented in Dublin and Sydney in recent months, following 

its premiere to a sell-out Barbican Hall in July last year. In Dublin, 

Crash Ensemble were conducted by the original conductor, Mark 

Knoop, whilst in Sydney Paul Fitzsimon directed the Orchestra of 

Opera Australia. The 75-minute work explores themes and issues 

surrounding anxiety and depression, addressing the composer’s 

own well-documented struggles in its six movements. Jointly 

commissioned by the Barbican Centre, National Concert Hall, 

Dublin and Sydney Opera House (for Vivid LIVE), it has just been 

recorded for future release. 

‘An emotional roller-coaster… When words fail, music 

speaks, and Six Lethargies surely confirmed that.’ 

CutCommon (Jessie Wang), 7 June 2019 

‘An achingly beautiful ode to love’ 

The Christopher Wheeldon-choreographed BalletBoyz production 

‘Us’ premiered on a short UK tour earlier this year. It was so 

successful that it was immediately transferred to the West End for a 

two-week run at the Vaudeville Theatre in June. And now BalletBoyz 

have taken it to the Edinburgh Fringe for another fortnight’s run 

at Underbelly in July and August, followed by a further UK tour in 

September. 

‘Combined with Henson’s lushly romantic score, it’s an 

achingly beautiful ode to love.’ 

Time Out (Siobhan Murphy), 5 June 2019 

‘A piece that stirred the senses as it explored the intimacy 

and symbiosis of the traditional pas de deux through the 

relationship between two men… The choreography is 

muscular and vulnerable, tender yet not overtly romantic, 

and it’s matched by Henson’s sympathetic music.’ 

The Times (Debra Craine), 7 March 2019 

Harle concerto premiered by Jess Gillam 

Saxophonist Jess Gillam has premiered John Harle’s 22-minute 

saxophone concerto, Briggflatts, to a standing ovation on London’s 

Southbank. It was the centrepiece of a concert given on 16 May 

by the BBC Concert Orchestra under Bramwell Tovey and later 

broadcast on Radio 3. Harle wrote the concerto especially for Gillam 

and it’s a marvellous vehicle for her outstanding talents. 

The title is that of an epic poem by Basil Bunting, itself named after 

a Quaker meeting house near Sedbergh in Gillam’s native Cumbria. 

There are three movements: ‘Flares’; ‘Garsdale’ and ‘Rant!’. The 

latter, dance-inspired movement (infused with Cumbrian folk-tunes) 

also features on Gillam’s debut album from Decca Rise, which shot 

immediately to the top of the UK classical charts on release in April 

2019: 

‘RANT!, drawing on folk materials from Cumberland and 

Westmorland, is especially powerful. Gillam’s saxophone is 

bright and resonant in its high range, gruff and punchy at 

the lower end, with Harle’s melodic lines and figures at times 

suggesting Kathryn Tickell’s Northumbrian pipe style.’ 

Gramophone (Pwyll ap Sion), June 2019 

Gillam debuts another Harle composition later this year, when she 

performs a new commission, The Keys of Canterbury, as a highlight 

of the Canterbury Festival. The 26 October concert takes place in 

Canterbury Cathedral when Gillam will be joined by Dutch wind 

band, the Frysk Fanfare Orkest. 

‘Anno’ in Holland and Japan 

Anno – Anna Meredith’s refreshing take on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons 

– continues to gain admirers the world over. Original commissioners 

the Scottish Ensemble took the piece to Classical:NEXT in 

Rotterdam on 18 May, and will also give the Japanese premiere on 16 

September as part of the Yokohama Music Festival. Several sections 

of Anno reached a whole new audience when they featured in the 

Oscar-winning film The Favourite last year. 

Elsewhere, Meredith’s 2011 work for chamber orchestra, visuals and 

electronics, Four Tributes to 4AM, is to receive its London premiere 

as part of BBC Radio 3 Unclassified Live, a concert curated by BBC 

presenter Elizabeth Alker and being given by Southbank Sinfonia 

under André de Ridder on 29 September in the Queen Elizabeth 

Hall, with visuals provided by Eleanor Meredith. 

Christmas commissions from Howard 

Goodall 

Two substantial choral works by Howard Goodall will be premiered 

this Christmas: 

In December Goodall will be in Houston, Texas to see the Choir of 

St Luke’s United Methodist Church unveil a new Christmas cantata, 

that draws together a number of pre-existing Goodall works into 

a 40-minute piece suitable for half an evening’s concert. Goodall 

favourites to be included are I Am Christmas Day, Romance of the 

Angels, Romance of the Epiphany, Stella Quam Viderant Magi, It Came 

Upon the Midnight Clear and Lullaby of Winter. St Luke’s are longtime 

champions of Goodall’s music, having performed his Eternal 

Light: A Requiem several times, and commissioning and premiering 

his most recent large-scale work, Invictus: A Passion, in May 2018. 

The Gravity of Kindness is a 15-minute commission from West 

London-based The Addison Singers. Subtitled ‘a Christmas 

Meditation’ it sets texts by US poet Naomi Shihab Nye, the 

Coventry Carol and the traditional Mexican lullaby ‘Arrorró mi 

niño’. It’s scored for solo soprano, SATB choir and small orchestra. 

The first performance will be conducted by David Wordsworth on 7 

December. 

PHOTOS: ‘US’ - CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON AND BALLETBOYZ © GEORGE PIPER 

27

Oliver Knussen Scores from Faber Music 

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O Hototogisu! 

This exquisite ‘fragment of a Japonisme’ – premiered in 2017 

and conceived as a kind of double concerto for soprano, flute 

and ensemble of 22 players – proved to be Oliver Knussen’s 

final work. The 8-minute piece couches seven exquisite haiku 

settings in richly evocative music which incorporates signals 

from Japanese theatre (particularly Kabuki). It concerns 

the Hototogisu (or Lesser Cuckoo), a bird widely invoked 

in Japanese haiku poetry of the 17th-19th centuries, where 

the poet listens for its arrival from the mountains both as a 

harbinger of Summer and a voice from the land of the dead. 

O Hototogisu! is presented here as a typeset score with two 

facsimile pages of the composer’s manuscript. 

‘A birdsong-like flute, festooned with grace notes, 

frames and punctuates the tiny songs themselves, 

with their elaborately soaring vocal lines, while the 

ensemble is used with microscopic precision to apply 

touches of colour…’ 

The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 26 June 2017 

Full Score | 0-571-54111-9) | £24.99 

Hire 

Schott Music Corporation/ 

European American Music 

Dist. Co. 

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15th Floor 

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Promotion: (212) 4616940 

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Written & devised 

by Sam Wigglesworth with 

contributions from Tim Brooke 

and Rachel Topham 

Designed by Sam Wigglesworth 

COVER IMAGE: MARTIN 

SUCKLING © TESSA 

OKSANEN 

Eccentric Melody 

Composed as a double tribute – for cellist Fred Sherry, in his 50th 

birthday year, to play to Elliott Carter on his 90th birthday – Oliver 

Knussen’s Eccentric Melody was first published in the journal Tempo in 

December 1998. Like many of Knussen’s works dedicated to friends, 

it contains a name cipher, in this case for Carter whose full name was 

E[lliott] C[ook] C[arter Jr]. Fred Sherry comments: ‘Carter often talked 

about, and composed, wide ranging melodies in which the pitches were 

meant to sound improvised or eccentric. I believe (but Olly never said) 

he was channelling the spirit of Carter in this work.’ 

Writing to Faber Music in 2001, Knussen stated his intentions to give 

Eccentric Melody ‘some siblings to form a 4-or-5 movement cello suite’ 

(he also mentioned that two movements were partly sketched in his 

notebooks). Sadly, that project was never realised, but we are pleased 

to be able to present this manuscript facsimile of Eccentric Melody as a 

stand-alone item. 

Playing Score | 0-571-54127-5 | £9.99 

fabermusic.com

Fortissimo Autumn 2019

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