Album Booklet - Resonus Classics

RES10106Mark-Anthony TurnageA Constant ObsessionNicky Spence tenorChamber DomaineThomas Kemp conductor

A Constant ObsessionChamber works byMark-Anthony Turnage (b. 1960)Nicky Spence tenorChamber Domaine1-6 & 15Thomas Kemp conductor & violin 7-14A Constant Obsession (2007)for tenor solo and eight players1. Prologue2. Love expected3. Love begun4. The pains of love5. Love continued6. Love in deathThree for Two (2010)for piano quartet7. Wish One8. Wish Two9. Wish Three[0:59][3:36][1:47][5:35][5:59][4:25][1:49][4:48][3:43]Adrian Bradbury cello15Alex Neal percussion7-157-9 & 14-15Andrew West pianoAnna Wolstenholme piccolo, flute & alto flute1-6David Juritz violin1-6Gabriella Dall’Ollio harpNeyire Ashworth clarinet & bass clarinet1-9 & 14-15Nick Barr viola1-6Richard Harwood cello1-6Ruth Bolister oboe & cor anglais1-6Roger Montgomery horn1-6 & 151-6 & 15‘[...] Chamber Domaine is surely a group withwhich any composer would be ecstatic to work’International Record Review‘[…] intriguing programming [...] unabashed lushness’The New York TimesFour Chants (2008)for violin and piano10. Chant 111. Chant 212. Chant 3 (A Bride’s Fancy)13. Chant 414. A Slow Pavane (2004)for piano trio15. Grazioso! (2009)for six playersTotal playing timeAll tracks are world premiere recordings and wererecorded in the presence of the composer[2:42][1:25][4:19][1:35][7:34][9:03][59:27]

Nicky Spence, Thomas Kemp and Chamber Domaine record A Constant Obsessionin St Augustine’s Church, Kilburn, LondonMark-Anthony Turnage:A Constant ObsessionMark-Anthony Turnage was born in 1960and is at the forefront of contemporaryclassical music. A prolific and eclecticcomposer, his music is full of contrastsspanning musical styles from the Renaissancethrough to R & B. His music is performedworldwide in both opera house and concerthall and his ability to encompass andassimilate such a broad range of musicgives him a unique voice that appeals to awide range of listeners.His operas, Greek, The Silver Tassie andAnna Nicole have caused controversy aswell as gaining huge acclaim from audiencesand critics alike. They have forced peopleto take notice of contemporary music andhave challenged them to think. Turnagecomments: ‘I am attracted to strong subjects.Anna Nicole is a good story and you couldnot work on an opera for three to four yearsif the story and its characters did not fascinateyou. I am not interested in older stories, I gowith the things that I like, the films I like andstrong subjects that resonate with our time.’Turnage’s orchestral music has broughttogether seemingly disparate elements ofmusic – works such as About Time writtenfor the Birmingham Contemporary MusicGroup and the Orchestra of the Age ofEnlightenment in 1999 brings togethercontemporary and historically informedperformance practices, while Hammered Outwritten for the BBC Symphony Orchestraand the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2010,brings R & B inspired by James Brown and1970s jazz-funk to the symphony orchestra.Whilst having residencies with orchestrassuch as the Chicago Symphony, BBC Symphony,London Philharmonic, City of BirminghamSymphony and English National Opera,Turnage has written for smaller forces andthe instrumental chamber music and songfeatured in this recording were all writtenin the first decade of the 21st century.Having commissions for symphony orchestrasand opera has meant that there is someoverlap of material between the chambermusic and larger scale works. A ConstantObsession was written in 2007 for tenor andeight players. Turnage was also writing ChicagoRemains for the Chicago Symphony Orchestraand Bernard Haitink at the same time:‘Having a busy schedule means that crossoverbetween pieces is almost inevitable. AConstant Obsession was like a study forChicago Remains.’The song cycle sets words of five Englishwriters from different periods – John Keats,Thomas Hardy, Edward Thomas, Robert Graves

and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The composergives each poem a title – ‘Love expected’,‘Love begun’, ‘The pains of love’, ‘Lovecontinues’ and ‘Love in death’. These titlescreate the text for the short ‘Prologue’ – awistful and poignant introduction to thecycle. The poems dwell on different aspectsof love and the musical settings brilliantlyilluminate the texts.John Keats’s poem Bright Star was writtenas a declaration of love to Fanny Brawne in1819 and he continued to revise the poemup until his death in 1821. Keats and Brawnewere secretly engaged but their love was tobe shattered by Keats’s worsening tuberculosisand lack of means, which prevented themfrom marrying. In September 1820, Keatswas advised to leave for a warmer climatedue to his deteriorating health and hemoved to Rome severing all contact withBrawne: he died five months later. Themusic for this setting entitled ‘Love expected’is elegiac and gently lilting, with particularlylyrical viola writing.Thomas Hardy’s A Thunderstorm in Town(A Reminiscence), set by Turnage in ‘Lovebegun’, dates from 1893. The poem is aboutunfulfilled love: the poet regretting a missedopportunity to steal a kiss whilst shelteringfrom a ‘pelting storm’. Turnage writes explosive,stormy music for bass clarinet, horn andstrings: the frantic tremolo passages in thestrings depict the torrential rain from whichthe couple is sheltering. The climactic endof the poem, where the poet expresses hisregret and frustration, is rhythmically freeand set like a cadenza over a hushed chord inthe bass clarinet and horn, which emphasizesthe reminiscent nature of the poem about afleeting moment of attraction.‘The pains of love’ is set to a poem by EdwardThomas entitled No one so much as you.The poem is tender and regretful: full of painand guilt about an unequal love. Turnageopens the song with a soaring and highlyexpressive phrase on the flute, which isshadowed in the strings. The song is internary form and the middle section ismore animated. The opening music returnsas the poem reveals that the poet could nottruly return the love given by his partner:this unease is underpinned by a restless,syncopated ostinato in the viola, cello andharp.Counting the Beats by Robert Graves providesthe text for ‘Love continued’. Like EdwardThomas, Graves established his reputationas a poet during the First World War whenfighting on the Western Front. In hisCollected Poems, published in 1966, Gravesdescribed Counting the Beats: ‘My maintheme was always the practical impossibility,transcended only by a belief in miracle, ofabsolute love continuing between man andwoman.’ The horn has a prominent refrain inthis song and there is a lyrical instrumentalinterlude, which features a duet betweenbass clarinet and viola, which provides areflective contrast to the spiky, capriciousmusic of the outer sections.The final song, ‘Love in death’ is Alfred, LordTennyson’s Come not, when I am dead.Here the poet is a jilted lover, cautioning hiserrant lover from beyond the grave. Thesong opens with an expansive tenor solowhose music is then taken up by thewoodwinds in unison, which has a hauntingquality. This opening gambit provides all themelodic material for the movement.A Constant Obsession was written for MarkPadmore and the Nash Ensemble and wascommissioned by the Wigmore Hall. Turnagestates that: ‘Setting British texts and writingfor Mark Padmore meant it was very hardto get away from Benjamin Britten and themusic undoubtedly is influenced by this. Ialso try and write for the musicians I amwriting for and try and compose music thatsuits their performing style: I am aware oftheir sound when I compose.’Three for Two dates from 2010 and is forpiano quartet. Written to celebrate the 70thbirthdays of Steven Schaefer and ChristophEschenbach, there are subtle musicalreminders that this is a birthday piece in eachmovement; each of the three movementsproviding a birthday wish. The first, ‘WishOne’, is lively and features asymmetricalphrases. The harmony is jazzy as is thepiano writing particularly in the middlesection. The second, ‘Wish Two’, is lyricaland features the viola. The piano writing bycontrast in this movement is economical andprovides a sparse commentary on the strings.‘Wish Three’ is again jazz influenced and,following an extended passage for violin andpiano, the strings play a theme in rhythmicalunison that would not be out of place inDuke Ellington’s big band. Again, the musicis informed by writing larger scale worksat the same time. ‘The last movement ofThree for Two was going to be a food ariain Anna Nicole but I decided not to use it inthe opera and instead used the material inthis piece.’Turnage has been influenced by jazz sincehis studies at the Royal College of Music:‘Before I went to college I was studyingwith Olly Knussen and was obsessed withcontemporary music such as Boulez andStockhausen. When I went to the RCM,jazz was the opposite of what the collegestood for and I got obsessed with it startingwith jazz-fusion and then working back to

the 1920s and before that. I started to usejazz in my compositions but the deepknowledge came later from collaboratingwith artists such as John Scofield and PeterErskine. Musicians and music – that’s whatI care about. Jazz is a part of that.’A Slow Pavane is for piano trio and waswritten in 2004 for the 50th anniversary ofthe Beaux Arts Trio. It forms a triptych withtwo other movements for piano trio, from2003, which can be performed separatelyor together. Turnage has often drawn onBaroque and Renaissance dances in hismusic and here he uses the pavane, a slowprocessional dance from the 16th century.This movement is in duple time but, ratherthan having strict dance measures, isrhythmically complex. The movement hasthree sections. The opening section issombre, with the strings playing over alow bass line in the piano. The middle sectionis faster and the cello and violin have apassionate and volatile duet. The pianoeventually joins and the music builds inintensity and drama. The third section is aninversion of the first section with the violinplaying an ethereal version of the low bassline heard at the opening. The movementends with chorale chords in the piano withthe strings pizzicato.‘I really enjoyed writing for the Beaux Art TrioMark-Anthony Turnage(Photography © Philip Gatward)and particularly for its legendary pianistMenahem Pressler who was a member forover fifty years. Writing for the piano trio, Icould not escape the great works for the genreand the low piano refrain in A Slow Pavane, isa little bit like that which opens the slowmovement of the Ravel Piano Trio.’Four Chants date from 2008 and were writtenfor the violinist, Viviane Hagner commissionedby the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.The violin in 'Chant 1' grows lyrically out ofa broken chord in the piano. In the middlesection the piano has the melodic materialwith a big range of tessitura between trebleand bass creating a feeling of space. The violinplucks an accompaniment, which builds to abrief climactic moment. The opening returnsas a truncated variation of the material heardat the start of the movement. ‘Chant 2’ againexplores extremes of range – this time onthe violin. The brittle piano accompanimentthat enters after a short violin solo is jauntyand ironic and could be by Kurt Weill orShostakovich. ‘Chant 3’ is a violin solo andties together material from the two earliermovements. ‘Chant 4’ is marked ‘Very ironicwith lots of rubato’. The piano writing iscomical and would not be out of place in aburlesque club, while around the violinmelody is a whiff of Tristan und Isolde.Grazioso! was written for the American group,Eighth Blackbird, and was inspired by theirplaying, which the composer heard in Chicagowhen he was resident composer with theChicago Symphony Orchestra. The title isironic and the music is far from grazioso,being mostly aggressive and having extremesof register and dynamic with an ensembleof piccolo, bass clarinet, piano, viola,cello and percussion. Grazioso! is one of anumber of works inspired by Led Zeppelin,which include Out of Black Dust, TwistedBallad and Twisted Blues. In this case,Turnage states that there is ‘a very slightallusion to the group’s 1971 Black Dog.’The title refers to the first brand of guitarused by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Themusic is highly energetic and there are fewlyrical moments. Turnage comments: ‘I don’tcare about fitting in. I like thinking aboutspecific players and writing musician’s music.’It is this approach combined with a masterlyassimilation of a wide range of musicalinfluences that give Mark-Anthony Turnage aunique voice in contemporary culture andprovide such variety and contrasts in hismusic, which is very much of our time.© 2012 Thomas Kemp

TextsA Constant Obsession1. PrologueLove expectedLove begunThe pains of loveLove continuedLove in death2. Love expectedBright star, would I were stedfast as thou art –Not in lone splendour hung aloft in the night,And watching, with eternal lids apart,Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,The moving waters at their priestlike taskOf pure ablution round earth’s human shores,Or gazing on the new soft-fallen maskOf snow upon the mountains and the moors –No – yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,And so live ever – or else swoon to death.Bright StarJohn Keats (1795-1821)3. Love begunShe wore a new ‘terra-cotta’ dress,And we stayed, because of the pelting storm,Within the hansom’s dry recess,Through the horse had stopped; yea, motionlessWe sat on, snug and warm.Then the downpour ceased, to my sharp sad pain,And the glass that had screened our forms beforeFlew up, and out she sprang to her door:I should have kissed her if the rainHad lasted a minute more.A Thunderstorm in Town (A Reminiscence)Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)4. The pains of loveNo one so much as youLoves this my clay,Or would lament as youIts dying day.You know me through and throughThough I have not told,And though with what you knowYou are not bold.None ever was so fairAs I thought you:Not a word can I bearSpoken against you.All that I ever didFor you seemed coarseCompared with what I hidNor put in force.My eyes scarce dare meet youLest they should proveI but respond to youAnd do not love.We look and understand,We cannot speakExcept in trifles andWords the most weak.For I at most acceptYour love, regrettingThat is all: I have keptOnly a frettingThat I could not returnAll that you gaveAnd could not ever burnWith the love you have,Till sometimes it did seemBetter it wereNever to see you moreThan linger hereWith only gratitudeInstead of love –A pine in solitudeCradling a dove.No one so much as youEdward Thomas (1878-1917)5. Love continuedCounting the Beatsby Robert Graves (1895-1985) can be found inRobert Graves: The Complete Poems (PenguinModern Classics, 2003)6. Love in DeathCome not, when I am dead,To drop they foolish tears upon my grave,To trample round my fallen head,And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save.There let the wind sweep and the plover cry;But thou, go by.Child, if it were thine error or thy crimeI care no longer, being all unblest:Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of Time,And I desire to rest.Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie:Go by, go by.Come not, when I am deadAlfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

Nicky Spence tenor(Photographer: Sabine Mardo)'Engaging and shining […] highly nuanced and projected performances by Nicky Spence.'GramophoneNicky Spence tenorHailed recently in the Daily Telegraph as ‘avoice of real distinction’, Nicky Spence iscurrently an English National Opera YoungArtist, having trained at London's GuildhallSchool of Music and Drama and the NationalOpera Studio.The winner of the National Bruce MillarOpera Prize in 2010, Nicky’s diverse repertoireranges from Handel and Mozart to Donizetti,Britten and Jonathan Dove, havingcollaborated with the finest orchestras onsome of the world’s most major platforms.A proud Concordia Foundation Artist,Britten-Pears Young Artist, Georg Soltiand Samling Scholar, his other awardsinclude the Kathleen Ferrier Young SingersAward, the Concordia Barthel Prize, a SybilTutton Award, and a place in the final of theGold Medal at the Guildhall.2010-11 also marked Nicky’s debut for some ofthe UK’s most distinguished opera housesincluding Opera North, Opera Holland Park,Scottish Opera and English National Opera.His roles include Tom Rakewell (The Rake’sProgress), MacHeath (The Beggar’s Opera),Jaquino (Fidelio) for Opera Holland Park;Lampwick (The Adventures of Pinocchio),and Quint (The Turn of the Screw) for OperaNorth at the Arcola Theatre London); and morerecently Baron Lummer (Intermezzo) forScottish Opera, which the Independent calleda ‘stand-out performance’. This was followedby the leading part of Brian in Nico Muhly’sMetrpolitan Opera commission Two Boys,which received its world premiere at ENO andgained him uniformly outstanding reviews.Recent concert performances include a BrittenSong-Cycle Series in Aldeburgh and at KingsPlace, a lecture-recital at the HowardAssembly Rooms, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor,Horn and Strings with L’Orchestre Nationald’Ile de France under Gordan Nikolic, a Galaperformance at the Royal Festival Hall andrecitals at the Leeds and Oxford Lieder Festivals.An experienced recording artist, Nicky hasrecorded for Universal Classics. For otherlabels he has recorded a disc of songs byBritten with Malcolm Martineau (OnyxClassics) was released in 2011. His releaseof premiere Hoddinott recordings broughthim extensive acclaim.Future opera plans include the role of ThomasMason in Jenny McLeod’s opera Hohepa forNew Zealand Opera and presented at theNew Zealand International Arts Festival, areturn to ENO for Novice (Billy Budd) and hisGrange Park Opera debut as Chevalier inLes Dialogues des Carmelites.

Thomas Kemp conductor(Photographer: Anders Nyman)‘[…] utterly magical […] a tremendous sense of vitality and commitment’Gramphonewww.thomaskemp.euThomas Kemp conductor and violinThomas Kemp is rapidly developing a reputationas one of the finest and imaginative conductorsof his generation. The Guardian recentlycommented: ‘an extraordinary event [...] witha fluency that came over brilliantly under thebaton of Thomas Kemp’.He read music at St Catharine’s College,Cambridge and studied violin and chambermusic at the Royal Northern College of Musicand has since enjoyed an international careeras a chamber musician and concertmaster.From 2003-2007, he won the SwedishAcademy Scholarship to study conducting atthe Royal Conservatory in Stockholm withthe legendary Jorma Panula and Alan Gilbert.Thomas is Music Director of the highlyacclaimed Chamber Domaine, which is at theforefront of British ensembles focusing on20th and 21st century music. He made hisconducting debut in a series of concertscelebrating Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretationof Dreams at the Victoria and Albert Museum,which The Financial Times described as‘exceptional musical events’. He is also ArtisticDirector of Music@Malling – an internationalfestival that promotes contemporary composersalongside masterworks from classical andromantic periods; in 2011 the festival featuredMark-Anthony Turnage alongside works byMahler and Mozart.Recent conducting projects have included thePori Sinfonietta; Gavle Symphony; SwedishChamber Orchestra; Scottish ChamberOrchestra; Hebrides Ensemble; ChamberDomaine; and I Pomeriggi.Forthcoming conducting engagements includeconcerts at Kings Place; Wigmore Hall; guestconducting engagements in the UK, USA,Finland and Sweden; and world premiererecordings of Schoenberg and Barber withChamber Domaine. Thomas will make hisoperatic debut in 2012 for Opera Holland Park.Thomas is an award winning recording artistand has recorded for ASV, Blackbox and Landor.He recently made his recording debut as aconductor with world premiere recordings ofHenryk Górecki for Landor. He is also conductinga series of recordings for the world’s first solelydigitalclassical record label Resonus Classics.He has also performed at many leading festivals inthe UK and overseas and has broadcast regularlyaround the world. He is a guest artist atBargemusic, New York and, since his debut in2000, has been a regular at Wigmore Hall, SouthBank Centre and Carnegie Hall, New York. In 2009,Thomas worked closely with the Turner Prizewinning artist Anish Kapoor for the BrightonFestival to great acclaim. He teaches as the RoyalNorthern College of Music and has givenmasterclasses worldwide.

Other titles from Resonus ClassicsChamber DomaineChamber Domaine is at the cutting edge ofmusic making in the 21st century. Its excellenceand dynamism have received widespreadacclaim both in the United Kingdom andabroad.Under its artistic director, Thomas Kemp, theensemble has become renowned for itsvirtuosity and its ambitious and distinctiveprogramming that range from the Baroquethrough to the Contemporary. ChamberDomaine focuses on instrumental chambermusic and song in programmes that illuminatethe music of today with the music of threecenturies: the ensemble brings passion andcommitment to a diverse repertoire thatmakes music come alive whilst placing it intoits cultural context.The ensemble is committed to performingand recording contemporary music andgive world premieres by leading composersincluding Judith Bingham at the City of LondonFestival, Piers Hellawell at the CheltenhamInternational Festival and Arvo Pärt at theEdinburgh Festival. The ensemble has acommission from the brilliant young composer,Matthew Sergeant for the 2012 CulturalOlympiad and a major work for soprano andchamber orchestra by Judith Bingham for hersixtieth birthday.Chamber Domaine has a distinguished andhighly acclaimed discography. The ensemble’srecordings regularly receive five star reviewsand have been picked as Editor’s Choice inGramophone. Recent discs of music byHenryk Górecki and Judith Bingham receiveduniversal acclaim. Forthcoming recordingsinclude a disc of world premiere recordings ofMark-Anthony Turnage, as well as recordingsof Mahler and Barber. The ensemble recentlyrecorded the all Mozart sound track to FirstNight – a film starring Richard E. Grant, whichwill be released on Sony Classics.In addition to its recording activities, theensemble has broadcast regularly on BBCRadio 3; ORF, Austria; SR, Sweden; and WNYC,New York.Chamber Domaine has a busy schedule ofconcerts and consistently proves itself as oneof the most dynamic and versatile ensemblesof its kind. During 2011 they were the residentensemble of the Music@Malling InternationalFestival, held in Kent, working closely withMark-Anthony Turnage. Future plans includeconcerts in Europe, Scandinavia and NewZealand.www.chamberdomaine.comLandscapes, real and imagined:Chamber Works by Judith BinghamYeree Suh soprano; Chamber DomaineRES10102‘... renditions of this calibre are no less than Bingham’smusic deserves.’International Record ReviewMendelssohn: Octet Op. 20World premiere recording of the original 1825 versionEroica Quartet and FriendsRES10101BBC Music Magazine, Chamber disc of the month‘The label's first disc is a remarkable coup’International Record Review© 2012 Resonus Ltd2012 Resonus LtdRecorded in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford on 14-15 June 2011and in St Augustine’s Church, Kilburn, London on 20 October 2011Producer, engineer & editor: Adam BinksRecorded at 24-bit / 96kHz resolutionCover image: Hintergrund organisch © Wilm Ihlenfeld - Fotolia.comSession photography © Resonus LtdPiano by Steinway & Sons (tracks 7-15), maintained by Joseph Taylor Pianos LtdThanks are due to Mark-Anthony Turnage, Sabine Mardo, Philip Gatward, Cathy Nelson and Taya Smith for their assistance.DDD - MCPSRESONUS LTD - LONDON - UKinfo@resonusclassics.comwww.resonusclassics.com

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