Fortissimo Autumn 2016

FABER MUSIC NEWS — AUTUMN 2016
fortissimo!
THE
EXTERMINATING
ANGEL
‘A turning point for Adès and,
it felt, for opera itself.’
THE OBSERVER
Plus
Carl Davis at 80
Faber Music Acquires Anders Hillborg Back Catalogue
Oliver Knussen awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music
Francisco Coll makes an impressive Proms debut
Highlights • Tuning In • New Publications & Recordings • Music for Now • Publishing News

The Exterminating Angel
In what was surely one of the operatic highlights of the year, Adès’s
third opera, after Luis Buñuel’s El ángel exterminador, premiered
at the Salzburg Festival in July. Directed by Tom Cairns, who
together with the composer has created a libretto by adapting the
original screenplay, the opera was commissioned by Salzburg in
co-production with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where
it opens in April 2017), the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and the
Royal Danish Opera.
Dear colleagues,
Our cover story, Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel, is a
project that has concerned its composer for as long as I have
known him: around 25 years. Its completion also marks a major
milestone for Faber Music – the journey to secure rights from the
heirs of the film’s creators, Luis Bunuel and Luis Alcoriza, having
begun as early as 2001.
But rising above the vicissitudes of a long creative journey, is now
the reality of the opera itself. The opening night in Salzburg on
July 27 is an occasion I will never forget.
With Tom Cairns, Adès’s collaborator on the libretto, directing,
and the composer himself conducting, there was a unanimity of
thought and realisation that created an overwhelming experience.
The strangeness of the story, centring on a mysterious inability to
act, when coupled with the music’s opposing sense of inexorable
direction, purpose and virtuosity made for an enthralling
evening.
Whilst we have reproduced a selection of the reactions from
the press, what cannot be captured here is the extraordinary
reception in the auditorium – a rapturous standing ovation
which went on and on, and which was repeated at the
subsequent performances.
This remarkable opera now travels to London, New York and
Copenhagen, with the strong likelihood of a high definition
cinema relay from the Met in late 2017.
Don’t miss it!
Sally Cavender
Performance Music Director/Vice Chairman, Faber Music
Buñuel’s classic film, a parable on the ‘bourgeois condition’, sees a
collection of society’s grandees surreally trapped together in a room.
In no time at all their veneer of sophistication cracks, and society and
its interrelations are brutally placed under the microscope. Featuring
a jaw-dropping line-up of operatic talent (15 principals who remain
on stage for the majority of the piece), The Exterminating Angel is a
true ensemble opera, and the skill with which Adès delineates the
many intricacies and undercurrents present over its densely-packed
span (just under two hours plus interval) is breathtaking.
Like the shipwrecked characters of The Tempest, the cast of this new
opera are held in a state of entrapment and dramatic stasis. Like the
glittering high-society world of Powder Her Face, the dinner party
guests are denizens of a nightmarish world of aristocratic pretension.
‘In a sense, this is a child of those two operas,’ Adès observed, ‘but
that comparison has receded, and this opera is a very different
animal. Probably a scarier animal.’
In the pit a large and masterfully deployed orchestra is prominently
coloured by guitar, piano and ondes martenot – the latter (played
here by the world’s leading virtuoso, Cynthia Millar) soaring
above proceedings as a eerie manifestation of the nameless force
that ensnares the guests. In one interlude, massed off-stage drums
thunder insistently, elsewhere countertenor Iestyn Davies sings a
rapturous ode to coffee spoons and the young lovers Eduardo and
Beatriz (Ed Lyon and Sophie Bevan) sing a tender suicide-pact duet.
Audrey Luna (who previously sang Ariel in The Tempest), sings the
stratospheric role of Leticia, whose blazing final aria seems to offer
liberation. The opera is open ended, however, concluding with a
return of the chiming bells with which it opened, and the chorus
intoning a repeated fragment of the Requiem Mass. There is no final
double bar.
The Exterminating Angel (2015-16)
opera in three acts. Duration c. 115 minutes.
Text: Tom Cairns in collaboration with the composer. Based
on the screenplay by Luis Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza (English)
Cast of 22 singers plus chorus
LUCIA(S)/LETICIA(High ColS)/LEONORA(M)/SILVIA(S)/
BLANCA(M)/BEATRIZ(S)/NOBILE(T)/RAÚL(T)/
COLONEL(HighBar)/FRANCISCO(CT)/EDUARDO(LyricT)/
RUSSELL(BBar)/ROC(BBar)/DOCTOR(B)/JULIO(Bar)/
LUCAS(T)/ENRIQUE(T)/PABLO(Bar)/MENI(S)/
CAMILLA(M)/PADRE(Bar)/YOLI(BoyTr)/CHORUS
For full instrumentation details please see page 22
Commissioned by the 2016 Salzburg Music Festival, the
Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New
York, and the Royal Danish Opera
2

HIGHLIGHTS
‘Three live sheep, trained to the highest operatic standards,
mooch on stage. Bells chime. Servants depart just as dinner
guests in jewels and finery arrive. “Enchanted, enchanted”, they
intone some two dozen times between them on variants of the
same musical rise and fall. It’s the start of an evening that, for
them, will prove anything but. Then they repeat the process,
the orchestra scrunching and cavorting in elegant, seductive
mayhem, a mood of crazed waltz in the air and sinister
expectation. If these guests are enchanted, we the audience
are already bewitched…
‘A turning point for Adès and, it felt,
for opera itself.’
When the composer, who also conducted, took his bow, the
audience rose in prolonged ovation. This was a momentous
evening: a turning point for Adès and, it felt, for opera itself…
It’s as if all music is buoyantly alive and coexisting in its
two-hour span… This is no idle game of spot the composer.
Prodigious from early childhood, Adès has devoured, lived and
breathed everything that caught his ear, letting all manner of
music nourish his imagination. We expect artists and writers to
do this, yet with composers we inevitably reach for the adjective
“eclectic” in a tone of mistrust. This precise quality is the
essence of Adès’s style. It is easier to think of him as a musical
polylinguist: in whichever tongue, the identity of the speaker
is never in doubt. Patterns are set up, reshaped, challenged,
subverted, all the strands, in every colour and ply, tightly woven
and rhythmically daring…There are too many theatrical and
musical coups to mention… Even from a passenger seat in the
stalls, this angel soars aloft.’
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 31 July 2016
‘Some of Adès’s most powerful orchestral writing… The music
is constantly fascinating… Cairns’s staging is as meticulously
detailed as Adès’s score.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 29 July 2016
‘Brilliant… utterly assured writing, clever, effective, dazzling’
The Financial Times (Shirley Apthorpe), 29 July 2016
‘A true ensemble opera’
‘The music pulses with searing power, frenetic
breathlessness and an astringent harmonic language…
An exceptionally inventive and audacious score. I was
swept along by the way Adès executes his vision… a true
ensemble opera.’
The New York Times (Anthony Tomassini), 29 July 2016
‘Packed full of provocation and ideas… Amidst the brutal
descent into anarchy, Adès’s skill at being ironic shines
through time and again. It’s not every day that the premiere
of an experimental opera receives a standing ovation.’
Der Spiegel (Werner Theurich), 29 July 2016
‘Intoxicating and at times quite brutal;
for all its scorching passion, the opera
leaves one chilled to the bone’
‘The moments of rupture are articulated with precision and
an unwavering awareness of the possibilities of the genre.
Bells ring, even before the audience is seated, submerging
the habitual pre-performance rituals in a growing gloop of
cleverly managed overtones… Other devices populate the
score throughout, such as the use of chaconne structures,
or the way the music lurches into a waltz when certain
characters approach the threshold, drawing them back
into the scene less by malicious force than by seduction…
Bechtler’s set and costumes mix Art Deco glamour with
shrewd economy, while the revolving set, reinforces
the roving perspective internal to the score… [This is]
the opera Adès needed to write in order to be himself.
Like its predecessors, the music remains astonishing in
its confidence and dramatic versatility; but here, when
Adès’s elusive aesthetic itself becomes integrated into the
drama’s vertiginous psychological landscape, the music
acquires another edge entirely. The effect is intoxicating
and at times quite brutal; for all its scorching passion, the
opera leaves one chilled to the bone.’
The Times Literary Supplement (Guy Dammann), 19 August 2016
PHOTOS: THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL © SALZBURGER FESTSPIELE/MONIKA RITTERSHAUS
3

‘Adès is as compelling as any contemporary practitioner
of his art because he is, first and foremost, a virtuoso
of extremes. He is a refined technician, with a skilled
performer’s reverence for tradition, yet he has no fear of
unleashing brutal sounds on the edge of chaos. Although
he makes liberal use of tonal harmony he subjects that
material to shattering pressure. He conjures both the
vanished past and the ephemeral present… Like Berg,
the 20th-century master whom he most resembles, he
pushes ambiguity to the point of explosive crisis… Never
have Adès’s extremes collided more spectacularly… in
his hands Buñuel’s cool, eerie scenario takes on a tragic
volatility… Throughout, Adès pulls off the Stravinskyan
feat of making prior styles sound like premonitions of
his own… Liberation is achieved not only by a ritual of
repetition but also through a visionary aria for Leticia…
When the spell of immobility resumes, seraphic
harmonies give way to a colossal, demonic setting of
fragments of the Libera Me, with bells ringing anarchic
changes. On this note of mystical dread the opera closes,
no exit in sight.’
The New Yorker (Alex Ross), 22 August 2016
‘Never have Adès’s extremes collided
more spectacularly…’
‘The most important opera of the year, proves it’s here
to stay… Remarkable… The audience gave its large,
terrific cast and composer-conductor something rare
in Salzburg: a full-out standing ovation… An opera of
decadence quickly decaying… Whole musical forms,
such as the waltz or the chaconne, fall apart just as the
dinner party does… Adès’ conducting of the ORF Radio
Symphony Orchestra Vienna brings out a whirlwind of
orchestral colors.’
Faber Music Acquires Hillborg Back Catalogue
The LA Times (Mark Swed), 9 August 2016
Following the signing of an exclusive world-wide publishing
agreement with Anders Hillborg in November 2015, Faber
Music is delighted to announce the acquisition of the
majority of his back catalogue, formerly published by
Edition Peters.
This includes all the works featured on the recently released, Swedish
Grammy award-winning BIS record (Sirens, Beast Sampler, Cold
Heat and O dessa ögon), as well as the many other works which have
become established in the repertoires of orchestras and performing
groups around the world. The complete list of works published by
Faber Music can be viewed online.
Widely regarded as Sweden’s leading composer, Hillborg is that rare
artist whose music strikes a chord across many different countries and
cultures. His tactile, often playful, approach to sound has appealed to
many major conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alan Gilbert,
Sakari Oramo, Kent Nagano, David Zinman and Gustavo Dudamel.
4
IMAGES: EXCERPT FROM THE FULL SCORE OF ‘THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL‘ BY THOMAS ADÈS © FABER MUSIC;
ANDERS HILLBORG © MATS LUNDQVIST

HIGHLIGHTS
Carl Davis: A Musical Polymath at 80
It’s hard to believe it from his boundless on-stage energy
– or from his prolific output and creative zeal – but in
October Carl Davis will celebrate his 80th birthday. One
of the UK’s must respected musical figures, Davis is utterly
unique: generous, versatile and marinated in the classical
tradition, he has created a body of work that, whatever the
genre, is borne out of his infectious desire to communicate.
Liverpool tribute
Davis has been a conductor and close friend of the Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra – and a firm favourite
with their audience – for more than 50 years. On his
birthday on 28 October, Davis joins the orchestra for an
evening of music celebrating his life and work, introduced
by presenter and friend Aled Jones. From the and
exhilarating Chariot Race from Ben Hur to Davis’s music
for the television classics Pride and Prejudice and The World
at War, this evening promises to be a rich, unmissable
tribute to one of the UK’s most versatile and best-loved
composers.
Insights into the life and work of a Maestro
How do you bring a forgotten silent film back to life? What are the
techniques behind writing a successful film score? How do you work
with and inspire choreographers?
Published to mark his 80th birthday, Carl Davis: Maestro by Wendy
Thomson offers a unique glimpse into the life and work of this
consummate all-round musician, documenting his immense impact
on the many spheres of music-making he has inhabited. Davis’s
fascinating life story gives an insight into the prolific composing and
conducting career of one of the world’s most celebrated film and
television composers.
A Giant of Stage and Screen
Crowning Davis’s work in the realm of silent film is his
ground-breaking score to Abel Gance’s 5 ½ -hour epic
Napoléon – the longest of its kind ever composed – will be
performed in November by the Philharmonia Orchestra,
conducted by Davis, at the Royal Festival Hall. The
performance will mark the release of a new digital version
of the film, which will be shown in cinemas and made
available on the BFI Player. In further recognition of his
position as a giant of music for film and television, in June
Davis was invited to conduct the BBC Philharmonic in a
special edition of Radio 3’s Sound of Cinema programme
devoted to his work. Presented by Matthew Sweet, the
programme will be broadcast later this year.
Davis has recently completed work on his first score to an
animated film. Based on Raymond Briggs’ award-winning
graphic novel Ethel & Ernest, the film is directed by Roger
Mainwood and will be shown on the BBC. A concert suite
will be performed in Liverpool in October.
Carl Davis
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Nijinsky
23.9, 22.12.16, Slovak National
Theatre, Bratislava, Slovakia; chor
Daniel de Andrade
Pride and Prejudice
Theme/The World at
War Theme/Chariot
Race from ‘Ben Hur’/
Ballade for cello and
orchestra
28.10.16, Liverpool Philharmonic
Hall, Liverpool, UK: Jonathan
Aasgaard/Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra/Carl Davis
High and Dizzy
Canadian Premiere
29.10.16, Collier Street United
Church, Barrie, ON, Canada:
Huronia Symphony Orchestra/Oliver
Balaburski
Napoléon
6.11.16, Royal Festival Hall,
Southbank Centre, London, UK:
Philharmonia Orchestra/Carl Davis
Safety Last
7.11.16, Tishman Auditorium, New
School University, New York City,
USA: Mannes School of Music/
David Hayes
Alice in Wonderland
25-28.12.16, Zuiderstrandtheater,
Den Haag, The Netherlands: De
Dutch Don’t Dance Division/
Residentie Orkest/Chors. Thom
Stuart and Rinus Sprong
Carl Davis: Maestro (ISBN 0-571-53958-0) is available from
October 2016 at fabermusicstore.com, priced at £25
PHOTO: CARL DAVIS © ROGER CANON
5

Deo: A stunning Harvey disc from St John’s Cambridge
Deo, a new all-Harvey release from the choir of his alma mater, St
John’s College, Cambridge, has been received with critical acclaim.
Released on Signum Classics, the disc includes premiere recordings
of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis with organ (1978), and Praise
ye the Lord (1990). Also featured are two works commissioned by St
John’s: The Royal Banners Forward Go (2004) and The Annunciation
(2011), a 4-minute setting of Edwin Muir which was written to
mark the College’s Quincentenary celebrations.The disc also includes
two works for organ: Laus Deo (1969) and the astonishing (yet
rarely heard) Toccata for organ and tape (1980). In the latter work,
developed at IRCAM, an agile, brilliant organ part is set against an
almost moto perpetuo stream of electronic sound.
‘Some contemporary music experts have considered Harvey’s
church music to be of lesser importance than his instrumental
works’, writes the choir’s Director of Music Andrew Nethsingha,
‘but I want to stress how imaginative, innovative and courageous
Harvey was in pushing the boundaries of church music, without
ever losing the intensity of spirituality which underpins all the great
religious pieces... I regard Harvey’s kaleidoscopic Magnificat and
Nunc Dimittis as one of the two most significant contributions to
this genre in the past 50 years – a set of canticles for the age of space
travel! One can never know for sure how a composer’s music will be
regarded in later centuries, but it is my firm belief that the deepening
trance of Harvey’s music will never break. Our journey of exploration
of this music has been the most important and satisfying part of my
musical career to date.’
‘This album pays wonderful tribute to Harvey. Works include
the ecstatic Praise Ye the Lord and the richly challenging
Missa Brevis… Harvey used to describe music coming out of
silence and dissolving back into it. It’s a good starting point.
The Choir of St John’s tackles all with confidence and clarity.’
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 1 May 2016
‘Outstanding on every count: remarkable
and underperformed repertoire...’
‘Harvey stretched the limits of Anglican church music in a
way not seen, really since Tippett’s Evening Canticles, but
did so with regularity and consistency… The Magnificat is
epic in scope; it is hard to believe that it lasts just under
eight minutes. Certainly these are difficult works, including
various vocal techniques (whispering, glissandos, percussive
repetition of consonants, etc) hardly common in the normal
run of church music, but the investment the choir has clearly
put into them really gives extraordinary results. Outstanding
on every count: remarkable and underperformed repertoire,
beautfully performed and recorded.’
Gramophone (Ivan Moody), July 2016
‘A questing, individual spirit.’
‘Harvey recalled how liberating he found writing for a
cathedral-type choir. Perhaps that is why the music on this
disc is so varied and inspiring… The Missa Brevis ranges
from the numinous to the awestruck. A couple of organ
works, one with electronic tape, maintain the aura of a
questing, individual spirit.’
The Financial Times (Richard Fairman), 20 May 2016
‘In addition to being irresistible music, the works on this
outstanding disc are crucial to understanding his output as
a whole… I Love the Lord is more conventionally written, yet
sounds almost as if electronics are involved in creating its
mesmeric harmonic haloes.’
BBC Music Magazine (Christopher Dingle), August 2016
‘A valuable contribution to the Harvey discography and the
composer’s growing posthumous reputation.’
Choir and Organ (Philip Reed), 8 August 2016
6
PHOTO: JONATHAN HARVEY © MAURICE FOXALL

HIGHLIGHTS
Faber Focus: Works for oboe and orchestra
From Benjamin Britten and John Woolrich, to Anders
Hillborg and Carl Vine, many Faber House Composers have
been drawn to writing for the oboe. Here fortissimo takes
a look at a diverse selection of concertos from the Faber
Music catalogue.
Benjamin Britten - Temporal Variations
In 1935 Britten hinted that a ‘large and elaborate suite for oboe
and strings’ was underway. However, this work did not materialise
and instead he wrote the Temporal Variatons for oboe and piano,
dedicated to Montagu Slater, later the librettist of Peter Grimes.
In 1994, at the suggestion of oboist Nicholas Daniel, Colin
Matthews arranged the piano part for string orchestra. The result
is a dazzling 15-minute concertante work, supplementing Britten’s
already rich contribution to the oboe repertory.
Anders Hillborg – Méditations sur Pétrarque
As its title suggests, the mood of this limpid 12-minute work for
oboe, percussion, harp, piano and strings is predominantly one of
rapt contemplation. The soloist floats free, almost improvisatory
solo lines over still, glassy string textures, which occasionally build to
moments of searing intensity.
David Matthews – Oboe Concerto
Unfolding over five short and highly contrasted movements, each
with a different scoring, this charming 17-minute concerto was
composed for Nicholas Daniel in 1992. One highlight comes with
the joyous fourth movement, a homage to legendary blues pianist
Montana Taylor, where the soloist is joined by winds, percussion as
well pizzicato solo bass.
Nicholas Maw – Little Concert
Composed in 1988, Maw’s Little Concert for oboe, strings and
two horns shares with his Spring Music a preoccupation with
finding a soundworld that is light in its specific gravity and tone,
but that does not really fall into the category of light music. A
common characteristic of both these works is a concentration on
line – the presentation and development of melody, the acceptance
of the primacy of song – as opposed to textural elaboration,
developmental forms, and the like. This lyrical work is laid out in a
very straightforward manner: a slow and episodic opening movement
being followed by an energetic rondo.
Dominic Muldowney – Concerto
Subtitled ‘a song cycle for oboe and orchestra’, this attractive
25-minute work displays Muldowney at his most lyrical, with
teasing, fleeting resonances of Gershwin and Ravel rubbing shoulders
with jazz and Latin-American rhythms, faded waltzes and expansive,
endlessly dovetailing melodies. Four brilliantly orchestrated ‘songs’
are surrounded by oboe recits accompanied by percussion.
‘A series of rapt melodic effusions trace out a musical path
that becomes ever more lyrical and extrovertly emotional.’
Carl Vine – Concerto
BBC Music Magazine 1994
Commissioned by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra in 1996,
Carl Vine’s Oboe Concerto is permeated with energetic rhythms
and brilliant, snaking arabesques for the soloist. An ear-catching
16-minute showcase, it enjoys two commercial recordings to date.
John Woolrich – Concerto
The concerto form has long been a central fascination for Woolrich,
and his 1996 Oboe Concerto, where the fragile keening of the soloist
is set against the brutal power of a large symphony orchestra, is one
of his most dramatic, and poetic statements. The solo instrument
is surrounded, figuratively in the music and literally onstage, by a
group of its own type: three oboes together with their more extrovert
and brazen second cousin the soprano saxophone.
‘It has a distinctive feel, the textures are crisp and vivid, has
solved the problem of balancing the relatively slender sound
of an oboe against a full orchestra in an ingenious and
convincing way.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 16 August 1996
‘The lasting impression was of sheer melodiousness.’
The Independent (Nicholas Williams), 16 August 1996 -
For more oboe repertoire ideas, including chamber
works by Tansy Davies, Oliver Knussen and John
Woolrich, as well as both Colin and David Matthews,
please visit fabermusic.com
PHOTOS: BENJAMIN BRITTEN; JOHN WOOLRICH © MAURICE FOXALL; DAVID MATTHEWS © CLIVE BARDA
7

Anders Hillborg
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Violin Concerto
No. 1
5-6.10.16, Music Centre, Helsinki;
17.12.16, Likuntahalli, Suomussalmi;
18.12.16, Kaukametsä, Kajaani;
19.12.16, Musiikkikeskus, Kuopio;
20.12.16, Concert Hall, Mikkeli,
Finland: Pekka Kuusisto/Finnish
Radio Symphony Orchestra/
Hannu Lintu
Kongsgaard
Variations
9.10.16, St Mary the Virgin, East
Bergholt, Suffolk, UK: Calder Quartet
Hymn of Echoes/
Incantation
premiere of new arrangement for
string orchestra
14.10.16, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Martin
Fröst/Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Violin Concerto
No. 2
World premiere
20, 22.10.16, Konserthuset,
Stockholm, Sweden: Lisa Batiashvili/
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
Orchestra/Sakari Oramo
German premiere
27-28.10.16, Gewandhaus,
Leipzig, Germany: Lisa Batiashvili/
Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig/
Alan Gilbert
Six Pieces for Wind
Quintet
26-27.10.16, Kungliga Operan,
Stockholm, Sweden: Royal Wind
Quintet Stockholm
Incantation/Hymn of
Echoes/Hyper Run/
Primal Blues/Hyper
Exit
24-25.11.16, Konserthus, Oslo,
Norway: Martin Fröst/Oslo
Philharmonic
new work
World premiere
2.3.17, Konserthuset, Örebro;
4.3.17, Konserthuset, Stockholm,
Sweden: Pekka Kuusisto/Swedish
Chamber Orchestra/Thomas
Dausgaard
...lontana in sonno...
17.3.17, Aula, Universitetet i Oslo,
Oslo, Norway: Tora Augestad/
Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Karen
Kamensek
Scream Sing
Whisper*/Piano
Concerto
*Swedish premiere
27.4.17, Konserthuset, Västerås,
Sweden: Henrik Måwe/Vasteras
Musiksalskap/Christian Karlsen
Beast Sampler
Finnish premiere
19.5.17, Music Centre, Helsinki,
Finland: Finnish Radio Symphony
Orchestra/Sakari Oramo
8
Anders Hillborg
Starry nights and cosmic chords
Anders Hillborg’s Strand Settings, four atmospheric songs
to poems by Mark Strand for soprano and orchestra,
received their UK premiere in February as part of Renée
Fleming’s ‘Artist Spotlight’ residency at the Barbican.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Sakari
Oramo, who has also recorded the songs with Fleming
and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic for release on
Decca. The work sees Hillborg sustain an intense – often
brooding – lyricism for over 23-minutes, with supple vocal
writing set against drifting clouds of divided strings that
are underlit by shimmering glass harmonica.
‘The BBC SO floating ecstatically under the burning
recitative in the opening Black Sea, ambling into
urban jazz in the set’s scherzo… mysterious,
marvellously atmospheric and moving…’
The Times (Geoff Brown), 9 February 2016
‘Thrillingly scored, Hillborg’s vital, shimmering
accompaniments never overpowered, always
allowing space for the voice.’
The Guardian (George Hall), 9 February 2016
‘It unfolded in huge unhurried paragraphs, Fleming
trailing her phrases of memory and longing across
the music’s static chords, like the stars against the
night sky so beautifully evoked in the poems. Starry
nights, huge “cosmic” chords, feelings of regret –
how easily these elements could have congealed
into something sentimental and facile. It’s a tribute
to Fleming’s artistry, and Hillborg’s subtlety, that
they never did.’
The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 6 February 2016
‘There is a dark, nocturnal quality to the texts that
Hillborg puts across effectively… Hillborg’s setting
of the English language is excellent. The orchestral
interjections explore a range of styles but it all
coheres, thanks to those long string pedals and the
composer’s keen focus on the texts.’
The Artsdesk (Gavin Dixon), 6 February 2016
PHOTO: ANDERS HILLBORG © MATS LUNDQVIST
A second Violin Concerto
Hillborg’s first Violin Concerto, composed in the early 90s,
is a pivotal work in his oeuvre. Composed 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, has described it as one Hillborg’s best pieces.
Now, over 20 years later, a second violin concerto – this
time for Lisa Batiashvili – will be premiered in October by
the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari
Oramo. The Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig and Alan Gilbert
give the German premiere a week after, with performances
by the concerto’s other co-commissioners, the Minnesota and
Seoul Philharmonic orchestras, following in 2017.
Brandenburg companion for Kuusisto
As part of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra’s project to
commission companion pieces to J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg
Concertos, Hillborg will write a 15-minute response to
the Third Concerto, to be premiered and recorded with
violinist Pekka Kuusisto in March 2017. Kuusisto also
performs Hillborg’s Violin Concerto No. 1 across Finland
with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hannu
Lintu in late 2016.
A new edition of a choral classic
Composed in the mid-80s, Hillborg’s mesmerising
Mouyayoum for 16-part mixed choir is his most performed
work, and has been widely recorded. Faber Music is
pleased to announce the publication of a new edition of
this tour de force, which clarifies numerous important
aspects of notation. A study in ever-shifting tone colours,
it draws its inspiration from overtone singing, creating
an intricate 13-minute tapestry of sound which draws
on influences as diverse as Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna and Steve
Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.
The score of Mouyayoum, priced at £10.99, is
available from the Faber Music Store
(ISBN 0-571-56886-X)

TUNING IN
David Matthews
Reimagining lost Vaughan Williams
Norfolk March, Matthews’s new orchestral piece
constructed around the programme note of the lost
Norfolk Rhapsody No.3 by Vaughan Williams, received its
first performance in April at the English Music Festival at
Dorchester Abbey, where the BBC Concert Orchestra was
conducted by Martin Yates. The 10-minute work – which
also commemorates the First World War – will be taken up
by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in November.
‘It begins as totally plausible Vaughan Williams
pastiche, then takes a much darker, more dissonant
turn, boiling up into an Ives-like concatenation of
ideas before subsiding to an uneasy close.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 30 May 2016
A delightful Piano Concerto
This summer saw a plethora of performances of Matthews’s
Piano Concerto. Helen Reid presented the work in
Greenwich with the St Paul’s Sinfonia in June, whilst
Clare Hammond and the Presteigne Festival Orchestra
under George Vass performed the work in August. Thomas
Nickell and The Orchestra of the Swan gave performances
in Stratford-Upon-Avon and London at Kings Place.
‘Fluently attractive… A splendidly effective work
of complete accomplishment, with many delightful
touches, especially in the final bars, guaranteed to
catch any audience out.’
Classical Source (Robert Matthew-Walker), 17 July 2016
Kreutzer Quartet survey continues
The fourth volume of Toccata Classics’s ongoing survey of
Matthews’s string quartets with the Kreutzer Quartet was
released in February. The disc includes the String Quartet
No. 11 alongside Matthews’s Beethoven transcriptions.
‘A work with its own very clear sense of purpose
and some moments of strange, inward magic…
unlike anything else in modern quartet writing.’’
BBC Music Magazine (Stephen Johnson), July 2016
In the Studio
Long-time supporters of Matthews, the BBC Philharmonic
under Jac van Steen recorded Matthews’s Symphony No.8
and Toward Sunrise in June, at Media City, Salford, for
release on Chandos. ​The disc will also include Matthews’s
A Vision of the Sea which the orchestra has already recorded
under Juanjo Mena.
Stotijn to sing Dvorák arrangements
In December, world-renowned mezzo soprano Christianne
Stotijn will join the Nash Ensemble for a performance of
Matthews’s arrangements of the Dvořák Love Songs Op.
83 at the Wigmore Hall. This 16-minute collection for
medium voice and string quintet also exists in a version for
string orchestra. Stotijn is the latest in a string of worldclass
singers to take up Matthews’s arrangements, Thomas
Hampson having toured his versions of songs by Schubert,
Mahler and Wolf with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in 2014.
Meanwhile, another set of arrangements by Matthews
– his inventive string orchestra versions of two Chopin
Nocturnes (Op. 37 No. 2 and Op. 55 No. 1) – will feature
in a Scottish Ensemble tour in the spring.
Nicholas Maw
‘American Games’ revisited
If Nicholas Maw is best known as a master of expansive,
often melancholy, musical statements, his riveting
American Games for symphonic wind band displays a
different side of his fascinating output. Unfolding as one
continuous span, this driving, dynamic 7-movement work
is filled with rhythmic zest and a sophisticated feeling for
colour. Commissioned for the 1991 BBC Proms, the work
was first performed there by the Royal Northern College
of Music Wind Orchestra who will revive it in Manchester
in November.
‘A sequence of dances which make up a
vigorous rhythmic romp, brilliantly written for the
instruments.’
The Guardian (Edward Greenfield), 25th July 1991
David Matthews
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Variations for Piano
5.10.16, Finnish Embassy, London,
UK: Sami Väänänen
Piano Trio No. 2
6.10.16, William Alwyn Festival, Holy
Trinity Church, Blythburgh, Suffolk,
UK: Odysseus Piano Trio
Sonatina
World premiere
7.10.16, William Alwyn Festival,
Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh,
Suffolk, UK: Linda Merrick/Sarah-
Jane Bradley/Nathan Williamson
(Chaconne only)
2.11.16, St Olave’s Church, Hart
Street, London, UK: Trio Elfin
Norfolk March
13.11.16, Pavilion Theatre,
Bournemouth, UK: Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra/Victor Aviat
Sonatina
20.10.16, The Old Divinity School,
St John’s College, Cambridge, UK:
Krysia Osostowicz/Daniel Tong
4.2.17, University of Hull, Hull, UK:
Fenella Humphreys/Libby Burgess
Three Housman
Songs
London premiere
10.5.17, St John’s Smith Square,
London, UK: Gillian Keith/Orchestra
Nova/George Vass
Dawn Chorus
20.6.17, St Philip’s Cathedral,
Birmingham, UK: Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey
Skidmore
Arrangements
Dvorák - Love Songs
Op. 83
10.12.16, Wigmore Hall, London, UK:
Nash Ensemble/Christianne Stotijn
Chopin - Two
Nocturnes (Op.37
no.2
31.5.17, Caird Hall, Dundee; 4.6.17,
Theatre Royal, Dumfries; 6.6.17,
Eden Court Theatre, Inverness; 7.6.17,
Glasgow, UK: Scottish Ensemble#
Nicholas Maw
Selected
forthcoming
performances
American Games
2.11.16, Brown Shipley Concert
Hall, Royal Northern College of
Music, Manchester, UK: Wind and
Percussion of the RNCM Symphony
Orchestra
PHOTO: DAVID MATTHEWS © CLIVE BARDA; CHRISTIANNE STOTIJN © STEPHAN VANFLETEREN
9

Francisco Coll
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Mural
World premiere
23.9.16, Philharmonie Luxembourg,
Luxembourg: Orchestre
Philharmonique du Luxembourg/
Gustavo Gimeno
Spanish premiere
6.4.17, Palau de les Arts Reina
Sofia, Valencia, Spain: Orquestra
de la Comunitat Valenciana/George
Pehlivanian
4.8.17, Symphony Hall, Birmingham,
UK: National Youth Orchestra of
Great Britain/Thomas Adès (touring)
Chanson et
Bagatelle
World premiere
19.11.16, Leeds, UK: Peter Moore/
Richard Uttley
Ceci n’est pas un
Concerto
World premiere
10.12.16, CBSO Centre, Birmingham,
UK: Elizabeth Atherton/Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group/
Thomas Adès
Harpsichord
Concerto
World premiere
3.2.17, Milton Court, Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, London; 4.2.17,
Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, Essex:
Mahan Esfahani/Britten Sinfonia
Four Iberian
Miniatures
15.3.17, KKL, Lucerne, Switzerland:
Noa Wildschut/Lucerne Symphony
Orchestra/James Gaffigan
Concerto Grosso
‘Invisible Zones’
World premiere
31.3-1.4.17, Auditorio Nacional de
Música, Madrid, Spain: Cuarteto
Casals/Orquesta Nacionales de
Espana/David Afkham
Vestiges
21.5.17, Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden,
Essex, UK: Richard Uttley
Francisco Coll
‘Liquid Symmetries’
Following on from its US premiere at the Aspen Festival in
2015, Francisco Coll’s agile and brittle Liquid Symmetries
for 15 players received its UK Premiere in June at St John’s
Smith Square. Martyn Brabbins conducted the London
Sinfonietta.
A number of virtuoso solo lines wind their way through
this spiky and astringent 13-minute work – 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 tutti melody and the
lone, slightly droll, cowbell – hitherto unheard – that sets
up a typically enigmatic conclusion.
‘A dark, brilliantly inventive evocation of the anxieties
of living in the modern age… The piece began as
if fired from a gun, the bass and muted trumpet
sprinting with jazz-like haste… Coll’s piece showed
a young man troubled by the world.’
The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 2 June 2016
‘Music that seems to be crammed with ideas, which
tumble over each other in a constant state of flux,
sometimes bewildering but fabulously vivid.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 3 June 2016
‘Coll studied with Adès and has the same gift for
ear-popping instrumentations.’
The Times (Richard Morrison), 3 June 2016
‘Opening with a flurry of high woodwind and
a dominant thwack of high temple block and
xylophone, the work has impressive fluency.’
‘Café Kafka’ in Valencia
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 5 June 2016
After the success of its premiere in 2014, when the Sunday
Times praised its ‘astonishing compositional assurance’,
Coll’s 45-minute chamber opera Café Kafka received its
Spanish premiere at the Palau de Les Arts, Valencia in May.
Inspired by the surreal imagination of Franz Kafka, the
opera is an explosive gem. Taking its cue from Meredith
Oakes’s punchy, cleverly-assembled libretto, the dazzling
score brings out every nuance of the bizarre scenario’s
comedy, irony and profundity.
‘The music introduced an edge that conveyed
loneliness, dizziness and restlessness… Coll
is effective in creating moods and situations,
but perhaps the best virtue of the music is its
transparency. Both the vocal lines and the writing
for ensemble are perfectly calibrated, so that their
combination produces a limpid and clear effect –
not such a common skill in a composer so young.’
Cultur Plaza (Rosa Solà), 23 May 2016
Coll’s next vocal work, a tragi-comedy for soprano and
ensemble of 15 players entitled Ceci n’est pas un Concerto
– will be premiered by Elizabeth Atherton together with
the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Thomas
Adès in December.
A new duo for trombone and piano
Coll has composed an 8-minute piece for BBC New
Generation Artist Peter Moore. Moore – the co-principal
trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra – will
premiere the work in November alongside Richard
Uttley, the pianist who gave the first performance of
Coll’s Vestiges at the 2015 Huddersfield Contemporary
Music Festival. Entitled Chanson et Bagatelle, the piece
was jointly commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal
Philharmonic Society
‘Mural’
Expectation continues to mount for the premiere of
Mural, a 25-minute orchestra work which opens the
Luxembourg Philharmonic’s season in September,
conducted by Gustavo Gimeno. Co-commissioned by
the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (who will
tour it in 2017), this five-movement work took two years
to complete. The forces employed are vast, and it will be
fascinating to hear Coll’s electrifying musical personality
unleashed on such an ambitious canvas.
10
PHOTO: FRANCISCO COLL © JUDITH COLL;
PALAU DE LES ARTS REINA SOFÍA PRODUCTION OF CAFÉ KAFKA ©TATO BAEZA

TUNING IN
A dazzling Proms debut
Coll’s Four Iberian Minatures for violin and chamber
orchestra received their London premiere at the BBC
Proms in August, with violinist Augustin Hadelich and
Britten Sinfonia conducted by Thomas Adès. In March
2017, James Gaffigan will conduct the 12-minute
work with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Noa
Wildschut, a protégé of Anne-Sophie Mutter.
‘Hadelich brought bravura technique and
personality to his sometimes soulful, sometimes
flamboyant solo line as it filtered through the
score’s lucid textures… Coll was making his debut
as a Proms composer with this witty and attractive
piece, whose heritage in the idioms of flamenco
and tango was brazenly flaunted.’
The Guardian (George Hall), 16 August 2016
‘Like images of Spain seen through an insect’s eye.
Spanish elements such as tango and flamenco
become flickers of light, colour and rhythm.’
The Finanical Times (Richard Fairman), 16 August 2016
‘Glittering with sharp, Andalusian light.’
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 21 August 2016
Benjamin Britten
Opera update
Separated by a whole compositional lifetime, Benjamin
Britten’s first and last operas, Paul Bunyan and Death in
Venice, both receive high-profile German productions in
the 16/17 season. Brigitte Fassbaender directs Britten’s
fresh and ingenious telling of the American lumberjack
myth (his largest, and only operatic, collaboration with
WH Auden), at Oper Frankfurt in October. In spring
2017, Deutsche Oper Berlin stage Graham Vick’s
production of Death in Venice.
Meanwhile, multimedia director and video artist Netia
Jones’s acclaimed production of Curlew River (featuring
the Britten Sinfonia and an outstanding cast led by Ian
Bostridge as the Madwoman) travels to Madrid’s Teatro
Real for a single performance in March.
Matthew Hindson
Port Arthur remembered
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre
in Tasmania, ABC Classics have digitally released the first
recording of Matthew Hindson’s ‘Lament’, the beautiful
slow movement from his extraordinary concerto for
amplified cello In Memoriam. The recording, featuring
cellist Sue-Ellen Paulsen with the Tasmanian Symphony
Orchestra and Benjamin Northey, will also feature on an
all-Hindson orchestral disc.
Commission launches new ensemble
Premiering in Sydney on 4 October, Hindson’s new work
for large ensemble, This Year’s Apocalypse, has been specially
commissioned for the inaugural season of the Verbrugghen
Ensemble. An Ensemble-in-Residence at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music (where Hindson is Acting Head
of School and Associate Dean), the new music group
comprises internationally-acclaimed soloists and orchestral
musicians, most of whom are faculty members. The work
will be conducted by John Lynch, the group’s American
director, who also oversaw the 2015 premiere of Hindson’s
wind band work, Requiem for a City.
A fresh take on Schubert that
continues to travel
Since its premiere in Brisbane in 2001, Hindson’s The Rave
and the Nightingale for string quartet and string orchestra
has become one of his most travelled large-scale works.
The 16-minute reimagining of Schubert’s final string
quartet (No. 15 in G major, D. 887) has been performed
throughout Australia, as well as in the UK, USA, Germany
and Switzerland. It has also been choreographed by
Matjash Mrozewski for the San Francisco Ballet. The
piece will now to be taken up by The Australian Chamber
Orchestra, who perform it with the Goldner String
Quartet in Sydney on 6 October.
‘Scenes from Romeo & Juliet’
Good news for saxophone ensembles: a substantial
25-minute suite by Hindson, entitled Scenes from Romeo &
Juliet, was premiered by the Nexas Saxophone Quartet on
28 May in Glebe, New South Wales. Featuring music from
a 2015 ballet score Hindson composed in collaboration
with Cyrus Meurant, the suite has been recorded and will
be reprised by the Quartet as part of a CD launch party in
November.
Matthew Hindson
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Light is both a
particle and a wave
10.9.2016, University of New South
Wales, NSW, Australia: Australia
Ensemble
Bright Red Overture
17-18.9.2016, Willoughby, NSW,
Australia: Willoughby SO/Paul
Fitzsimon
This Year’s
Apocalypse
World premiere
4.10.2016, Sydney Conservatorium
of Music, Sydney, NSW, Australia:
Verbrugghen Ensemble/John Lynch
The Rave and the
Nightingale
6.10.2016, City Recital Hall, Angel
Place, Sydney, NSW, Australia:
Goldner String Quartet/Australian
Chamber Orchestra/Toby Thatcher
12.3.2017, Saarländisches
Staatstheater, Saarbrücken, Germany:
Saarquartett/Saarländisches
Staatsorchester/Nicholas Milton
Scenes from Romeo
& Juliet
19.11.2016, Glebe Justice Centre,
Sydney, NSW, Australia: Nexas
Quartet
Pulse Magnet
Polish premiere
22.11.2016, Feliks Nowowiejski
Academy of Music, Bydgoszcz,
Poland
Benjamin Britten
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Owen Wingrave
3-10.9.16, Peacock Theatre, London,
UK: British Youth Opera/Southbank
Sinfonia
19-28.11.16, Amphithéâtre, Opéra
Bastille, Opéra Nationale de Paris,
Paris, France: Opéra National de
Paris/cond. Stephen Higgins/dir.
Tom Creed
Paul Bunyan
9-22.10.16, Bockenheimer Depot,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Oper
Frankfurt/cond. Nikolai Petersen/dir.
Brigitte Fassbaender
Curlew River
4.3.17, Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain:
Ian Bostridge/Mark Stone/Britten
Sinfonia Voices/Britten Sinfonia/dir.
Netia Jones
Death In Venice
19.3-28.4.17, Deutsche Oper Berlin,
Berlin, Germany: Deutsche Oper
Berlin/cond. Donald Runnicles/dir.
Graham Vick
PHOTOS: BENJAMIN BRITTEN; MATTHEW HINDSON
11

Tansy Davies
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Nature
US premiere
1.10.16, Peter Jay Sharp Theater,
The Juilliard School, New York, NY,
USA: Andrew Hsu/New Juilliard
Ensemble/Joel Sachs
20.4.17, Auer Performance Hall,
Indiana University, Fort Wayne, IN,
USA: Indiana New Music Ensemble/
David Dzubay
new solo horn work
world premiere
18.10.16, WDR Funkhaus am
Wallrafplatz, Cologne, Nordrhein-
Westfalen, Germany: Christine
Chapman (MusikFabrik)
Loopholes &
Lynchpins/Forgotten
Game 2/Aquatic
27.10.16, Carole Nash Recital Room,
Royal Northern College of Music,
Manchester, UK: Students from
the RNCM
grind show
(electric)/Iris
27.10.16, Brown Shipley Concert
Hall, Royal Northern College of
Music, Manchester, UK: Clark
Rundell/RNCM New Ensemble/Mark
Heron/Emma McPhilemy/Orr Guy
kingpin/The
Beginning of the
World/Residuum/
Falling Angel/Spine
27.10.16, Peel Hall, University
of Salford, Salford, UK: BBC
Philharmonic Orchestra/Antony
Hermus
Troubairitz/Dark
Ground
28.10.16, Carole Nash Recital Room,
Royal Northern College of Music,
Manchester, UK: Students from
the RNCM
new work for four
horns and orchestra
world premiere
21.2.17, The Anvil, Basingstoke;
23.2.17, Royal Festival Hall,
Southbank Centre, London, UK:
Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka
Salonen
US premiere
27, 29.4.17, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln
Center, New York City; 28.4.17,
Tilles Center, Long Island University,
Brookville, NY, USA: New York
Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Tansy Davies
Manchester focus
In October the Royal Northern College of Music and the
BBC Philharmonic will host a two-day festival devoted
to the bold and utterly distinctive music of Tansy Davies.
With four concerts and a total of 12 works spanning
over a decade of creative activity, it will be the largest
retrospective of her music to date. RNCM students will
perform a selection of Davies’s chamber and ensemble
works, including her feisty saxophone concerto Iris, and
the BBC Philharmonic under Antony Hermus will present
a number of larger-scale pieces at Salford’s Peel Hall.
This latter concert features two works for string orchestra,
both of which reimagine music of the past. The Beginning
of the World – receiving its first performance since its BBC
Proms premiere back in 2013 – is an eerie yet buoyant
5-minute variation on Sellinger’s Round whilst Residuum
has been described by Davies as ‘an imaginary replay of
the residual energy of the Galliard from John Dowland’s
Lachrymae, heard like an echo of ancient music in a
modern time.’
From one horn player to another
Davies’s own instrument, the horn, has always occupied
a special place in her music – buzzing away abrasively
in her Falling Angel, or crying out with yearning in her
orchestral labyrinth Wild Card – but it will be especially
spotlighted in her next major project, a concerto for four
horns and orchestra. Co-commissioned by the Philharmonia
Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and the Warsaw
Autumn Festival (where Davies’s trumpet concerto Spiral
House was received with acclaim in 2014) the 20-minute
work was the brainchild of Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will
conduct the UK and US premieres and who was a horn
player himself. Davies is also at work on a solo horn work
for MusikFabrik’s Christine Chapman will be premiered in
Cologne in October.
London premiere of ‘Falling Angel’
Gleaming and incandescent – rounded but penetrating
in its brightness, the distinctive peal of the steel drum
permeates Falling Angel, Davies’s Anselm Kiefer-inspired
ensemble work which received its London premiere from
the London Sinfonietta in June. The German artist’s rough
layers of impasto are paralleled in 17 minutes of thick
and urgent textures; brazen fanfares, a murmuring film of
horns and alto flute, and scraping, skirling dances from a
host of shrill winds.
‘Falling Angel has lost none of its power to unsettle.
Davies’s ideas always came at us in the raw.’
The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 2 June 2016
‘Dense and intense, with abrasive fanfares and
marches as well as a central, lyrical lament.’
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 5 June 2016
‘Full of raw, abrasive, insistently repeated refrains,
it seemed an apt reflection of the ominous painting
that inspired it.’
The Times (Richard Morrison), 3 June 2016
A journey to the dark heart of Goya
Like Falling Angel, Davies’s dark and muscular grind show
(electric) also draws its inspiration from the visual arts
– in this case Goya’s visceral, almost expressionistic, The
St Isidore Pilgrimage (reproduced below). Mirroring the
image, where a procession of figures was painted over an
earlier existing landscape, this work for five players and
sampler pits the irregular dances of acoustic instruments
against an electronic element depicting a sinister outside
world. Recently given its US premiere by Bang on a Can at
their Summer Music Festival, this 6-minute carnivalesque
also features in the Davies focus in Manchester.
12
PHOTO: TANSY DAVIES © RIKARD ÖSTERLUND; FRANCISCO GOYA’S ‘LA ROMERÍA DE SAN ISIDRO’

TUNING IN
Colin Matthews
Continuing birthday celebrations
In the space of 6 weeks this summer Colin Matthews’s
music received performances from the BBC Symphony,
BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish, and BBC Welsh
orchestras – an extraordinary testament to his place at the
heart of British New Music. In October, students from
the Royal College of Music, where Matthews holds the
position of Prince Consort Professor of Composition, will
mark his 70 th birthday with a performance of his thrilling
...through the glass conducted by Thomas Zehetmair.
‘Berceuse for Dresden’
Composed in 2005 to commemorate the rebuilding of
Dresden’s Frauenkirche, Matthews’s dark-hued Berceuse for
Dresden received its London premiere at the BBC Proms
in August, with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and the
Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder. Inspired by the
Frauenkirche’s bells, Matthews transforms their pitches
into arching solo lines, while their overtones provide the
rich underlying harmonies. Recordings of the real bells,
sounding from high in the Royal Albert Hall, brought the
absorbing 11-minute work to an intense climax.
‘The mournfully expressive admixture of hope to
grief, healing to despair, is extraordinarily moving.’
Classical Source (Mark Valencia), 16 August 2016
‘Touching… A song without words for the cello.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 18 August 2016
‘A rich journey from elegy to cautious resurrection.’
The Times (Neil Fisher), 18 August 2016
‘It’s easy to imagine the goosebumps audience
members would have felt at its world premiere.’
The Telegraph (Ben Lawrence), 18 August 2016
Also making an appearance at this year’s Proms was Pluto,
the renewer, Matthews’s thrilling 6-minute appendix
to Holst’s The Planets. The Guardian, reviewing the
performance by The National Youth Orchestra of Great
Britain under Edward Gardner, remarked on its ‘implicit
and organic connection with the original suite.’
Ravel reimagined
Having commissioned Matthews’s orchestration of
Ravel’s ‘Oiseaux Tristes’ from Miroirs – described by The
Independent as a ‘4-minute gem’ after its premiere at the
2015 Proms – the BBC Philharmonic has now asked him
to turn his hand to more of the suite. Matthews’s version
of ‘La vallée des cloches’ will be premiered in Manchester
in January conducted by Nicholas Collon, in a concert
that also includes ‘Oiseaux Tristes’. In July, Collon revived
the latter with the Brussels Philharmonic.
A ‘supple and lyrical’ Violin Concerto
A new release from NMC, showcasing three of Matthews’s
large-scale orchestral pieces has been received with critical
acclaim. His dark, Mahlerian Cortège (1988) is featured
alongside his Cello Concerto No.2 (composed for Mstislav
Rostropovich in 1996 and here given an impassioned
performance by Anssi Karttunen). The 20-minute Violin
Concerto from 2009 – performed by Leila Josefowicz and
the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Oliver Knussen – has
been particularly well received.
‘Lyrically rewarding… memorably orchestrated.’
BBC Radio 3 Record Review (Andrew McGregor), 25 June 2016
‘Josefowicz soars high above the orchestra as if on
a thermal. [A] supple, lyrical concerto.’
The Guardian (Erica Jeal), 23 June 2016
‘A sensuous outpouring of lithe purpose and flow.’
BBC Music Magazine (Hellen Wallace), July 2016
Inspired by Edward Thomas
Figures, suspended still and ghostly white,
The past hovering as it revisits the light.
The closing lines of Edward Thomas’s ‘It Rains’ have lent a
title to Figures, suspended, a 5-minute oboe solo Matthews
has composed for the 4th Barbirolli International Oboe
Festival and Competition. Matthews is also at work on a
setting of the poem, to be premiered by baritone Roderick
Williams and the Nash Ensemble in March 2017. (It’s
not the first time Matthews has been drawn to the work
of Thomas, having previously set his Out in the Dark in a
2006 NMC Songbook commission.)
Meanwhile, Thomas’s ‘The Trumpet’ features in Voices
of the Air, for soprano, chorus and chamber orchestra,
commissioned to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the
London Festival Chorus. Taking its name from a poem
by Katherine Mansfield, the five-movement work also sets
poetry by Dickinson, Tagore and Longfellow.
Masterful writing for the Oboe
Dedicated to Matthews in his 70th birthday year, a new
recording from the Berlin Oboe Quartet includes his
two Oboe Quartets from the 1980s, the second of which
was written for them. The release, on Costa Records,
also includes Matthews’s arrangement of Schumann’s
‘Mondnacht’ from his Liederkreis Op. 39.
Colin Matthews
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Un Colloque
Sentimental
22.9.16, 11.2.17, Peter Pears Recital
Room, Snape, Suffolk, UK: Andrew
Watts/Ian Burnside/dir. Nicholas
Broadhurst
Horn Concerto
3.10.16, St John’s Smith Square,
London, UK: Richard Watkins/
Kensington Symphony Orchestra/
Russell Keable
The Pied Piper of
Hamelin
Australian premiere
9.10.16, Sydney Opera House,
Sydney, NSW, Australia: Sydney
Children’s Choir/Sydney Symphony
Orchestra/Toby Thatcher
...through the glass
21.10.16, Royal College of Music,
London, UK: Royal College of Music/
Thomas Zehetmair
Voices of the Air
World premiere
26.11.16, St Luke’s Church,
Battersea, London, UK: Katy Hill/
Festival Chorus/Andrea Brown
It Rains*/Fuga
*World premiere
21.3.17, Wigmore Hall, London, UK:
Roderick Williams/Nash Ensemble/
Martyn Brabbins
Figures, suspended
World premiere
1.4.17, Barbirolli Oboe Competition,
Villa Marina, Douglas, Isle of Man
String Quartet No. 5
26.4.17, Park Lane Group Series, St
John’s Smith Square, London, UK:
Solem Quartet
Three Interludes
27.4.17, Park Lane Group Series, St
John’s Smith Square, London, UK:
Jacquin Trio
new work
World premiere
10.6.17, CBSO Centre, Birmingham,
UK: Claire Booth/Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group/Ryan
Wigglesworth
Arrangements
Ravel – La vallée
des cloches* and
Oiseaux tristes from
Miroirs
*World premiere
13.1.17, Bridgewater Hall,
Manchester, UK: BBC Philharmonic
Orchestra/Nicholas Collon
Mahler – Lieder
eines fahrenden
Gesellen
World premiere
9.4.17, Musikkollegium Winterthur,
Winterthur, Switzerland: Ian
Bostridge/Musikkollegium Winterthur
PHOTO: COLIN MATTHEWS © MAURICE FOXALL
13

George Benjamin
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Octet
10.9.16, Klangspuren Festival,
Innsbruck, Austria: Ensemble Modern
Meisterkurs
Viola, Viola
24, 25.9.16, Powell Hall, St Louis,
MO, USA: Members of the St Louis
Symphony Orchestra
A Mind of Winter
25-26.9.16, Grosses Haus,
Oldenburgisches Staatstheater,
Oldenburg, Germany: Sarah Tuttle/
Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester/
Hendrik Vestmann
Dream of the Song
French premiere
28-29.9.16, Festival d’Automne,
Philharmonie, Paris, France: Bejun
Mehta/SWR Vokalensemble/
Orchestre de Paris/Daniel Harding
German premiere
14-15.1.17, Staatsschauspiel
Dresden, Germany: Bejun Mehta/
Rundfunkchor Leipzig/Dresdner
Philharmoniker/Michael Sanderling
9-11.2.17, Symphony Hall, Boston,
MA, USA; 2.3.17, Carnegie Hall, New
York City, NY, USA: Bejun Mehta/
Lorelei Ensemble/Boston Symphony
Orchestra/Andris Nelsons
15,17.3.17, Philharmonie, Gasteig,
Munich, Germany: Andrew Watts/
Frauenchor des Philharmonischen
Chores München/Munich
Philharmonic Orchestra/Kent Nagano
At First Light
3.10.16, Sejong Center, Seoul,
South Korea: Seoul Philharmonic
Orchestra/Antony Hermus
Written on Skin
Italian premiere
5, 7.10.16, Konzerthaus, Teatro
Comunale, Bolzano, Trentino-Alto
Adige, Italy: Orchestra Sinfonica
Haydn/cond. Rossen Gergov/dir.
Nicola Raab
Argentina premiere
14-23.10.16, Sala Alberto Ginastera,
Teatro Argentino, La Plata, Argentina:
Teatro Argentino/cond. Pablo Druker/
dir. Cristian Drut
13-30.1.17, Royal Opera House,
London, UK: The Orchestra of the
Royal Opera House/cond. George
Benjamin/dir. Katie Mitchell
Shadowlines
4.11.16, Badenweiler Musiktage,
Badenweiler, Germany: Gilles
Vonsattel
Three Inventions for
Chamber Orchestra
7.11.16, Comédie de Genève, Geneva,
Switzerland: Lemanic Modern
Ensemble/William Blank
17.3.17, Philharmonie, Paris, France:
Ensemble Intercontemporain (1st
Invention only)
17, 19.3.17, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle,
Bielefeld, Germany: Bielefelder
Philharmoniker/Alexander Kalajdžic
George Benjamin
‘Dream of the Song’
Less than a year since its premiere in Amsterdam, George
Benjamin’s 20-minute song cycle for countertenor, female
chorus and orchestra has already received criticallyacclaimed
performances in London as part of a two-day
festival at the Barbican, and at the Tanglewood Music
Festival. A full score is now on sale (see p.28).
Forthcoming performances include the work’s French
Premiere at the Festival d’Automne in September
(Orchestre de Paris/Daniel Harding), the German premiere
in January (Dresdner Philharmoniker/Michael Sanderling),
and a further four US performances – including the
New York Premiere at Carnegie Hall in March – where
countertenor Bejun Mehta will be joined by the Boston
Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.
‘Unmistakably a major, profoundly beautiful work.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 20 March 2016
‘A triumph of fine-grained precision.’
The Independent (Michael Church), 20 March 2016
‘The precisely imagined writing for orchestra is a
marvel of cool sensuality.’
Boston Globe (Jeremy Eichler), 26 July 2016
An operatic masterpiece travels
In March the Mahler Chamber Orchestra presented five
concert performances of Written on Skin across Europe.
Conducted by Benjamin, semi-staged by Ben Davis,
and featuring many members of the original cast, these
performances left many hailing the work as a masterpiece.
‘If Written on Skin doesn’t end up a modern classic,
I’ll eat my hat… Every sonority, every flicker, every
word registers with electric clarity and force… A
large audience sat totally rapt: yes, I am confident
we can hail a masterpiece.’
The Telegraph (Rupert Christiansen), 20 March 2016
In October, the opera will be staged in Italy and Argentina,
before a revival at London’s Royal Opera House in January.
Revisiting ‘Viola, Viola’
Next performed in September by members of the St Louis
Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin’s string duo Viola, Viola
sees the composer at his most ingenious and immediate.
Entwined together in ten enthralling minutes of furious
close-knit dialogue, two violas conjure an almost orchestral
variety and depth of sound, in polyphonic textures that –
at their most complex – maintain four or more parts for
sustained periods. This surging, dancing drama is one of
the most important additions to the viola repertoire since
the Ligeti Sonata and Grisey’s Prologue, unleashing the
dazzling and explosive potential of an instrument more
accustomed to being a melancholy voice hidden in the
shadows. Beloved by many of the world’s leading viola
players, the work would make an exciting pairing with one
of the Mozart String Quintets.
‘A virtuoso tour de force… a visceral dialectic,
powered by nervous energy.’
The Times (Helen Wallace), 21 October 1998
A New Recording of ‘Palimpsests’
With its myriad musics constantly colliding and
combining, a work as richly layered as Palimpsests almost
demands multiple recordings. Now, to complement
Ensemble Modern’s vivid account on Nimbus, comes
a new recording from the Symphonieorchester des
Bayerischen Rundfunks (also conducted by the composer).
From the intricate grisaille of wire-brushed side drums that
acts as a discreet backdrop to much of the work’s drama, to
the breathless closing minutes, where piccolos and cowbell
are pitted against dizzying volleys of brass, this 2012
NEOS recording from Munich’s Musica Viva brilliantly
captures the score’s many intricate details, further
enriching our understanding of this masterpiece.
…and a dazzling companion piece
Scored for the same wind-heavy ensemble as Palimpsests
(with the addition of a cor anglais), Benjamin’s ingenious
transcription of Nicolas De Grigny’s Récit de Tierce en Taille
makes an ideal pairing with his own work. Both the spirit
and the unusual flavour of this jewel of Baroque organ
music are brilliantly captured as Benjamin, inspired by De
Grigny’s idiosyncratic registrations, frequently ‘illuminates’
the work’s central melody with parallel harmonics which
constantly change in both depth and timbre.
‘It took something already pungently ornate and
highly coloured and made it even more so, evoking
the richly coloured stops of a French Baroque organ
without ever stooping to imitation.’
The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 27 July 2004
George Benjamin celebrates his 60th birthday
in 2020. If you are interested in marking this
occasion and would like to find out more, please
contact promotion@fabermusic.com
14
PHOTO: GEORGE BENJAMIN CONDUCTING THE ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW
ORCHESTRA © AGNETE SCHLICHTKRULL

TUNING IN
Tom Coult
‘Spirit of the Staircase’
The French concept of l’esprit de l’escalier – that perfect
retort or remark only formulated after the event – lends its
name to Tom Coult’s Spirit of the Staircase for 15 players
which was premiered in June by the London Sinfonietta
under Martyn Brabbins. A multitude of brilliantly
imagined situations are crammed into its 16-minutes,
from raucous tutti passages to a subdued melody for the
diaphanous mixture of bass flute harmonics and muted
viola. Elsewhere, limping celesta and whirring percussion
eerily evoke the winding down of a music box. A
trombone is another key protagonist, and luminous chords
from the ensemble’s assortment of keyboards and tuned
percussion repeatedly interrupt with moments of stasis.
‘An insouciant musical game… Coult soon proved
he’s very much his own man, conjuring amusing
dialogues from simple scale-like figures… Funny
and surreal and delicately poetic, all at once.’
The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 2 June 2016
‘The work juxtaposed rapidly moving chains of
glistening pitches with moments of stillness, and is
full of bewitching sounds. The scheme was worked
out with impressive assurance; everything was
fresh, precisely imagined and made full use of what
the Sinfonietta can do at its best.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 3 June 2016
‘Impressive individuality’
‘The rapidly emerging British composer left a strong
impression. Alternating rapid “stairways” of fast
notes, zipping up and down, with passages of near
inaction, this had impressive individuality.’
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 5 June 2016
‘Coult’s witty, light-fingered Spirit of the Staircase
was just as inventive instrumentally, but a lot more
recognisably structured and frankly more fun. Still
in his twenties, he’s a name to watch.’
The Times (Richard Morrison), 3 June 2016
…towards an opera
Coult has been awarded a Jerwood Opera Writing
Fellowship by Aldeburgh Music to develop a chamber
opera in collaboration with the award-winning young
playwright Alice Birch. Aldeburgh will provide the
pair with two years of support in the form of bursaries,
workshops, mentoring and showcases as they develop
their project, which will be based on Edgar Allan Poe’s
satirical short story The Devil in the Belfry. Birch’s recent
work includes Ophelia’s Zimmer, a co-production between
London’s Royal Court Theatre and the Schaubühne
Theater Berlin directed by Katie Mitchell. Revolt.
She Said. Revolt Again, her 2014 play for The Royal
Shakespeare Company, was described by The Guardian as
‘kaleidoscopic, unruly, searing and sharply funny’.
Psappha commission mixed sextet
Having previously performed Coult’s whimsical Enmîmés
sont les gougebosqueux on two separate occasions,
Manchester’s specialist new music ensemble Psappha has
commissioned a new work from him for its 25 th anniversary
season. Supported by the Britten-Pears Foundation and the
Ernst von Siemens Muzikstiftung, the multi-movement
piece (which will be around 15 minutes long and scored for
flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello) will be
premiered in Manchester in February.
An ear-catching new orchestral work
In April, Coult’s 10-minute orchestral work Sonnet
Machine was premiered by the BBC Philharmonic and
Andrew Gourlay. It also featured as incidental music to a
Shakespeare-inspired radio play by Tom Wells on Radio 3.
‘Coult’s ear-catching Sonnet Machine paid homage
to the rhyme schemes of Elizabethan sonnets by
constantly shuffling varied textures, egged on by a
slapstick’s whipcrack.’
The Times (Geoff Brown), 26 April 2016
Recalling Alan Turing’s fascination with the idea of
machines writing sonnets, Coult describes the piece as
‘a creative misunderstanding of sonnet form – 14 bits
of music that ‘‘rhyme’’ in various ways, as if an early
computer had arbitrarily applied the rules of sonnet form
to a piece of music.’ Whipcracks articulate the work’s
many jolting gear changes and non sequiturs, whilst the
front desks of violins and violas double on instruments
whose scordaturas lend a blazing rawness to the openstring
sonorities of the work’s arresting point of departure.
Later, the glint of open strings returns to initiate a
breathless coda which hurtles forward to its close.
George Benjamin
Selected
forthcoming
performances
(cont.)
Antara
3.3.17, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall,
University of York, York, UK: Chimera
Ensemble/John Stringer
Upon Silence
19.5.17, Église des Billettes, Paris,
France: Emilie Renard/SIT FAST
Dance Figures
1.6.17, Auditorium, Maison de la
Radio, Paris, France: Orchestre
National de France/David Robertson
Arrangements
Bach – Canon &
Fugue from The Art
of Fugue
10.9.16, Hong Kong City Hall, Hong
Kong, China: Hong Kong Sinfonietta/
Alessandro Crudele
Tom Coult
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Limp
20.10.16, Cosmo Rodewald Concert
Hall, University of Manchester,
Manchester, UK: Darragh Morgan/
Mary Dullea
new work for 6
players
16.2.17, St. Michael’s, Ancoats,
Manchester, UK: Psappha
PHOTO: TOM COULT © MAURICE FOXALL
15

Jonathan Harvey
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Mortuos Plango,
Vivos Voco/The
Annunciation/Other
Presences/Forms
of Emptiness/How
could the soul not
take flight
23.9.16, LSO St Luke’s, London, UK:
Marco Blaauw/BBC Singers/Martyn
Brabbins/Sound Intermedia
Song of June
1.10.16, St John’s Smith Square,
London, UK: Tenebrae/Nigel Short
Clarinet Trio
12.11.16, Milano Musica, Pirelli
HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy:
Marco Danesi/Daniele Richiedei/
Paolo Gorini
The Annunciation
10.12.16, St John’s Smith Square,
London, UK: The Gesualdo Six/
Owain Park
Song of June
1.10.16, St John’s Smith Square,
London, UK: Tenebrae/Nigel Short
Lauds
17.12.16, Kings Place, London, UK:
Oliver Coates/Tenebrae/Nigel Short
Ricercare una
melodia (cello)
6.5.17, Kings Place, London, UK: Tim
Gill/Rolf Hind
...towards a pure
land
7.7.17, Herkulessaal, Residenz,
Munich, Bavaria, Germany: Bavarian
Radio Symphony Orchestra/Matthias
Pintscher
Malcolm Arnold
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Concerto for Two
Violins and String
Orchestra
10.9.16, Pauluszentrum , Lauffen,
Baden-Württemberg, Germany:
Junges Kammerorchester/Thomas
Conrad
The Song of Simeon
15.10.16, Malcolm Arnold Festival,
Royal and Derngate, Northampton,
UK: Cambridgeshire Symphony
Orchestra/Steve Bingham/Simon
Toyne
Symphonic Study
‘Machines’
15.10.16, Malcolm Arnold Festival,
Royal and Derngate, Northampton,
UK: Northampton Symphony
Orchestra/John Gibbons
Symphony No. 6
16.10.16, Malcolm Arnold Festival,
Royal and Derngate, Northampton,
UK: BBC Concert Orchestra/John
Gibbons
Jonathan Harvey
An important new study
‘Following performances at Cologne’s Acht Brücken in
May (where the festival theme was ‘music and faith’,
Jonathan Harvey’s work will be featured strongly at
Munich’s Musica Viva in 2017. In July The Arditti
Quartet will be on hand to perform all four of Harvey’s
string quartets, whilst Matthias Pintscher will conduct
the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in
...towards a Pure Land, the extraordinarily colourful and
refined orchestral work from 2005.
This latter work, now one of Harvey’s most performed
pieces, has also lent its name to a substantial new Germanlanguage
study of Harvey’s work by musicologist Suzanne
Josek. Subtitled ‘stations on a compositional journey’, this
important addition to the Harvey bibliography (published
by Schott) not only contains insightful analysis but also
quotes extensively from a series of fascinating interviews
with the composer made shortly before his death in 2012.
‘This captivating book is the first comprehensive
study of Harvey’s oeuvre. Undoubtedly it is an
unavoidable reference point for all those who
remain, that are to deal with it. It would therefore
be desirable that the book soon appear in other
languages.’
‘Other Presences’
Ausgabe der Neuen Zeitschrift für Musik
(Leopoldo Siano), April 2016
Whilst Jonathan Harvey was a composer who always
embraced and sought-out the very latest in musical
technologies, the simplicity of the a cappella choir became
something of a constant to which he returned throughout
his life. In late September the BBC Singers will present a
concert surveying the whole breadth of this choral output,
from the rapt simplicity of his anthem I Love the Lord to
the exotic and elaborate textures of Forms of Emptiness and
How could the soul not take flight, the latter works finding
an inspired pairing in Britten’s virtuosic cantata A.M.D.G.
Conducted by Martyn Brabbins, who oversaw many
Harvey premieres, including that of his last opera Wagner
Dream, the concert also includes the iconic Mortuos
Plango, Vivos Voco alongside a performance of Harvey’s
Other Presences by trumpeter Marco Blaauw. Composed
for Markus Stockhausen in 2006, this radiant 10-minute
work for solo instrument and electronics was the result of a
commission from the Cheltenham Festival. In it, trumpet
melodies – inspired by Tibetan open-air ceremonial music
which Harvey witnessed on a visit to monasteries at and
near Rajpur – are looped and harmonised in real time,
giving the impression, in the composer’s words, that ‘the
trumpet is multiplied and becomes present invisibly at
other points in space.’
Full and up-to-date details of the electronic
requirements for Harvey’s works can be found
online at jonathanharveysoundsources.com
Malcolm Arnold
2016 Arnold Festival
Entitled ‘The Voice of the People’, the 11th annual
Malcolm Arnold Festival takes place from 15-16 October
at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate. ‘Our theme
this year perfectly sums up Sir Malcolm’s intentions as
a composer,’ writes the festival’s Artistic Director Paul
Harris. ‘He was always determined to write music that
could be immediately appreciated and, although he
embraced many 20th-Century ‘’-isms’’, his music remains
utterly accessible.’
The festival opens in style with a concert by the Cambridge
Symphony Orchestra which will include the first ever
performance of the prelude to the unfinished opera Henri
Christophe as well as Arnold’s all-too-neglected The Song
of Simeon, a Nativity Masque for mimers, soloists, SATB
chorus and orchestra. Combining song and dance, as well
as some spoken parts, this thrilling 30-minute work to
a text by Christopher Hassall shows Arnold at his most
imaginative and inspired, in music overflowing with
emotion, humour, serenity and grandeur.
Another festival highlight is sure to be a performance of
Arnold’s troubled Sixth Symphony by the BBC Concert
Orchestra under John Gibbons, who will also conduct the
Northampton Symphony Orchestra in Arnold’s Symphony
Study ‘Machines’ for brass, percussion and strings. The
weekend also sees the culmination of trumpeter John
Wallace’s ‘Arnold Fantasies’ project, which will see
performances of the Fantasies for brass instruments as well
as the Brass Quintet, with four young winners of a nationwide
competition. Wallace will also be launching his new
recording of Arnold’s complete music for brass.
Fantasy for Guitar
With his extensive series of Fantasies for solo instruments,
Arnold made an invaluable contribution to the repertoire
of recitalists, crafting short, approachable pieces that
continue to be programmed internationally. The everpopular
Fantasy for Guitar, composed in 1971 for Julian
Bream, has recently enjoyed the advocacy of the brilliant
YCAT artist Sean Shibe, who performs the enthralling
10-minute work throughout the 16/17 season.
16
PHOTO: MALCOLM ARNOLD

TUNING IN
Torsten Rasch
John Woolrich
Alchemical melodies
In April, Torsten Rasch’s dramatic Violin Concerto ‘Tropi’
was premiered by Wolfgang Hentrich and the Dresden
Philharmonic under Leo McFall. The substantial four
movement work – the composer’s first concerto – was
inspired by Helmut Krausser ‘s captivating 1993 novel
Melodien, in which myth, magic, music, and madness are
interact in a dark, and increasingly disturbing, narrative.
Unfolding over 20 minutes, this weighty statement is
everything we have come to expect from Rasch: a large
orchestra is masterfully handled with an incredible
lightness of touch, whist the hefty solo part, with its
many knotty twists and turns, offers violinists numerous
opportunities to showcase their technical – and
interpretative – virtuosity. From the first movement,
‘Descent’, which begins with the violin suspended high in
the stratosphere, to the second movement, where much
of the constantly renewing material derives from the
‘Veni Creator Spiritus’ chant, Rasch’s concerto traces an
uncompromising and utterly personal trajectory, which
only becomes more intense as it progresses. The finale,
‘Ascent’, reaches its culmination with a quotation of the
Easter Hymn ‘Salve festa dies’ but concludes, not with a
feeling of release, but rather one of the concerto travelling
full circle – back to the allusive high writing with which it
began. One of the composer’s most compelling orchestral
works to date, the concerto receives its US premiere
in September, with Phillippe Quint and the Spokane
Symphony Orchestra under Eckhart Preu.
Mendelssohn reframed
Was bedeutet die Bewegung…, Rasch’s transcription of a
Mendelssohn song cycle for baritone and strings received
its US premiere at the Yellow Barn Festival in July. This
is no workaday transcription: in addition to skilfully
arranging Mendelssohn’s song accompaniments for strings,
Rasch has created a number of interludes to link the
songs together. These interludes, written in Rasch’s own
post-Romantic voice and containing modern techniques
including glissandi and snap-pizzicati, add a whole new
dimension to the cycle, startlingly revealing its dark
undercurrents and psychologies.
‘An ingenious Jesting with Art’
John Woolrich’s long association with the Britten Sinfonia
goes back more than 15 years - first as the orchestra’s
Composer-in-Association and now as one of its artistic
advisers. Having previously arranged a number of
Dominico Scarlatti sonatas for them to perform with
percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, Woolrich has now
arranged three more for a chamber ensemble of 10 players.
Scarlatti described his numerous keyboard sonatas as ‘an
ingenious Jesting with Art’, and Woolrich’s characterful,
pungent, transcriptions of K433, K37 and K199
communicate this playful spirit with aplomb.
‘Swan Song’
An exquisite, softly-spoken tribute to Jackie and Stephen
Newbould, the departing heads of the Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group, Woolrich’s Swan Song
was premiered in June as part of a concert entitled
‘Remembering the Future’. Alto flute, clarinet, violin,
viola and cello each take up their own halting fragments of
song, and the 8-minute piece is built out of their broken
melodies, repeatedly punctuated by pregnant silences.
Woolrich and the viola
Woolrich’s masterful reworking of Monteverdi for viola
and strings, Ulysses Awakes, continues to travel the world.
The composer’s affinity and understanding of this shadowy
instrument has resulted in many works built around it –
from the recent To the Silver Bow, for viola, double bass
and strings, to meticulously imagined chamber works,
including Envoi for viola and small ensemble and the
fugitive clarinet trio A Farewell. His most extended love
letter to the instrument is his 1993 Viola Concerto.
Like Ulysses Awakes, this brooding 20-minute work
revisits music of the past, unfolding as a cycle of seven
melancholy songs-without-words. The viola sings earthily,
whist the orchestra echoes it in predominantly soft and
muted colours : flute, harp and tolling gongs. The last song
comes from Monteverdi’s madrigal O sia tranquillo il mare:
‘Whether the sea is calm or rough I will wait for you to
return’. The singer’s laments are carried away on the winds,
and the music resolves into a slow, dark rocking.
John Woolrich
Selected
forthcoming
performances
In the Mirrors of
Asleep
1-2.10.16, First Church in Boston,
Boston, MA, USA: Chameleon
Ensemble
Ulysses Awakes
16.11.16, Elgar Concert Hall,
University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, UK: 12 ensemble
21.1.17, Hall 1, Kings Place, London,
UK: Lawrence Power/English
Chamber Orchestra
Scarlatti - Sonatas
3.2.17, Milton Court, Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, London; 4.2.17,
Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, UK:
Mahan Esfahani/Britten Sinfonia
Torsten Rasch
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Violin Concerto
US premiere
17-18.9.16, Martin Woldson Theater
at The Fox, Spokane, WA, USA:
Philippe Quint/Spokane Symphony/
Eckart Preu
PHOTOS: TORSTEN RASCH © MAURICE FOXALL;
JOHN WOOLRICH AT THE PREMIERE OF HIS ‘SWAN SONG’ WITH ZOË MARTLEW, JACKIE NEWBOULD, LUKE
BEDFORD, RICHARD BAKER AND STEPHEN NEWBOULD © ROBERT DAY
17

Oliver Knussen
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Songs without Voices
16.9.16, Tonhalle Düsseldorf,
Düsseldorf, Germany: Notabu
ensemble neue Musik
15.10.16, Wigmore Hall, London, UK:
Birmingham Contemporary Music
Group/Geoffrey Paterson
Flourish with
Fireworks
6-7.10.16, Centro Cultural Miguel
Delibes, Valladolid, Spain: Orquesta
sinfonica de Castilla y León/Andrew
Gourlay
10-13.11.16, Atlanta Symphony Hall,
Atlanta; Kennesaw State University,
Kennesaw; Atlanta Symphony Hall,
Atlanta; Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall,
University of Georgia, Athens, GA,
USA: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra/
Robert Spano
The Way to Castle
Yonder
7.10.16, LG Arts Center, Seoul,
South Korea: Seoul Philharmonic
Orchestra/Antony Hermus
Where the Wild
Things Are
Brazilian premiere
8-16.10.16, Teatro São Pedro, São
Paulo, Brazil: cond. André Dos
Santos/dir. Marcelo Gama
Requiem
21.10.16, Kanazawa, Japan:
Claire Booth/Orchestra Ensemble
Kanazawa/Oliver Knussen
Ophelia Dances
Book 1
25.11.16, Wigmore Hall, London, UK:
Ensemble Modern/Jonathan Berman
Flourish with
Fireworks/The Way
to Castle Yonder/
Violin Concerto/
Music for a Puppet
Court/Symphony
No 3
24, 26.11.16, Konserthuset,
Stockholm, Sweden: Clio Gould/
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
Orchestra/Oliver Knussen
Whitman Settings/
Two Organa/Songs
and A Sea Interlude/
The Wild Rumpus
25.11.16, Konserthuset, Stockholm,
Sweden: Claire Booth/Norrköpings
Symfoniorkester/Ryan Wigglesworth
Ophelia Dances
Book 1/Ophelia’s
Last Dance/Hums
and Songs of
Winnie-the-Pooh/
Whitman Settings/
Songs without
Voices/Sonya’s
Lullaby/Requiem
27.11.16, Konserthuset, Stockholm,
Sweden: Claire Booth/Stefan
Lindgren/Ryan Wigglesworth/Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/
Christian Karlsen
Oliver Knussen
The Queen’s Medal for Music
On 20 May Oliver Knussen CBE was presented with
the Queen’s Medal for Music 2015, in a private audience
with The Queen. The presentation comes only a day after
Knussen received the Ivor Novello Award for Classical
Music. The Queen’s Medal for Music, established in
2005, is awarded to an outstanding individual or group of
musicians who have had a major influence on the musical
life of the nation. Knussen is the eleventh recipient of the
award, following the conductor Simon Halsey CBE (the
consultant editor for Faber Music’s Choral Series) who
received the Medal last year.
Commenting on the award, the Master of The Queen’s
Music Judith Weir said: ‘Greatly admired and much loved
by his musical colleagues, Knussen is both a revelatory
conductor and a masterly composer, whose work always
persuades audiences to listen carefully. With characteristic
generosity and warmth, he has supported the practice of
music in numerous ways: as a musical director of leading
festivals, orchestras and ensembles; and as an informal
adviser, teacher and friend to several generations of
musicians in the UK and further afield.’
‘Where The Wild Things Are’ in Brazil
Where the Wild Things Are, the enchanting first part of
Knussen’s double bill of fantasy operas written with
Maurice Sendak, receives its Brazilian premiere in October,
with six performances at the Teatro São Pedro, São Paulo.
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).
Stockholm Portrait Concerts
In November the music of Knussen will be the subject
of the prestigious Stockholm International Composer
Festival, with an impressive 16 works performed over four
days.
Knussen himself will conduct The Royal Stockholm
Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme that includes
the Third Symphony and his Violin and Horn Concertos,
whilst Ryan Wigglesworth and the Norrköping Symphony
Orchestra are joined by Claire Booth for performances
of Songs and a Sea Interlude and the Whitman Settings.
Christian Karlsen and members of the Royal Stockholm
Philharmonic present Knussen’s Ophelia Dances and
Requiem alongside a selection of his chamber pieces.
Horn Concerto continues to delight
‘More concert aria than concerto’ is how Knussen once
described his Horn Concerto, which, as well as featuring
in the Stockholm festival dedicated to his work, will be
performed in May 2017 by the Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra and their principal horn Felix Dervaux under
conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.
Composed for the legendary Barry Tuckwell, Knussen’s
13-minute concerto was originally envisaged in two parts,
‘Fantastico’ (a sonata-allegro) and ‘Adagio’ (variations on
a ground bass), framed and connected by cadenza-like
passages. In the process of composition, however, these
designs telescoped unexpectedly, resulting in a single
movement in which the interlocked old forms are only the
vestigial frames for a rich exploration of the horn’s many
characters, from Mahlerian Nachtmusik to moments of
clear, Mozartian brilliance.
Described as ‘a masterpiece of lucidity’ by the Guardian
the concerto has received over 80 performances since its
premiere in 1994.
Many Knussen scores, including several manuscripts,
can be viewed on the Faber Music Online Score Library:
scorelibrary.fabermusic.com
18
PHOTO: QUEEN ELIZABETH II PRESENTS OLIVER KNUSSEN WITH THE QUEEN’S MEDAL FOR MUSIC © STEVE PARSONS

TUNING IN
Julian Anderson
Peter Sculthorpe
Oliver Knussen
Selected
forthcoming
performances
(cont.)
Cantata
8.2.17, Wigmore Hall, London, UK:
Britten Sinfonia
Horn Concerto
11-12.5.17, Het Concertgebouw,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Felix
Dervaux/Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth
Julian Anderson
Selected
forthcoming
performances
University of Chicago residency
Julian Anderson has been appointed Composer-in-
Residence at the Center for Contemporary Composition
at the University of Chicago for 2016-17, a position
which involves a mixture of private teaching and lectures.
In November, The University of Chicago New Music
Ensemble will present a programme of Anderson’s chamber
works, including his Prayer for solo viola and The Bearded
Lady, the ever-popular duo (for piano with either clarinet
or oboe doubling cor anglais) inspired by the character of
Baba the Turk from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.
In other news, Anderson won the 2016 RPS Award
for Chamber-Scale Composition for his Van Gogh Blue
(published by Schott). This is Anderson’s second RPS
award to date, following the Large-Scale Composition
Award for his Book of Hours for ensemble and electronics
back in 2005.
At the round earth’s imagin’d corners
In September the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
under Courtney Lewis open their 16/17 season with three
performances of Anderson’s Imagin’d Corners – an inventive
and colourful 12-minute work designed to showcase the
orchestral horn section.
In this thrilling piece the idea of space – explored
tentatively by Anderson in several earlier pieces, like the
brief offstage horn fanfares at the end of Diptych – here it
becomes a key element. Whilst one of the orchestral horns
is seated at the rear of the stage throughout (dialoguing
with the other horns and also blending with the orchestra),
the other four players are mobile. They open the work
offstage until, following a long, slowly accelerating
interlude, they appear at the centre of the platform,
where their cors de chasse character comes to the fore. In
a final climax, the horns move to the corners of the stage
bellowing wild alphorn-style calls and cries to each other
against a jangling orchestral tumult.
Celebrating Beethoven at 250
The music of Beethoven long held a special place in the
creative imagination of Peter Sculthorpe. As early as his
1954 Piano Sonatina (composed when he was in his mid-
20s) the main musical idea of the last movement, a Rondo,
is a deliberate parody of the theme from the Rondo of
the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Elsewhere, Sculthorpe
invoked the ‘Muss es sein?’ motif from Beethoven’s String
Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 in his numerous
Quamby works.
The culmination of Sculthorpe’s fascination with this
titanic musical figure – and the perfect contemporary work
to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth
in 2020 – is his Beethoven Variations for orchestra (2003
rev. 2006). Based upon the ‘Ode to Joy’ melody from
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the work unfolds in four
movements.The first, mostly scored for strings, presents
statements and extensions of the Beethoven melody and
closes with sounds of seagulls which Sculthorpe hoped
would recall the coastal waters traversed by Beethoven’s
near-contemporary Captain Cook. The second movement,
Colonial Dance, is a spirited minor-key variation. Each
movement builds progressively towards the finale –
with the brass only being introduced in the proceeding
Chorale. In the fourth movement, entitled Colonial Song,
Beethoven’s melody assumes yet another new guise, before
returning in a more recognisable form for the work’s
conclusion.
‘The writing is characteristically polished. Whether
in the tranquil opening that sounded the essence
of pastoral calm, or in downward rushing string
glissandi, Sculthorpe’s piece seems destined for a
secure place in the repertoire.’
The West Australian (Neville Cohn), 24 November 2003
Julian Anderson celebrates his 50th birthday
in 2017. If you are interested in marking this
occasion and would like to find out more, please
contact promotion@fabermusic.com
Alhambra Fantasy
1.9.16, Stormen Concert House,
Norway: Nordnorsk Opera og
Symfoniorkester/cond. Timothy
Weiss
Imagin’d Corners
30.9-2.10.16, Jacoby Symphony
Hall, Jacksonville, FL, USA:
Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra/
Courtney Lewis
The Bearded Lady
22.10.16, Brunton Theatre,
Musselburgh, Scotland, UK: Mark
Simpson/Richard Uttley
The Bearded Lady/
Prayer/Piano Etudes
6.11.16, Fulton Hall, University of
Chicago, IL, USA: University of
Chicago New Music Ensemble
The Discovery of
Heaven
Irish premiere
14.2.17, National Concert Hall, Dublin,
Ireland: RTE National Symphony
Orchestra/Gavin Maloney
Peter Sculthorpe
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Djilile
2-16.9.16, touring 7 venues across
New South Wales, Australia:
Australian Chamber Orchestra/Meta4
Earth Cry
7.9.16, Vodafone Events Centre,
Manukau, Australia: Manukau City
Symphony Orchestra/Uwe Grodd
8.10.16, QSO Studio South Bank,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Queensland
Symphony Orchestra/Brett Kelly
Irkanda I
12.9.16, City Recital Hall, Angel
Place, Sydney, NSW; 13.9.16,
Llewellyn Hall, Australian National
University, Canberra, ACT, Australia;
15.11.16, Milton Court, Guildhall
School of Music and Drama, London,
UK: Richard Tognetti
PHOTOS: JULIAN ANDERSON WITH HIS 2016 RPS AWARD FOR CHAMBER-SCALE COMPOSITION © SIMON JAY PRICE
PETER SCULTHORPE ©MAURICE FOXALL
19

Thomas Adès
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Totentanz
18.9.16, Grosse Saal, Laeiszhalle,
Hamburg, Germany: Hamburg
Symphony Orchestra/Jeffrey Tate
3-5.11.16, Symphony Hall, Boston,
MA, USA: Christianne Stotijn/Mark
Stone/Boston Symphony Orchestra/
Thomas Adès
Violin Concerto
29.9.16, Peel Hall, University of
Salford, UK: Daniel Pioro/BBC
Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew
Gourlay
26-27.1.17, Gewandhaus, Leipzig,
Germany: Anthony Marwood/
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/
Andrew Manze
Asyla
10.10.16, Rosegarten, Mannheim,
Germany: Orchester des
Nationaltheaters Mannheim/
Alexander Soddy
26.10.16, Teatro dell’Opera, Rome,
Italy: Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma/
Paul Daniel
Chamber Symphony
8.12.16, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh;
9.12.16, City Halls, Glasgow,
Scotland, UK: Scottish Chamber
Orchestra/Robin Ticciati
Concert Paraphrase
on Powder Her Face
French premiere of duo version
12.12.16, Louis Vuitton Foundation,
Paris, France: Thomas Adès/Kirill
Gerstein
UK premiere of duo version
20.3.17, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall,
Liverpool, UK: Anderson and Roe
Powder Her Face
27-29.1.17, Lyric Theatre, Belfast,
Ireland: Northern Ireland Opera/
cond. Jan Latham-Koenig/dir. Antony
McDonald
19.3-6.7.17, Theater Aachen,
Germany: Theater Aachen/
Sinfonieorchester Aachen/cond.
Justus Thorau/dir. Ludger Engels
In Seven Days
1.2.17, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank
Centre, London, UK: Rolf Hind/
London Sinfonietta/cond. TBA
Lieux retrouvés/
Totentanz
US premiere of Lieux orchestration
10-11.2.17, Walt Disney Concert
Hall, Los Angeles, CA, USA:
Steven Isserlis/Simon Keenlyside/
Christianne Stotijn/LA Philharmonic
Orchestra/Thomas Adès
The Exterminating
Angel
UK premiere
24.4-13.5.17, Royal Opera House,
London, UK: Orchestra of the Royal
Opera House/cond. Thomas Adès/
dir. Tom Cairns
20
Thomas Adès
Boston residency
The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons
have announced the appointment of Thomas Adès as
the orchestra’s first-ever Artistic Partner for a three-year
period starting in the autumn of 2016. Adès will assume
his new position with a performance of his monumental
and critically acclaimed Totentanz, for mezzo-soprano,
baritone, and orchestra with soloists Christianne Stotijn
and Mark Stone. In what is sure to be a highlight of
the recital offerings in Boston in 2016-17, Adès will
join frequent collaborator, tenor Ian Bostridge, for a
performance of Schubert’s Winterreise. In the 2018-19
Season, the BSO will present the highly anticipated world
premiere of Adès’s BSO-commissioned Piano Concerto,
with Kirill Gerstein as soloist.
In addition to his work with the BSO at Symphony Hall,
Adès will also play a prominent role at Tanglewood, where
he will be the Director of the Festival of Contemporary
Music in 2018 and 2019.
Two more dances for Berlin
Having performed Adès’s Asyla in his first concert as
Music Director of the Berlin Philharmoniker, and
then premiering Tevot in 2007, Sir Simon Rattle has
commissioned an extension to Adès’s Dances from Powder
her Face as one of a string of new works to mark the end of
his 16-year tenure with the orchestra.
Commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker, London
Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony
Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Louis
Symphony Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, the 17-minute
Suite from Powder Her Face will be premiered in May 2017.
Meanwhile, Adès’s precocious chamber opera continues to
travel the world. 2017 will see performances in Aachen,
Belfast, Brno, Görlitz and Zittau.
The Full Score of Powder her Face
(ISBN 0-571-51995-4) is available from
fabermusic.com, priced at £100.00
PHOTO: THOMAS ADÈS © AGNETE SCHLICHTKRULL
‘Arcadiana’
Composed in 1994, Adès’s first string quartet Arcadiana is
now firmly established as part of the contemporary string
quartet repertoire, a fact backed up by the ever increasing
number of recordings. Two new interpretations from the
Danish and Varèse Quartets take the total number to seven
– a number only rivalled by the likes of Dutilleux’s Ainsi la
nuit and the Ligeti quartets.
‘The Danish players sound terrific – able to capture
the picturesque watery shimmer but also the slime
and murk below the surface.’
The Guardian (Kate Molleson), 21 April 2016
A new version of ‘Lieux retrouvés’
In March, Adès unveiled his exquisite new orchestration
of Lieux retrouvés with Steven Isserlis and the Lucerne
Symphony Orchestra. The UK premiere followed in
August with the Britten Sinfonia at the BBC Proms. The
new version adds a whole new range of colours to the
work, from the luminous opening ‘Les eaux’, the knotty
canons of the second movement, ‘La Montagne’, ‘Les
champs’ with its hushed, stratospheric solo cello lines, and
the romping cancan macabre finale.
A US premiere follows in February 2017, when the
composer will conduct the LA Philharmonic in a
programme that also includes Totentanz.
‘Mercurial and luminous, full of hidden ideas, it
conjures water, mountain and field, ending in town
with a sardonic, Offenbach-inspired can-can.’
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 21 August 2016
‘As well as being a concerto, the result might
equally be construed as a suite of character pieces,
a gentle fluidity marking out the aquatic territory
of the first, the cello rising towards a distantly
glimpsed peak in the second… Within the urban
ruckus of the fourth, the cancan achieved a comicgrotesque
and at times ghostly apotheosis.’
The Guardian (George Hall), 16 August 2016
‘Here are half-forgotten places, faint impressions.
Its hazy vision of open fields is a simple figure on
the cello that winds softly higher and higher until it
disappears into the ether.’
LSO Focus
The Financial Times (Richard Fairman), 16 August 2016
In March Adès conducted two concerts with the London
Symphony Orchestra, placing his own music alongside the
violin concertos of Sibelius and Brahms (with Christian
Tetzlaff and Anne-Sophie Mutter respectively) as well as
the Franck Symphony in D minor. The performances of
Asyla, Tevot and Polaris will all be released on the LSO Live
label.
‘The magnetic Polaris, the touching and revelatory
Brahms, and the epic Tevot. All works of richness,
heart and fantastic aural bounty.’
The Observer (Fiona Maddocks), 13 March 2016

TUNING IN
Martin Suckling
Carl Vine
Thomas Adès
Selected
forthcoming
performances
(cont.)
Suite from Powder
Her Face
World premiere of complete version
31.5-3.6.17, Philharmonie, Berlin,
Germany: Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir
Simon Rattle
‘Six Speechless Songs’
Taking its title from the final couplet of Shakespeare’s
Sonnet VIII, Martin Suckling’s Six Speechless Songs were
written for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to mark their
40th anniversary. As part of Suckling’s ongoing role as
Associate Composer with the SCO, the pieces were revived
in April 2016 with Oliver Knussen conducting.
‘It feels that every note counts and has its rightful
place… Exquisitely orchestrated – from chattering,
birdsong in the opener, mournful bells tolling across
the orchestra in the fourth piece, to the shrill piping
of two piccolos that closes the work – it covers a
remarkable range of moods and emotions, intimate
and engaging.’
‘Flutes fizzing into the stratosphere’
The Artsdesk (David Kettle), 25 April 2016
Kate Molleson (The Observer), 24 April 2016
US premiere of clarinet trio
Unveiled at the 2015 Aldeburgh Festival, then performed
in York, Leeds and London as part of a UK tour by the
Dark Inventions Ensemble, Suckling’s clarinet trio Visiones
(after Goya) received its US premiere from the Locrian
Ensemble in August. The catalyst for the 12-minute
work was a chilling image from Goya’s ‘Witches and Old
Women’ album – three persons, bound together in an
uncanny, seemingly weightless, dance. ‘There is a kind of
beauty there, I think, and elegance, and poise, and some
sweet melancholy,’ remarks Suckling, ‘but also obsession
and violence and no way out’.
Piano Concerto
As with Six Speechless Songs – and his other SCO
commission, storm, rose, tiger which takes its name
from Borges – Suckling’s latest work, a Piano Concerto,
also draws on literary inspiration, in this case the work
of Scottish poet Niall Campbell. The substantial fivemovement
work will be premiered in October, with three
performances from Tom Poster and the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra under Robin Ticciati.
Music tailor-made for dance
There seems to a natural synergy between the music of
Carl Vine and dance. Since moving to Sydney in 1975,
Vine worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a
wide variety of ensembles and dance companies and was
resident composer at both the Sydney Dance Company
and the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. He has
written 25 scores for dance to date, including Poppy, a
90-minute work for Graeme Murphy’s celebrated ballet on
Jean Cocteau.
Vine’s concert works also make ideal material for
choreographers. Most recently his Third String Quartet,
with its demonic moto perpetuo finale, was presented as
part of an evening of chamber ballets by Gareth Belling at
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Queensland.
Commissioned by the Smith Quartet and first performed
by them at the 1994 Brighton Arts Festival, this engaging
14-minute work also exists in a version for string orchestra,
Smith’s Alchemy, which receives a performance from the
National Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra at the
Huntington Estate Music Festival in November.
Smith’s Alchemy seeks to transform the individual
instruments into a single super instrument while
capitalising on their natural singing qualities – a kind
of aural alchemy. Vine comments that ‘the potential
to “share” difficult techniques across more than one
instrument has in many ways liberated the music, allowing
greater emphasis on its lyrical qualities.’
A Sixth Quartet
Crowning Vine’s substantial body of chamber music are his
string quartets, a remarkably rich collection of pieces that
span over 45 years of composition.
Having previously premiered Vine’s dark and pensive
String Quartet No. 4, the Takács Quartet will premiere
his Sixth Quartet Australia as part of Musica Viva tour
in August 2017. A US premiere is scheduled at Carnegie
Hall (who have co-commissioned the piece together with
Musica Viva and The Seattle Commissioning Club).
Martin Suckling
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Piano Concerto
World premiere
12.10.16, Younger Hall, University of
St Andrews, St Andrews; 13.10.16,
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh; 14.10.16
City Halls, Glasgow, Scotland, UK:
Tom Poster/Scottish Chamber
Orchestra/Robin Ticciati
Psalm
29.11.16, Guildhall School of Music
and Drama, London, UK: Guildhall
New Music Ensemble/Richard Baker
Flute Concerto
World premiere
3.2.17, Usher Hall, Edinburgh;
4.2.17, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow,
Scotland, UK: Royal Scottish
National Orchestra/Peter Oundjian/
Katherine Bryan
Carl Vine
Selected
forthcoming
performances
Wonders
World premiere
22,24.9.16, Sydney Opera House,
Sydney, Australia: Penny Mills/Chris
Hillier/Sydney Philharmonia Choir
& Festival Chorus/Sydney Youth
Orchestra/Brett Weymark
Five Hallucinations
World premiere
6-8.10.16, Symphony Center,
Chicago, USA: Michael Mulcahy/
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/James
Gaffigan
Australian premiere
5-6.4.17, Concert Hall, Sydney
Opera House, Sydney, Australia:
Michael Mulcahy/Sydney Symphony
Orchestra/Mark Wigglesworth
Smith’s Alchemy
25.11.16, Huntington Estate Music
Festival, Huntington Estate, Mudgee,
Australia: Australian National
Academy of Music Chamber
Orchestra
String Quartet No.6
World premiere
10-28.8.17, Perth Concert Hall,
Perth, Australia: Takács Quartet
(9 performances at venues across
Australia as part of a Musica
Viva tour)
PHOTO: MARTIN SUCKLING © MAURICE FOXALL; CARL VINE © KEITH SAUNDERS
21

NEW WORKS
Score and parts for hire
Hymn of Echoes (2016)
arrangement of ‘Hymn of Echoes’ from the Genesis Project
clarinet, piano and string orchestra. Duration c.2 minutes. Commissioned by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta
FP: 14.10.16, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Martin Fröst/Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Score and parts for hire
Incantation (2016)
arrangement of ‘Incantation’ from the Genesis Project
string orchestra. Duration c.1 minute. Commissioned by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta
FP: 14.10.16, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Martin Fröst/Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Score and parts for hire
DAVID MATTHEWS
A June Song (2016)
string orchestra. Duration 5 minutes. FP: recording on 29.8.16, Debrecen, Hungary: Kodaly Philharmonic/Paul Mann
Score and parts for hire
ANNA MEREDITH
Anno (2016)
String orchestra, harpsichord and electronics (to be performed with Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’). Duration 60 minutes.
Commissioned by Scottish Ensemble and Spitalfields Music.
FP: 6.6.16, Spitalfields Festival, Oval Space, London, UK: Scottish Ensemble/Jonathan Morton
Score and parts in preparation
Stage Works
THOMAS ADÈS
The Exterminating Angel (2015-16)
opera in three acts. Duration 115 minutes. Text: Tom Cairns in collaboration with the composer. Based on the screenplay by
Luis Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza (English)
3(II=picc+bfl.III=picc. afl).3(III=ca).3(III=bcl).3(III=contraforte or cbsn with low A) – 4(optionally doubling Wagner
tubas).3.3.1 – timp(and roto toms) – perc(4) Also 4 players offstage playing 8 church bells or bass handbells. And offstage
massed drums – 8-10 players (military drums – small portable BD or TD) – pno(6’ grand) – harp – gtr – ondes martenot –
strings (12.10.8.6.6) 8 vln (front 2 desks of both sections) also play 1/32 size violins
Cast of 22 singers plus chorus
LUCIA(S)/LETICIA(High ColS)/LEONORA(M)/SILVIA(S)/BLANCA(M)/BEATRIZ(S)/NOBILE(T)/RAÚL(T)/COLONEL(HighBar)/
FRANCISCO(CT)/EDUARDO(LyricT)/RUSSELL(BBar)/ROC(BBar)/DOCTOR(B)/JULIO(Bar)/LUCAS(T)/ENRIQUE(T)/PABLO(Bar)/
MENI(S)/CAMILLA(M)/PADRE(Bar)/YOLI(BoyTr)/CHORUS
Commissioned by the 2016 Salzburg Music Festival, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York, and
the Royal Danish Opera
FP: 28.7.16, Haus für Mozart, Salzburg, Austria: Salzburger Bachchor/ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien/dir. Tom Cairns/
cond. Thomas Adès
Score, vocal score and parts in preparation
ANNA MEREDITH
Tassel (2014)
Ballet for electric guitar, drums and electronics. Duration 9 minutes. Commissioned by The Living Earth Show.
FP: 4.8.16, San Francisco, CA, USA: Post:ballet, The Living Earth Show/chor. Robert Dekkers
Score and parts in preparation
Orchestra
THOMAS ADÈS
Lieux retrouvés (2016)
cello and small orchestra. Duration 17 minutes. 2(II=picc).1.1.bcl.1.contraforte – 1.1.1.0 – perc(2) – harp – pno(=cel) –
strings (4.4.3.1.2). Commissioned by the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Britten Sinfonia.
FP: 23.3.2016, KKL Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland: Steven Isserlis/Luzerner Sinfonieorchester/Thomas Adès.
Score and parts in preparation
FRANCISCO COLL
Mural (2015)
orchestra. Duration c.24 minutes. 2 picc.2.2.ca.2.bcl.2.2 cbsn – 4.4.2.btrbn.cbtrbn.1 – timp – perc (6) – harp – pno – strings
Commissioned by Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg & Philharmonie Luxembourg, the National Youth Orchestra of
Great Britain and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Valencia)
FP: 23.9.16, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Luxembourg: Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg/Gustavo Gimeno
Score and parts in preparation
ANDERS HILLBORG
Plainsong and Echoes (2013)
soprano saxophone (or oboe) and strings. Duration 8 minutes.
FP: 26.3.15, Eric Ericson Hall, Stockholm, Sweden: Theo Hillborg/Lilla Akademiens Stråkorkester/Mark Tatlow.
Score and parts for hire
Genesis Project (2015)
clarinet, girls choir and orchestra. Duration 10 minutes.
solo cl – solo vln - girls choir - picc.1.2.2(II=bcl).1.cbsn – 2.2.0.0 – pno – strings.
Jointly commissioned by Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, International Chamber Music Festival, Stavanger,
Norway, Oslo Philharmonic, and St Paul Chamber Orchestra
FP: 3.12.15, Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden: Martin Fröst/Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY arr. DAVID MATTHEWS
Two Pieces from ‘The Seasons’ (2016)
string orchestra. Duration 7 minutes. strings (5.4.4.3.1).
Commissioned by Scottish Ensemble. FP: 5.5.16, Is Sanat Concert Hall, Istanbul, Turkey: Scottish Ensemble.
Score and parts for hire
CARL VINE
Concerto for Orchestra (2014-16)
Duration c.20 minutes. picc.2(II=afl).2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn - 4.3.2.btrbn.1 - timp - perc(2) - harp – strings.
FP: 10.10.14, Perth Concert Hall, Perth, WA, Australia: West Australian Symphony Orchestra/Michael Stern. Commissioned by
Geoff Stearn for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
Score and parts for hire
Five Hallucinations (2016)
trombone and orchestra. Duration c.20 minutes. picc.2(II=afl).2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbcn – 4.3.3.1 – timp – perc(2) – harp - solo trbn
– strings. Co-commissioned by the Edward F. Schmidt Family Commissioning Fund for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and
by Kim Williams AM, Geoff Ainsworth & Johanna Featherstone for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
FP: 6.10.16, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL, USA: Michael Mulcahy/Chicago Symphony Orchestra/James Gaffigan.
Score and parts in preparation
Ensemble
FRANCISCO COLL
Harpsichord Concerto (2016)
harpsichord and 14 players. Duration c.10 minutes. 0.0.1(=bcl).cbsn - 0.2.0.0 - perc(1) - solo harpsichord - strings 2.2.2.2.1.
Commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia. FP: 3.2.17 Milton Court, London, UK: Mahan Esfahani/Britten Sinfonia.
Score and parts in preparation
TOM COULT
Spirit of the Staircase (2016)
ensemble of 15 players. Duration c.16 minutes.
1(=picc+bfl).1.1(=cbcl).cbsn - 1.1.1.0 - perc(1) - pno(=cel) - harp - 1.1.1.1.1.
Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, with generous support from Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner and an Elliott Carter
legacy.
FP: 1.6.16, St John’s Smith Square, London, UK: London Sinfonietta/Martyn Brabbins.
Score and parts for hire
FELIX MENDELSSOHN arr. DAVID MATTHEWS
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture (2016)
ensemble of 11 players. Duration 13 minutes. 1.1.1.1 - 1.0.0.0 - pno - 1.1.1.1.1.
FP: 5.3.16, Wigmore Hall, London, UK: Nash Ensemble/Jamie Phillips
Score and parts for hire
Vocal
FRANCISCO COLL
Ceci n’est pas un Concerto (2016)
soprano and ensemble of 15 players. Duration c.18 minutes. Text: Francisco Coll (English). 1.1.1.0.cbsn - 1.1.1.0 - perc(2) -
pno - strings (1.1.1.1.1). Commissioned by the BCMG with financial assistance through their Sound Investment Scheme.
FP: 10.12.16, CBSO Centre Birmingham, UK: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Thomas Adès.
Score and parts in preparation
Chamber
FRANCISCO COLL
Chanson et Bagatelle (2016)
trombone and piano. Duration 7½ minutes
Commissioned jointly by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Philharmonic Society as part of the New Generation Artists Scheme
FP: 19.11.16, The Venue, Leeds College of Music, Leeds, UK: Peter Moore/Richard Uttley.
Score and part in preparation
22
PHOTO: THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL © SALZBURGER FESTSPIELE/MONIKA RITTERSHAUS

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDINGS
TANSY DAVIES
Arabescos (2002)
oboe and piano. Duration 8 minutes
Commissioned by Nicholas Daniel.
FP: 6.7.02, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK: Nicholas Daniel/
Julius Drake.
Score and part on special sale from the Hire Library
DAVID MATTHEWS
Sonatina (2016)
clarinet, viola and piano. Duration c.10 minutes.
the third movement, ‘Chaconne’, was originally written for viola and piano and
commissioned by the Ida Carroll Trust. FP: ‘Chaconne’: 7.10.16, Alwyn Festival,
Blythburgh Church, Blythburgh, Suffolk, UK: Linda Merrick/Sarah-Jane Bradley/
Nathan Williamson.
Score and parts in preparation
MATTHEW HINDSON
Scenes from Romeo & Juliet (2016)
Suite for saxophone quartet. Duration 25 minutes. ssax(=asax).asax.tsax.bsax.
Commissioned by Father Arthur Bridge for Ars Musica Australis.
FP: 28.05.16, Glebe Justice Centre, Sydney, NSW, Australia: Nexas Quartet
Score and parts on special sale from the Hire Library
PETER SCULTHORPE
Sonata for Cello and Percussion (2001)
cello and percussion. Duration 12 minutes
Score and parts on special sale from the Hire Library
Instrumental
FRANCISCO COLL
Vestiges (2012)
piano. Duration 9 minutes. FP: 21.11.15 Phipps Hall, University of Huddersfield,
Huddersfield, UK: Richard Uttley.
Score on special sale from the Hire Library
ANDERS HILLBORG
Just a Minute (2016)
piano. Duration 1 minute. FP: 20.4.16, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA,
USA: Gloria Cheng. Composed in memory of Steven Stucky
Score on special sale from the Hire Library
COLIN MATTHEWS
Figures, suspended (2016)
oboe. Duration c.5 minutes. Commissioned for the 4th Barbirolli International Oboe
Festival and Competition by an anonymous donor.
FP: 8.4.17, 4th Barbirolli International Oboe Festival and Competition, Erin Arts
Centre, Isle of Man.
Score in preparation
DAVID MATTHEWS
A Love Song (2016)
piano. Duration 3½ minutes. Commissioned as part of William Howard’s Love
Song project by Neil King, for Matilda FP: 3.5.16, Leighton House, London, UK:
William Howard.
Score in preparation
PETER SCULTHORPE
Evocation (1946)
piano. Duration 2½ minutes. FP: 27.8.1946, ABC Radio, Australia: Peter Sculthorpe.
Score on special sale from the Hire Library
Choral
TORSTEN RASCH
A Foreign Field Psalm (2013)
Anthem for a cappella SATB double choir. Duration 5 minutes. Text: Psalm 91
(Latin). ‘A Foreign Field Psalm’ is an alternative setting of the Psalm which appears
in Rasch’s ‘A Foreign Field’.
Score in preparation
Zeit und Ewigkeit (2016)
a capella choir (mixed voices). Duration c.5 minutes. Text: Angelus Silesius -
‘Cherubinischer Wandersmann’ (German). FP: 17.6.16, Unerhörtes Mitteldeutschland,
Hallescher Dom, Halle an der Saale, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany: Stadtsingechor
zu Halle/Clemens Flämig. Commissioned by the Stadtsingechor Halle on the
occasion of its 900th anniversary 2016 and was supported by the Arts Trust of
Saxony-Anhalt.
Score on special sale from the Hire Library
New Publications
JULIAN ANDERSON
Fantasias
Full Score 0-571-53884-3 £24.99
GEORGE BENJAMIN
Dream of the Song
Full Score 0-571-53887-8 £29.99
ANDERS HILLBORG
Mouyayoum
Full Score 0-571-53886-X £10.99
New Recordings
THOMAS ADÈS
Arcadiana
Danish String Quartet
ECM New Series 2453
Quatuor Varèse
Nomad Music NMM033
GEORGE BENJAMIN
Dream of the Song
Bejun Mehta/Nederlands Kamerkoor/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/
George Benjamin
RCO Live Horizon RCO16003
Palimpsests
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/George Benjamin
NEOS 11422
Three Miniatures for solo violin
Diego Tosi
Solstice SOCD318
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Young Apollo
Lorenzo Soulès/Aldeburgh Strings/Markus Däunert
Linn Records CKD 478D
FRANCISCO COLL
Hyperlude IV
Jonathan Morton (London Sinfonietta)
NMC DL3019
JONATHAN HARVEY
I love the Lord; Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis; Toccata;
Come, Holy Ghost; Praise ye the Lord; Missa
Brevis; The royal banners forward go; Laus Deo; The
Annunciation
St John’s College Choir Cambridge/Andrew Nethsingha
Edward Picton-Turbervill (organ)
Signum SIGCD456
Chant
Christophe Desjardins
Winter and Winter 9102362
Adrien La Marca
La Dolce Volta LDV22
Song of June
Octopus Chamber Choir/Bart van Reyn
Etcetera KTC1529
MATTHEW HINDSON
Lament for cello and orchestra
(premiere recording) Sue-Ellen Paulsen/Tasmanian SO/Benjamin Northey
ABC Classics (available for download)
COLIN MATTHEWS
Cello Concerto No. 2; Cortège; Violin Concerto
Anssi Karttunen/BBC Symphony Orchestra/Rumon Gamba; Royal Concertgeouw
Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly; Leila Josefowicz/BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oliver
Knussen
NMC D227
DAVID MATTHEWS
Piano Quintet
Martin Cousin/Villiers Quartet
Somm Records SOMMCD 0157
ANNA MEREDITH
Varmints
Anna Meredith/Gemma Kost/Jack Ross/Sam Wilson/Oliver Coates
Moshi Moshi Records/PIAS MOSHICD67
VALGEIR SIGURÐSSON & NICO MUHLY
Scent Opera
(premiere recording) Various artists
Bedroom Community EP
23

John Harle: The Saxophone
John Harle is one of the world’s leading saxophonists. He has worked
with everyone from Michael Nyman and Sir Harrison Birtwistle to
Marc Almond and Sir Paul McCartney, and has also popularised the
instrument through his work as a respected composer, conductor,
producer and teacher. Faber Music is delighted to be publishing his
seminal work John Harle: The Saxophone, in which he offers players of
all levels an in-depth approach to mastering the instrument.
Every aspect of playing and performing is explored through the
work’s two volumes, from breathing, resonant tone production
and fluent articulation to techniques for building ease and flow in
performance. In addition there are bespoke musical exercises and
illuminating graphics, illustrations and photographs designed to
inspire every player. Practical, clear and indispensable, The Saxophone
unlocks Harle’s secrets to playing with individuality, effortless
technique and a powerful musical presence.
‘Harle’s saxophone sound has sailed through the largest
concert halls in the world like the voice of a world-class
singer – possibly as close as any player has come to the
sound of the human voice… John generously reveals all
about the saxophone in his book and offers a new direction
in playing that will resound through generations to come. It
is a work of genius from the genius of the saxophone, and is
testimony to this great player’s unique place in the history of
his instrument.’
Ashley Stafford - singer and vocal coach
‘This is the most original approach I’ve ever seen – it’s like
Einstein’s Grand Unified Theory.’
Ted Hegvik - Master Saxophonist (The Legacy of Rudy Weidoeft)
Two-volume boxed set 0571539619
£40.00 February 2017
Media & Film Synchronisation
Keaton Henson
Keaton Henson’s track ‘La Naissance’ is being used in a film
advertising the Burberry brand, to be screened and shown worldwide
over the period of a year from August. This is another pleasing
example of how well Henson’s music works in an audio-visual
context, being one of a series of significant synch licences we have
granted for the use since signing him in late 2014.
London Symphony Orchestra
Faber Music is delighted to have entered into an agreement with LSO
Live, under which we represent their extensive catalogue of recordings
for worldwide synchronisation licensing. Their catalogue is a treasure
trove of great recordings, and the first licence issued on their behalf is
for the use of Sir Colin Davis’s recording of Holst’s The Planets in an
American documentary film about climate change, How to Let Go Of
the World (and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change).
Jonny Greenwood
As ever, there continues to be a great demand for synch licences in
respect of Jonny Greenwood’s music. Early in 2016 his string orchestra
work Popcorn Superhet Receiver was used in a Netflix trailer for the hit
US TV show House of Cards. The same work has also been used in
an American black and white fantasy drama The Black That Follows.
Another work for strings, his 48 Responses to Polymorphia was licensed
for use in the Chilean film Neruda.
24
PHOTOS: JOHN HARLE © NOBBY CLARK; KEATON HENSON © ANTI

EDUCATIONAL, MEDIA AND BOOKS
New Releases from Faber & Faber
Robert Schumann’s Advice to Young Musicians
Revisited by Steven Isserlis
Robert Schumann was far ahead of his time, not least in his attitude to children and young
people. His music anticipated a multitude of trends that would spread in the 150 years after his
death; almost every major composer who followed him acknowledged his influence.
Schumann taught at Mendelssohn’s conservatory in Leipzig, and his Advice for Young
Musicians, originally created to accompany his famous Album for the Young, remains as
relevant today as when it was written. Celebrated cellist Steven Isserlis adds his own extensive
commentary to Schumann’s words of wisdom. The advice is by turns practical, humorous and
profound, making this volume a must for aspiring musicians of all ages and standards.
Hardback 9780571330911 £12.99 1 September 2016
Music for Life: 100 Works to Carry you Through
Fiona Maddocks
Bach or Gershwin, Reich or Chopin? What makes us listen to music? How do we choose?
Can music reflect the key moments in our lives? How and why does a certain piece inspire,
comfort or console? Fiona Maddocks, music critic of the Observer, selects more than a
hundred classical works, spanning ten thousand years, that have shaped her own listening.
The result is a highly personal treasury of music familiar and rare, ancient and modern, for
anyone – expert or newcomer – with curiosity, passion and a readiness to listen.
Hardback 9780571329380 £12.99 6 October 2016
Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life
John Adams
With a new foreword by the composer
A journey through the musical landscape of the life and times of John Adams, one of
today’s most admired and frequently performed composers. In Hallelujah Junction, Adams
traces his musical lineage back to the era of swing bands and to his grandfather’s New
Hampshire dance hall, where his clarinettist father met his jazz-singer mother. He evokes
his musical childhood in vivid detail, with its marching bands and small-town orchestras,
and describes his gradual evolution into one of the most important figures in American
musical culture. Not only a deeply personal memoir, Hallelujah Junction includes cogent,
incisive and witty commentaries on events and people ranging from Richard Nixon and
Allen Ginsberg to the Beatles, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, John Cage and Frank
Zappa.
Paperback 9780571231164 £12.99 3 November 2016
25

Varmints: Anna Meredith’s debut album
There’s been widespread praise for Anna Meredith’s debut album,
‘Varmints’, out on Moshi Moshi Records/PIAS. It scooped the
Scottish Album of the Year Award and has been receiving airplay
across the BBC network on Radios 1, 3, 4 and 6. In the US the
album was premiered on NPR. Meredith’s band have been touring
the album this summer with a host of live shows at major festivals
across Europe, including Glastonbury and Latitude. In November
they will give a headline show at London’s Scala and feature at the
Iceland Airwaves Festival, before going on to tour Germany.
‘Anno’, Aurora, and Bowie at the Proms
‘[It] positively bristles… Meredith should do this more often.’
The Sunday Times (Dan Cairns), 5 March 2016
‘There’s no such thing as boring in the wonderful world
of Meredith… galloping, joyful inventiveness… Visceral,
cerebral, utterly lovable.’
Q Magazine (Victoria Segal), May 2016
‘One of the most innovative minds in modern British music.’
Pitchfork (Laura Snapes), 7 March 2016
‘Hearing a leading young classical composer, regardless of
gender, leap ahead of the pack to make electronic pop that’s
both accessible and out there is something very special.’
The Wire (Katrina Dixon), 1 March 2016
‘Vibrant and kaleidoscopic in a way few musicians could ever
muster, [Varmints] provides a jolt of energy and inspiration
to both the pop and classical inflections of Meredith’s
personality, bridging the two worlds like never before and
marking her out as a talent like no other.’
DIY, 4 March 2016
‘…leaves you open-mouthed, ecstatic and wishing that both
the charts and the Proms were dominated by Meredith’s
music.’
‘A jaw-dropping debut’
The National (Alan Morrison), 10 March 2016
The Line of Best Fit (Grant Rinder), 29 February 2016
A 60-minute immersive work for string orchestra and electronics,
Anno combines Meredith’s own newly-commissioned music with
extracts from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and video installations by her
sister, Eleanor Meredith. It proved to be a highlight of the Spitalfields
Festival where it launched with four performances by the Scottish
Ensemble at the Oval Space in June and will travel to Scotland in
November, with six performances in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
A new sextet is to be unveiled by members of the Aurora Orchestra
in a concert at the Wigmore Hall, London on 24 September. The
10-minute piece has been co-commissioned by The Radcliffe Trust,
NMC Recordings, and by Wigmore Hall, with the support of André
Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann.
One of the undoubted highpoints of the BBC Proms season has
been the David Bowie Prom, a late-night event performed by
André de Ridder’s Berlin-based s t a r g a z e collective on 29 July.
Meredith was commissioned by the BBC to write two orchestrations
for the tribute: Ex Soft-Cell singer Marc Almond performed her
arrangements of ‘Starman’ and ‘Life on Mars’.
Sigurðsson premiere at Iceland Airwaves
Iceland’s largest pop music festival is to premiere a new commission
for cello and orchestra by native composer Valgeir Sigurðsson. The
Iceland Airwaves Music Festival is more used to hosting artists such
as Kraftwerk, Sigur Rós, and Fatboy Slim, but will stage the first
performance of Sigurðsson’s Struck, on 3 November in the iconic
Harpa hall. André de Ridder will conduct the Iceland Symphony
Orchestra, with cellist Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir.
Meanwhile, Scent Opera is the first release on Bedroom Community’s
new HVALREKI digital-series. The 14-minute piece was co-written
with Nico Muhly in 2009 for Green Aria: A Scent Opera, ‘an opera
for your nose’ by Stewart Matthew and perfumer Christophe
Laudamiel and premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Looking ahead, Bedroom Community will also release Sigurðsson’s
debut orchestral disc in 2017. It will include the Dowland-inspired
No Nights Dark Enough (a co-commission from November Music
and Dark Days Music, and the Spitalfields Festival), Eighteen
Hundred and Seventy-Five (commissioned by the Winnipeg SO), and
a re-imagining of Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ Quartet K 465.
26
PHOTO: IMAGE FROM ‘ANNO’ © ELEANOR MEREDITH

‘The Battle of the Somme’ tour commences
The Somme100FILM project began on 1 July, with Sakari Oramo
conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a live performance
of Laura Rossi’s score to The Battle of the Somme film, as part of
the national commemorative event at Thiepval Memorial, France.
Broadcast live on BBC Television, the remarkable event was attended
by world leaders, members of the British Royal Family, servicemen
and the public. Live orchestral screenings are now taking place
worldwide. On 18 November, (100 years since the battle ended), the
BBC Concert Orchestra and John Gibbons perform alongside the film
at the Royal Festival Hall, London, whilst overseas performances are
planned in France, Ireland, Germany, Canada and New Zealand.
The Imperial War Museum are offering the film hire free of charge
for the centenary year (up to July 2017), and Faber Music is offering
reduced hire fees. Rossi and specialist film historians can be booked to
give pre-concert talks as part of a live screening. There’s also a linked
education project with free downloadable resources for secondary
schools. The project aims to secure 100 live orchestral screenings,
and there are already over 70 confirmed. To find out more visit:
somme100film.com
Bermel portrait concerts in Germany
Jon Boden releases post-Bellowhead album
Ex-Bellowhead singer, Jon Boden, has been making solo festival
appearances this summer in preparation for a solo 14-date UK tour
in November. He’ll be performing on voice, fiddle, guitar, concertina
and stomp box in a mixture of traditional material alongside his
own songs from the albums ‘Painted Lady’ and ‘Songs from the
Floodplain’. Ahead of the tour comes the re-release of ‘Painted Lady’,
10 years after its first issue. Navigator Records are issuing it on CD,
vinyl and download, with new bonus tracks and full band versions.
A vivid L’Estrange release from Tenebrae
‘One gorgeous piece after another… a many-sided
composer with prodigious gifts.’
John Rutter
‘Approachable and highly popular yet, at the same time,
beautifully crafted and full of integrity’
Simon Halsey
US composer Derek Bermel is in Bavaria in September, where he is
Composer-in-Residence at the prestigious Classix-Kempten festival
of chamber music. Five of his works will be performed, including
four German premieres and one world premiere – a new work for
violin and piano, Over Algiers. Bermel will appear as clarinet soloist
in two of these works.
‘If music be the food of love…’
London’s Cadogan Hall hosted a Shakespearean extravaganza ‘The
Food of Love’ on 16 July, devised and conducted by Nigel Hess,
and directed by Guy Unsworth. Marking the 400th anniversary of
Shakespeare’s death, this unique programme, presented by actors
Gemma Arterton and Sir Patrick Stewart, comprised speeches,
dialogues and events from the bard’s plays over many years. Hess
conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Metro Voices and
soloist Michael Dore, in music by Walton, Stephen Warbeck, Craig
Armstrong, Vaughan Williams, Purcell and Hess himself.
Featuring stunning performances from Tenebrae, Alexander
L’Estrange’s debut sacred choral album ‘On Eagles’ Wings’ is out
now on Signum Classics. For those more familiar with L’Estrange’s
community works, this collection showcases a whole other side of his
rich output. The album launched in April with a concert at St James’s
Church, Spanish Place in London and several tracks were picked up
by Classic FM.
‘A rich, full-bottomed sound that finds the tragic mode in
various prayers for peace and the exceptional My Song Is
Love Unknown. Vivid, varied and completely satisfying.’
Choir & Organ (Brian Morton), July/August 2016
‘It’s attractive, approachable music, with nothing contrived
or patronising about it. Standouts include the New College
Service (ecstatic clustery beauty) and the simplicity of his
Panis angelicus. This is sacred music written to be used.’
Gramophone (Lis Lân), June 2016
Goodall classic presented at Carnegie Hall
Howard Goodall’s much-loved Eternal Light: A Requiem is to
receive its New York premiere in Carnegie Hall on 20 November.
As Composer-in-Residence at Distinguished Concerts International
New York, Goodall will attend this special event, which will bring
together singers from across the US and the UK. Jonathan Griffith
conducts the DCINY Singers and Orchestra.
PHOTOS: DEREK BERMEL © RICHARD BOWDITCH; JON BODEN
27

George Benjamin Scores from Faber Music
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Written & devised
by Sam Wigglesworth with
contributions from Tim Brooke
and Rachel Topham
Designed by Sam Wigglesworth
COVER IMAGE: THE
EXTERMINATING ANGEL ©
SALZBURGER FESTSPIELE/
MONIKA RITTERSHAUS
Dream of the Song
A beguiling 20-minute work for countertenor, women’s
voices and orchestra, Dream of the Song was premiered in
2015 by the countertenor Bejun Mehta, 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 the mid-
11th century, Samuel HaNagid and Solomon Ibn Gabirol
(sung by solo countertenor in English versions by Peter Cole),
and Federico García 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.
Full Score (ISBN 0-571-53884-3) available from
fabermusicstore.com priced at £24.99
Sometime Voices
A Mind of Winter
An atmospheric 10-minute setting of Wallace Stevens’s ‘The Snow Man’ for
soprano and orchestra, Benjamin’s A Mind of Winter (1981) reflects the poem’s
abundance of winter imagery – and the deep ambiguity of its meaning – in
music of striking, chilly beauty. The frozen, snow-covered terrain is depicted by
a hanging immobile A minor chord on muted strings; suspended cymbals and
divided string glissandi evoke icy gusts of wind. At the centre of the landscape
stands the solitary Snow Man – a muted piccolo trumpet – around whom the
soprano weaves slow, angular phrases whilst beholding ‘Nothing that is not
there and the nothing that is’.
Full Score (ISBN 0-571-51162-7) available from
fabermusicstore.com priced at £17.99
Sometime Voices for baritone, chorus and orchestra is a setting of Caliban’s
famous speech in Act III Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Composed
in 1996, this 9-minute work places long, forceful baritone lines above an
orchestra that drifts between an eerie tranquillity and mercurial activity.
Behind this, a chorus of spirits – sometimes benign, sometimes menacing –
invoke his name.
‘What we experience are not only the magical sounds themselves,
but Caliban’s own responses. His frissons of sensuous delight, his
bewilderment, above all – in a brilliantly achieved orchestral climax –
his inchoate terror are all musicked into being.’
The Times (Hilary Finch), 6 May 2003
Full Score (ISBN 0-571-51980-6) available from
fabermusicstore.com priced at £16.99
fabermusic.com