Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Humoresques, Opp. 87 & 89

NORS S. JOSEPHSON Celestial Voyage

FENELLA HUMPHREYS violin BBC NATIONAL OF WALES GEORGE VASS conductor Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) Violin Concerto, Op. 47 Humoresques, Opp. 87 & 89 Nors S. Josephson (b. 1942) Celestial Voyage Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47 Fenella Humphreys violin 1. Allegro moderato [16:34] BBC Naonal Orchestra of Wales 2. Adagio di molto [8:55] Nick Whing leader 3. Allegro, ma non tanto [8:12] George Vass conductor Humoresques, Op. 87 4. Humoresque I: Commodo [3:46] 5. Humoresque II: Allegro assai [2:20]

Humoresques, Op. 89 6. Humoresque III: Alla gavoa [4:24] 7. Humoresque IV: Andanno [3:32] 8. Humoresque V: Commodo [3:12] 9. Humoresque VI: Allegro [3:26]

Nors S. Josephson (b. 1942) 10. Celesal Voyage [8:52]

About Fenella Humphreys: Total playing me [63:16]

‘Strong-toned, easy fluidity and immaculate technique’ Gramophone

‘Golden precision and effortless virtuosity’ The Scotsman Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto never clapped eyes on a vast, fir-tree- in D minor, Op. 47 surrounded Finnish lake at dawn with the mist resng over it, this music would be As spellbinding concerto openings go, painng something similar in your mind’s Sibelius pulled some proper magic out of eye; and it was exactly this quality, heard the bag for the first few bars of his Violin in previous works such as the tone poems Concerto in D minor: orchestral and , which by 1902 had alone, mutes on and split four ways, rocking already won Sibelius status as his country’s back and forth over pairs of notes from foremost composer; not least because it the D minor triad, one group undulang offered the a much-needed cultural onto a note as another undulates off it, all identy at a me when they sat under the of which conjures up a soly shimmering, rule of the Russian Empire. It also expectantly hovering world over which the represented a world which was about to solo violin then floats out a coolly mysterious, save Sibelius from himself. In 1900 he and harmonically ambiguous, long-lined his wife Aino had lost their youngest child melody beginning in its upper registers, to typhoid, aer which his always-heavy answered briefly in kind by a single low, drinking transformed into a darker and dark . financially ruinous alcoholism. This was reaching crisis point by the me the That’s a lot of nuts and bolts score concerto was being penned, fuelled by the analysis with which to begin a supposedly constant temptaons of living in , accessible sleeve note, but in this instance but thankfully Sibelius knew this too. it feels more than warranted given the So, shortly before he finished the degree to which those exquisite first few concerto in early 1904, he bought a moments represent a perfect disllaon plot of land for a new family home of everything to be celebrated about this close to Lake Tuusula, where he could concerto. Also indeed about Sibelius be both inspired and protected by nature. himself as he began work on it in 1902, in his late thires. Equally important is the opening’s celebraon of the violin and its colourisc capabilies, For starters, there’s the degree to which because Sibelius knew and loved this these bars evoke Finland’s natural landscape instrument with a passion, to the extent and ancient folklore. Indeed even had you that his original career plan hadn’t been as a composer at all, but as a virtuoso making on the violin wring, because to use of the darker, more elemental-mbred, roll of mpani, before the violin enters violinist, before studies at Helsinki say that Sibelius the Frustrated Virtuoso brooding instruments. Take the way the with a tender, sensual, long-lined theme Music Instute revealed composional didn’t hold back on pung the soloist first movement cadenza concludes not with which is accompanied by a four-part chorale talents that outstripped his violinisc through their paces is something of an the full orchestra crashing in, but instead from the horns, combined with gentle ones. In fact the concerto’s very understatement, and not simply in terms with a dark creeping in to entwine pluckings from the and . existence feels like a minor miracle of the technical challenges presented by itself into the soloist’s dark recasng of the in itself – that far from leng this its outer movements – feats such as double- opening floang theme. Or earlier on, The highly rhythmic and energec finale disappointment drive an eternal wedge stopping in octaves, or the formidable before the cadenza, when the violinist then mirrors the folk-dance flavour heard between him and his instrument, he fingering, bowing and intonaon level suddenly finds itself fighng in the dark, in the violin concertos of Tchaikovsky, instead went on to gi to it with the required of its many rapid, leaping passages. its fast, leaping and falling figuraons Brahms, Beethoven and Bruch, while also only concerto he would ever write, and There’s also the issue of how to hold securely played out against a hushed, menacing being a disnctly darker and heavier indeed throw himself into the process and musically to your lines through orchestral sllness from slowly snaking low beast, especially with its off-kilter as much as a violinist as a composer. textures that oen give you lile to hold and , underpinned by held notes syncopaons. Certainly you can hear why ‘Janne has been on fire…’ wrote Aino onto from either a rhythmic or melodic from rumbling mpani, horns and double the tweneth-century musicologist Donald at the beginning of 1904. ‘He has perspecve. What’s more, the version we bass. In the context of this being only Tovey described it as ‘a polonaise for polar such a multude of themes in his head know today is slightly easier than what three years before Mahler would premiere bears’. For the solo violin, it’s a sink-or-swim that he has been literally quite dizzy. He Sibelius first premiered in 1904, when an his ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ – so named technical fireworks display, swooping and stays awake all night, plays incredibly unconvincing soloist, and the realisaon because of the number of performers diving at speed from its highest to its beaufully, cannot tear himself away that the score needed ghtening up, demanded of its lavish scoring – this was lowest registers by means of double-stopping, from the delighul melodies.’ prompted him to replace it with a 1905 disnctly counter-cultural. pizzicato and glissandi, with no lifelines revision. coming from the orchestra’s direcon, Moving on from those first bars, the That lucid, colouriscally-genius scoring is right up to the triumphant finish where it violin is also placed centre stage in the Then, while the work’s mighty orchestral then directed towards enrely different eventually climaxes on one triumphant, concerto’s unusual first movement tu climaxes sound very much of their ends for the Adagio – a movement which, sforzando high D, joined in affirmaon by structure, because whereas the soloist’s Romanc-era me, it’s also full of strikingly while it carries the odd note of darkness, unison horns, strings and mpani. cadenza would usually fall near the end – lucid chamber-weight passages which is ulmately an unabashedly ardent love where its funcon is chiefly one of themselves pull an equal dramac punch, leer to the violin. This opens with a hushed Jean Sibelius: Two Humoresques, Op. 87 & virtuosic display – this one instead falls especially for Sibelius’s harnessings of the pair of clarinets, whose wisully rising and Four Humoresques, Op. 89 at the movement’s middle, actually various instruments’ ranges and mbral falling figure in thirds is imitated by a pair taking the musical argument forwards colours to his theatrical advantage. of , before a further, suddenly In terms of solo violin wring, the concerto by acng as a sort of solo development asserve upwards reach from the oboes appears to have largely scratched the itch secon, albeit one sll high on virtuosity. We’ve already discussed the shimmering is affirmed by the two flutes. However, this for Sibelius for the following decade. However, Indeed virtuosity is the final point worth violins at the opening, but there’s also his is soon tempered by the hushed, brooding 1915 saw a sudden flurry of works for solo violin and piano, with his Four Pieces, Op. 78 leer was a slightly bier one, connected to (completed 1919), Six Pieces, Op. 79, Sonana feeling under-appreciated by audiences in E, Op. 80, and Five Pieces, Op. 81. It also saw outside Finland). a dream, recorded in his diary, that he was a twelve-year-old concerto soloist. So perhaps On to the detail, and the first, leisurely- it was inevitable that the following year he tempo’d opening Humoresque feels almost began work on a second work for violin and like a fond backwards glance to the concerto. orchestra – his Six Humoresques, completed Firstly due to its D minor tonality. in 1917, which as with the concerto Secondly due to its scoring, because required a formidable level of technique. while this is the only one of the set which features the full orchestra, as with the Although these miniatures are spread over concerto it’s the upper strings alone who two opus numbers, this was actually a mistake. are tasked with seng the stage for the In reality they were conceived as a set and soloist, albeit this me lower down and intended to be performed as a whole; and with the violas also in the mix, matching while each can stand on its own, when the darker and more sultry tone we then heard as a group they do end up sounding hear from the soloist entering on their surprisingly akin to a sort of mini concerto, lowest string. From here, there’s a despite there being no themac haunng, shadowy melancholy to the connecons between them. soloist’s capricious lines, accentuated further by an oeat lilt created by As for the broad brushstrokes of their sound combining a three-beats-to-a-bar me world, on the one hand, their charming, signature with unusual phrase lengths. gossamer-weighted whimsy very much hits the classic brief for a humoresque, of a We lose the woodwind for the fast second lively, capricious piece. However, there’s Humoresque, which is a virtuosic tour de also a thoroughly Sibelius-flavoured Nordic, force for the soloist, with its mercurially folkloric darkness to their dainness, swirling semiquavers, leaps between its complete with the violin wring itself oen highest and lower registers, and fast having a folk-fiddle quality to it, which brings alternaons of bowed and plucked notes. to mind Sibelius’s own descripon of himself Also striking are further shadows of the – in a leer of 1910 – as ‘An apparion from concerto. For instance there’s more of the woods’ (much as the context of that the key of D – officially major-tonality this me, but fling impishly into minor and by sustained chords from the clarinets and Indeed, the violin was beginning to take traits or mannerisms while composing the modal territories. There’s also the ghost bassoons, before perkily chugging strings off into the stratosphere! piece. of the concerto’s second, strident theme spark a buoyantly carefree and hummable in its strong oeat rhythms. melody from the violin, whose virtuosies In my professional career I had taught © 2021 Nors S. Josephson include a leap up to its very highest registers rock n’ roll and in this genre, there was a The lively strings-only third Humoresque to imitate whistling. special type called Space Rock, which Acknowledgments in G minor then opens with a disnctly emerged in late 1960s psychedelic and otherworldly, elfin nge thanks to some Clarinets drop out for the darng and progressive rock bands. Perhaps I took Sincere thanks to genius scoring – orchestral violins alone mercurial number six, whose rhapsodic ducks the music of David Bowie and other Nors S. Josephson once more, but this me split six ways and dives from the violin are underpinned famous rock composions as my reference George Steven and uering delicate glissando gasps. To by an orchestral perpetuum mobile. Sll, for this work. In programmac terms my Edward Clark this Sibelius then adds an anque-y dance despite the cking urgency and the partner, Olga, was envisioned to be suite quality by casng as a gavoe, with Humoresque’s climacc posion in the shoong through outer space in a rocket Recorded in associaon with the its lied step. set, its ending is both sudden and vising the outer edges of our galaxy. United Kingdom Sibelius Society whispered – as though the fairy-tale When she reached the perimeter, she www.sibeliussociety.info The G minor fourth is likewise a strings-only creatures have melted back into the woods. wanted to return home but the way back affair, but now in dreamily introspecve, was tortuous. She finally makes it back Produced in associaon with BBC Radio 3 tender and melancholic mode, with © 2021 Charloe Gardner and, in jubilaon, I wrote a cadenza for and the BBC Naonal Orchestra of Wales more harmonic ambiguity. Sll, while the soloist to express my happiness for the tempo is slowed and the Nors S. Josephson: Celesal Voyage her safe return. I dedicated Celesal Voyage accompaniment one of sustained chords, to Olga. the violinist doesn’t get a break. Instead I was agreeably surprised to be asked to it’s a tale of rhapsodic shis between write a work for violin and orchestra. I was Perhaps something subliminal rose in me long lines and fast figuraons, bowed a violinist and played in in the when I discovered that my work would and plucked notes, leaps and double-stops. USA so had acquired a working knowledge share this recording with Sibelius. My father The violin’s final bar is delicious – three of the violin’s technical possibilies. My was Swedish and my grandmother had dark pizzicato quavers out from which spring inial reacon was that I would need me hair so could very well have come from three bowed, leaping puck-like harmonics. to consider what to write but, in fact, ideas the Far North. My music may share certain came freely and Celesal Voyage took only characteriscs with Sibelius (I have, aer all, For the fih we’re dropped instantly and a few weeks to complete in 2019. published extensively on Sibelius), but I was unmistakably into the forest via a swooping, unaware of this possible connecon unl I minor-keyed cuckoo call from the violinist, As the piece evolved in my mind, I knew heard the work in rehearsal. It was not on answered by the flutes and underpinned I was dealing with contrasng sonories. my mind to include any of Sibelius’s musical Fenella Humphreys (violin) and Marn Love, and is regularly invited As a guest conductor he has worked with from such eminent composers as Sally by to take part in Open ensembles including the BBC Naonal Beamish, Marn Butler, Gabriel Jackson, Winner of the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Chamber Music at the Internaonal Orchestra of Wales, the Bournemouth Paweł Łukaszewski, David Mahews, John Instrumental Award, violinist Fenella Musicians’ Seminar, Prussia Cove. Fenella Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, McCabe, Cecilia McDowall, Paul Paerson, Humphreys enjoys a busy career combining can also be found playing Tango with the Royal Scosh Naonal and Ulster Joseph Phibbs, Robert Saxton, Peter chamber music and solo work. She has great Uruguayan bandoneonist, Héctor orchestras, Amsterdams Promenade Sculthorpe, Huw Watkins and Hugh Wood. broadcast for the BBC, Classic FM, and Ulises Passarella. Orkest, Konzertensemble Salzburg, London German, Canadian, Australian and Korean Mozart Players, Malmö Opera Orchestra, Recent highlights include a crically radio and TV. Her teachers have included Sidney Griller the choirs of Royal Holloway, Merton acclaimed recording of James Francis Brown’s CBE, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Ida Bieler and College Oxford and Schola Cantorum choral and orchestral music for Resonus A champion of new and unknown music, David Takeno, studying at the Purcell Oxford. He has broadcast for BBC Radio Classics, Sweeney Todd at Darngton and a number of eminent Brish composers School, Guildhall School of Music and 3 and Channel 4 television. the much-lauded premiere of Joseph Phibbs’ have wrien works for Fenella. During 2014/ Drama and the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule chamber opera Juliana at the Cheltenham 15 she premiered a set of six new solo violin in Düsseldorf graduang with the highest Vass has made over thirty commercial Fesval. works by leading Brish composers aainable marks. Fenella plays a beauful recordings for Duon, Champs Hill, Guild, including Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Sally Beamish violin from the workshop of Peter Guarneri of Lyrita, Naxos, Resonus Classics, SOMM George Vass is an Associate of the Royal and Sir , with Venice, kindly on loan from Jonathan Sparey. and Toccata Classics. Academy of Music, was chair of the Brish performances at Aldeburgh, and the St Arts Fesvals Associaon from 2014 to 18, Magnus and Presteigne fesvals. She has George Vass (conductor) Founder Arsc Director of Nova Music he was presented with the 2018 BAFA been fortunate to record these works on Opera, he premiered Thomas Hyde’s That Exceponal Service Award for his outstanding two crically acclaimed discs for Champs Hill Described by BBC Radio 3 as ’the saviour of Man Stephen Ward (2008; revival in 2015), contribuon to the UK fesval sector. From Records, both discs chosen by BBC Music contemporary classical music’, respected Sally Beamish’s Hagar in the Wilderness 2016 to 2019, he served the Royal Society of Magazine as Instrumental disc of the month English conductor George Vass studied at (2013), Stephen McNeff’s Prometheus Musicians of Great Britain as a governor and (October 2015 and January 2017) with five- the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Drown’d (2014), Cecilia McDowall’s Airborne treasurer, and in 2017 was given a BASCA star reviews, and the second also picked as the Royal Academy of Music, London. He (2014), Charloe Bray’s Entanglement (2015) Gold Badge Award marking his support for Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. was appointed Arsc Director of the and Joseph Phibbs’ Juliana (2018). Having the UK song wring and composing internaonally renowned Presteigne Fesval also conducted Brien’s Curlew River community. Concertmaster of the Deutsche in 1992. Vass made his professional (Hampstead and Highgate Springfest, 2009; Kammerakademie, Fenella also enjoys guest conducng debut at St John’s Smith Square Nova Music Opera, 2013) and Holst’s leading and direcng. As a chamber musician, in 1979 and, as Arsc Director of the Savitri (English Music Fesval, 2010). she has collaborated with arsts including Regent Sinfonia of London and Orchestra Alexander Baillie, Adrian Brendel, Pekka Nova, has appeared at many of the UK’s major Over the last quarter-century he has Kuusisto, Nicholas Daniel, Sir John Tomlinson concert halls and fesvals. commissioned and premiered new work More titles from Resonus Classics BBC Naonal Orchestra of Wales Nors S. Josephson (composer) : The Music of Jean Sibelius For over 90 years, the BBC Naonal Born on 14 July 1942 in Palo Alto, California, Chamber Domaine, Thomas Kemp Orchestra of Wales has played an integral USA, Nors S. Josephson received his PhD in RES10205 part in the cultural landscape of Wales, Historical Musicology at the University of ‘A dignified account of the occupying a disncve role as both a California, Berkeley in 1970. He worked as concludes a disc that [...] unquestionably has broadcast and naonal symphony orchestra. Assistant Professor in Music at Smith College, something distinctive to say’. Massachuses (1971–75) and subsequently Gramophone Part of BBC Wales and supported by the Professor of Music at California State Arts Council of Wales, it performs a busy University, Fullerton (1975–92). schedule of live concerts throughout Wales, the UK and the world. The orchestra is an In 2004, he published a large essay in Archiv Thomas Hyde: That Man Stephen Ward ambassador of Welsh music, and champions für Musikwissenscha on the sketches and Damian Thantrey, Nova Music Opera Ensemble, contemporary composers and musicians. dras for Sibelius’s Eighth Symphony. George Vass RES10197 The orchestra performs annually at the In addion, his compleons of Bruckner’s BBC Proms and biennially at the BBC Ninth Symphony (recorded by the Aarhus ‘The vocal performance is a tour de force from Cardiff Singer of the World compeon, Symphony Orchestra under John Gibbons) Damian Thantrey [...] This troubled episode in and its concerts can be heard regularly and Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina are such highly original treatment is enthralling across the BBC – on Radio 3, Radio Wales published by Carus Verlag and Peters Edion. and sympathetic.’ and Radio Cymru. Lark Reviews As a composer, Josephson has a substanal BBC NOW works closely with schools and catalogue. His St Mahew Passion, for © 2021 Resonus Limited music organisaons throughout Wales soloists, choir and orchestra was premiered è 2021 BBC / Nova Music Trust Limited. The copyright in the recording is jointly owned by the BBC and the and regularly undertakes workshops, on Good Friday 2015 by Mozartchor Speyer Nova Music Trust. BBC Radio 3 and The BBC National Orchestra of Wales word marks and logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and used under licence. BBC logo © BBC 1996. side by side performances and young and the Heidelberg Kantatenorchester under Recorded in BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff on 29–30 January and 24 February 2020 composer iniaves to inspire and Dieter Hauß. Producer & editor: Adam Binks encourage the next generaon of Engineer: Dave Rowell performers, composers and arts leaders. Executive producer: Edward Clark Session photography © Resonus Limited Recorded at 24-bit/192kHz resolution

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