julian anderson fantasias the crazed moon the discovery of heaven vladimir jurowski conductor ryan wigglesworth conductor LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA julian anderson

Julian Anderson has Orchestra’s ‘Music of Today’ series. Between been the London 2005 and 2007 he was The Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Orchestra’s Fellow. Composer in Residence since His Book of Hours (2005), a piece for ensemble 2010. Born in and electronics for Birmingham Contemporary London in 1967, he Music Group, won the 2006 Royal Philharmonic studied composition Society Award for large-scale work. His

© Maurice Foxall © Maurice Foxall with John Lambert, interest in choral music led to a BBC Proms commission, Heaven is Shy of Earth, and to his and Tristan Murail. His first acknowledged Alleluia, commissioned by Southbank Centre work, Diptych (1990), won the 1992 Royal to open the newly refurbished Royal Festival Philharmonic Society Prize for Young Hall in 2007. His work Harmony opened the Composers and his two commissions for the 2013 BBC Proms. His Thebans will be , Khorovod (1994) and premiered at in May Alhambra Fantasy (2000), have been widely 2014, and in the 2013/14 season he also performed in Europe and the USA. His other started a three-year post as Composer in most-played works include the orchestral BBC Residence at . Proms commission The Stations of the Sun (1998) and the chamber work Poetry Nearing Previously Head of Composition at London’s Silence (1997), a commission from the Nash and Fanny Mason Ensemble. Professor of Music at Harvard University, Julian is currently Professor of Composition and From 1996–2001 Anderson was Composer Composer in Residence at the Guildhall School in Residence with the chamber orchestra of Music & Drama. Sinfonia 21; from 2000–05 he was Composer in Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; and in 2002 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Philharmonia introduction

This CD is the product of my first years as Fantasias (2009) is the product of my period Composer in Residence with the London as Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow Philharmonic Orchestra, a post I began in with The . The Crazed October 2010. Working closely with a major Moon (1997) was written on commission international orchestra is always the greatest from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. privilege and joy of a composer’s life. One The Discovery of Heaven is the most recent learns so much, and communication with both piece on the disc, and was composed for the whole orchestra and individual players is the London Philharmonic Orchestra on joint fluid and flexible in a way not possible in the commission with the New York Philharmonic. normal run of things. A deeper collaboration The LPO’s great sympathy for this new with the chief conductor – in this case the piece was immediately evident at the first splendid Vladimir Jurowski – also becomes performance under the brilliant composer/ possible over several seasons. Above all, the conductor Ryan Wigglesworth in March 2012, living composer is no longer a mere spectre which is preserved on this CD. at the orchestral feast, but is integrated into orchestral life in a regular and productive way. I would like to express my warmest thanks to the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s I have been very fortunate to experience such Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Timothy residency posts with various orchestras both in Walker; to his incredibly supportive team (led the UK and the USA. The London Philharmonic by Graham Wood) who have all aided this Orchestra residency has embodied these association very consistently; to the wonderful benefits in plenty. I have much enjoyed the editing team at Floating Earth; and above all opportunities this post has afforded me: to the performers on this recording who have collaborating in detail with the LPO players, done such a splendid job with these pieces. both on their wonderful interpretations of my previous orchestral works, and on newly Julian Anderson, August 2013 composed pieces.

FANTASIAS

Fantasia I Presto ♩=160 The first Fantasia is for brass alone, and is Fantasia II ♩=92 generally fast, athletic and polyrhythmic. Fantasia III Dolcissimo notturno ♩=46 The second Fantasia is deliberately unstable: Fantasia IV Molto allegro ♩=140 every few bars it changes direction abruptly. Fantasia V Prestissimo ♩=152 As the ideas accumulate, continuity gradually builds up but the movement disperses into Commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra with echoes of itself before it can really cohere. the generous support of Jan R. and Daniel R. Lewis. The third movement, by contrast, is at First performance: 19 November 2009, first stable to the point of being almost Severance Hall, Cleveland, USA: The Cleveland motionless – a meditative nocturne in several Orchestra/Jonathan Nott. simultaneous layers. Very slow, almost motionless string textures (using techniques Whereas most of my previous orchestral pieces such as bowing with excess pressure to were in one continuous movement, this work is produce a creaking sound, or else bowing with in five separate movements of varying length. very little pressure) are heard against fast As suggested by the title, the form of each but strangely distant polyrhythmic fanfares movement is unpredictable, featuring sudden on wind and some brass, mainly using ideas changes, inserts from other movements, from the opening Fantasia. Longer and calmer silences, or other features that cause the music melodic lines and ideas emerge from time to to alter its course in terms of timbre, texture, time. The movement stops suddenly twice. harmony, polyphony or rhythmic layering. When it resumes a third time, the formerly distant fanfares have become suddenly very Several players double on instruments tuned a loud and wild. quarter-tone below normal pitch. This expands the range of harmonic colours available – the The extremely fast fourth Fantasia is as aim is not to sound out of tune – and is only compressed as possible, lasting barely two used in a few special passages in the piece minutes. The maximum number of musical (for example at the end of the fourth Fantasia), events is forced into as small a span of time to give a new tint to the orchestral texture. as possible. The movement ends twice: a final assertive chord is destabilised at once the crazed moon

by a second conclusion that is much more Commissioned by the BBC. uncertain. First performance: 20 July 1997, Cheltenham International Festival, Cheltenham Town Hall, The final Fantasia is the longest, and is the only UK: BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Tadaaki movement to proceed largely in a continuous Otaka flow. It starts with the last harmony of the opening brass movement and varies ideas from This piece takes its title from a poem by all movements, eventually uniting them into a W. B. Yeats, in which he describes a frightening long continuous line heard three times in a row vision: ‘Crazed through much child-bearing / near the end. The conclusion is disrupted just The moon is staggering in the sky.’ This image, before the end by an insert looking back into combined with the disturbing lunar eclipse the rich string textures of the third movement. seen in March 1996, provided the starting Whether fast or slow, Fantasias is a celebration point for a work for orchestra lasting about 14 of the modern symphony orchestra. minutes, in one continuous movement. The other factor determining the funereal mood of Fantasias is dedicated with affection, the work was the sudden death in September admiration and gratitude to my publisher Sally 1995 of a composer and friend, Graeme Smith, Cavender at Faber Music, for her tireless energy at the age of only 24. This piece is dedicated to in promoting contemporary music. his memory.

The work opens with distant fanfares for three , emphasising the pitches G and E-flat (‘Es’ in German) – a reference to the initials (G. S.) of the dedicatee. The full orchestra then enters hesitantly, uncertainly, in the lowest register. The music gradually unfolds a long, slow harmonic progression, which is broken off before achieving completion. A change of direction ushers in bells, and harps tolling the pitches G and E-flat, against which the discovery of heaven

a sequence of lamenting melodic figures Commissioned by the London Philharmonic descends on woodwind and high strings. Orchestra with kind support from The Boltini As these lines accumulate in considerable Trust and the Britten-Pears Foundation, and polyphonic density, the music swerves violently the New York Philharmonic (Alan Gilbert, Music into far more volatile and hectic textures, Director). before launching into the long central plateau First performance: 24 March 2012, Royal of the work. Each layer simultaneously plays Festival Hall, London, UK: London Philharmonic its own variants of a basic melodic line, with Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth. up to 30 different variants heard at once. Each new phrase of this heterophony is greeted by The Discovery of Heaven is a work in three dissonant fanfares on high wind, brass and movements, of which Parts 2 and 3 are played bells. The final phrase accelerates and, as it without a break. The two starting points were does so, the heterophony is gradually shut the novel of the same name by Dutch writer off as the orchestra combines into a unison. Harry Mulisch (1927–2010); and the ancient This collapses dramatically – as it were, Japanese court music known as gagaku – in the moment of eclipse – greeted by baying particular one of the best-known pieces in fanfares on brass. There follows a series of gagaku repertoire, called Etenraku, which chorales. The final chorale is the most complex: literally means ‘music coming from heaven’. two chorales unfold simultaneously on wind Harry Mulisch’s novel is a wild, almost out of and strings, producing greater harmonic control epic of a book. What attracted me to richness than anything else in the work. Just it was the vast scope of its narrative, its ability before this we hear a new chord from the to move suddenly from a panoramic view of harmonic sequence begun at the orchestra’s time to quite specific real events, some from first entry. Following the final chorale, recent history. Meanwhile, elements from this chord sequence is finally brought to gagaku influenced my textures and harmonies completion, and the distant fanfares – especially the glistening sound of high, return to conclude the work as a pedal E fades clustered chords in doubled multiple octaves in the double basses. on the sho mouth organ, which floats above most gagaku pieces like an image of heaven. These things influenced my piece but my music is not in any way programmatic, nor is it rhythms range from delicate and refined to an attempt to imitate gagaku. It must stand on the most raucous, with shifts between these its own terms. often happening without warning. At first rather fragmentary, the musical atmosphere The Discovery of Heaven is dedicated to cumulatively becomes shrill and near chaotic, Jonathan Harvey. This performance won a 2012 with strong rhythmic figures evoking a street South Bank Sky Arts Award in the Classical party or perhaps a protest. This music topples category. over into:

Part 1: An Echo from Heaven. This music Part 3: Hymns. The orchestra plays two comprises mainly very short or very long notes, musics: very broad, lyrical, hymn-like sustained with little between these two extremes. The melodies on the brass and strings; and a wide predominate, often playing breathy variety of dense or unpitched accents and or gliding sounds inspired by Japanese noises – debris from the previous movement, technique. Repeated, glisteningly high chords perhaps – centred around percussion, which on wind, string harmonics and sometimes spreads to other instruments playing in bells evoke the sound of the Japanese sho unorthodox ways. A violent struggle ensues: mouth organ, with its multiple octaves. Various the noises try at all costs to stop the melodic harmonic areas are explored, with a sudden lines. The more the melodies are attacked, confrontation between three of them near the more they expand, blossoming into two, the end. The texture thins drastically at the then three or four parts, as they accelerate. conclusion. Eventually a wild unison melody based on the opening of the first movement spins at top Part 2: In the Street might evoke the speed across the entire range of the orchestra. sensations experienced whilst walking a busy The slow coda offers a fresh perspective: street in a modern metropolis – perhaps Paris previous ideas combine with new harmonies or Amsterdam – passing by buskers, shoppers, and figures. But any resolution is avoided, and pamphleteers, poets, dancers, protesters the work ends uncertainly. etc, all vying for one’s attention. The melodic lines, polyphonies, harmonies, sounds and Julian Anderson VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor (Fantasias; The Crazed Moon)

Vladimir Jurowski the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03), was born in Moscow, Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian but in 1990 moved National Orchestra (2005–09), and Music with his family to Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera Germany, where (2001–13). he completed his musical studies at Vladimir Jurowski has appeared on the podium the High Schools of with many leading orchestras in Europe Music in Dresden and North America including the Berlin and

© Chris Christodoulou and Berlin. In 1995 Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, the Royal he made a highly successful debut at the Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philadelphia Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s Orchestra, the Boston and Chicago symphony May Night, which launched his international orchestras, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, career. Since then he has been a guest at some the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the of the world’s leading opera houses including Staatskapelle Dresden. the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Opéra Bastille de Paris; Welsh National Opera; The London Philharmonic Orchestra Dresden Semperoper; Komische Oper Berlin; has released a wide selection of his live and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. recordings on its LPO Label, including Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Mahler’s Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Rachmaninoff’s Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Symphonic Dances; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Orchestra in 2003, becoming the Orchestra’s 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred; and works by Turnage, Principal Conductor in 2007. He also holds the Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and titles of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Haydn. Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. He has also held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997–2001), Principal Guest Conductor of ryan wigglesworth conductor (The Discovery of Heaven)

Established as one appeared both as conductor and composer in of the foremost 2013, conducting the opening concert of the composer-conductors festival with Britten Sinfonia and composing of his generation, a new orchestral work for the centenary of Ryan Wigglesworth . 2014 sees a return to the was named The Hallé Orchestra to conduct the UK premiere of Cleveland Orchestra’s his Concerto with Barnabás Kelemen. Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow in Ryan Wigglesworth’s compositions

© Benjamin Ealovega 2013. The Orchestra include three works for the BBC Symphony gives the USA premiere of his work Sternenfall Orchestra: Sternenfall (2007); The Genesis in spring 2014 conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. of Secrecy (2009), commissioned for the In 2012 Wigglesworth was appointed Composer BBC Proms and premiered by Sir Andrew in Residence at English National Opera. Davis; and Augenlieder, first performed by soprano Claire Booth in 2009. A First Book In the opera house, recent conducting of Inventions (2010) was premiered by the highlights have included Detlev Glanert’s Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Caligula, Bizet’s Carmen and Mozart’s Così fan his Violin Concerto, for Gordan Nikolić and tutte for English National Opera; and Harrison the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, was Birtwistle’s The Minotaur for the Royal Opera premiered in Amsterdam in 2012. Current House, Covent Garden. In the concert hall, commissions include a song-cycle for tenor recent and forthcoming collaborations include Mark Padmore and an orchestral work for the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester (Berlin), the Born in Yorkshire, Ryan Wigglesworth studied Residentie Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra at New College, Oxford and the Guildhall of Europe; and appearances both as conductor School of Music & Drama. He was a Lecturer at and pianist with the Bergen Philharmonic Cambridge University and a Fellow of Corpus Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. For Christi College from 2007–09. the Ryan Wigglesworth London Philharmonic orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is known it presents its main series of concerts between as one of the world’s great orchestras with September and May each year. In summer, the a reputation secured by its performances in Orchestra moves to Sussex where it has been the concert hall and opera house, its many Resident at Glyndebourne Festival Opera for award-winning recordings, its trail-blazing 50 years. The Orchestra also performs at venues international tours and its pioneering around the UK and has made numerous tours education work. Distinguished conductors to America, Europe and Japan, and visited India, who have held positions with the Orchestra Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Australia, since its foundation in 1932 by Sir Thomas Oman, South Africa and Abu Dhabi. Beecham include Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its Klaus Tennstedt, Franz Welser-Möst and Kurt first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three Masur. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the days after its first public performance. It has Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor in March recorded and broadcast regularly ever since, 2003 and became Principal Conductor in and in 2005 established its own record label. September 2007. These recordings are taken mainly from live concerts given by conductors including LPO The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, Resident Symphony Orchestra at Southbank through Haitink, Solti and Tennstedt, to Masur Centre’s since 1992 and there and Jurowski. lpo.org.uk © Patrick Harrison © Patrick Also available: contemporary composers on the LPO Label

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For more information or to purchase CDs telephone +44 (0)20 7840 4242 or visit lpo.org.uk/recordings julian anderson (born 1967)

24:28 Fantasias World premiere recording

01 3:19 Fantasia I 02 5:01 Fantasia II 03 6:31 Fantasia III 04 2:14 Fantasia IV 05 7:23 Fantasia V

06 13:54 The Crazed Moon

20:50 The Discovery of Heaven World premiere performance and recording

07 6:31 Part 1: An Echo from Heaven 08 7:15 Part 2: In the Street – 09 7:04 Part 3: Hymns

vladimir jurowski conductor (Fantasias; The Crazed Moon) ryan wigglesworth conductor (The Discovery of Heaven) london philharmonic ORCHESTRA Pieter Schoeman leader

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, London

LPO – 0074