Elisabeth Lutyens David Bedford

SRCD.265 STEREO ADD Elisabeth Lutyens ELISABETH LUTYENS (1906-1983) Quincunx, after Sir Thomas Browne Op.4 4 (1960) * (24’14”) Quincunx for baritone, soprano and orchestra , Josephine Nendick, John Shirley-Quirk 1 Tutti 1 (2’46”) 2 Soli 1 woodwind (2’02”) 3 Tutti 2 (2’09”) 4 Soli 2 strings (1’39”) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Norman Del Mar 5 Intro : baritone (1’36”) 6 Tutti 3 : soprano (4’11”) 7 Soli 3 percussion (0’54”) 8 Tutti 4 (2’21”) 9 Soli 4 brass (2’03”) 10 Tutti 5 coda-finale (4’33”) And Suddenly it’s Evening Members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra And Suddenly it ’s Evening Op. 66 (1966) ** (23’52”) for tenor and chamber ensemble , words by Salvatore Quasimodo Herbert Handt 11 I On the Willow Boughs (5’15”) 12 II In the Just Human Time (5’22”) 13 III Almost a Madrigal (7’58”) 14 IV And Suddenly it ’s Evening (5’17”) DAVID BEDFORD (b. 1937) David Bedford Music for Albion Moonlight (1965) *** (29’10”) for soprano, flute, clarinet, melodica, piano, violin, cello , words by Kenneth Patchen 15 I So it ends (9’01”) 16 II If we are to know where we live (7’33”) Music for Albion Moonlight 17 III Lament for the makers of songs (5’35”) 18 IV Fall of the evening star (7’02”) Jane Manning (77’25”) Members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, John Carewe * Josephine Nendick , soprano ** Herbert Handt, *** Jane Manning, soprano John Shirley-Quirk, baritone tenor/director Members of the BBC BBC Symphony Orchestra Members of the Symphony Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Carewe The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one after the end. * ൿ 1969 ** *** ൿ 1970 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. This compilation and the digital remastering ൿ 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. © 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Lyrita is a registered trade mark. Made in the UK LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK www.lyrita.co.uk Notes © 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England Cover: Photograph: istockphoto.com The original analogue master recordings were made in association with the BRITISH COUNCIL. Quincunx was first released in 1969 on Argo ZRG 622 . And Suddenly it ’s Evening & Music for Albion Moonlight were first released in 1970 on Argo ZRG 638 Digital Remastering Engineer: Simon Gibson Other works by ELISABETH LUTYENS available on Lyrita: EnVoyage, suite for full orchestra Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Joly ………………………………………SRCD. 214 WARNING Copyright subsists in all Lyrita Recordings. Any unauthorised broadcasting. public performance, copying, rental or re-recording thereof in any manner whatsoever will constitute an infringement of such copyright. In the United Kingdom licences for the use of recordings for public performance may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9DE 15 Elisabeth Lutyens : Quincunx Op.44 Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 6 July 1906, the fourth of distinguished architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and Lady Emily Lytton ’s five children. After musical education at the École Normale, she entered the Royal College of Music in 1922, studying composition and the viola. Early works, subsequently withdrawn, were performed at the McNaughten-Lemare Concerts, which Lutyens co-founded. In 1932, her ballet The Birthday of the Infanta was premièred by her friend Constant Lambert, but the intensely chromatic Second String Quartet (1938) and String Trio (1939) were the first works she regarded as significant. An interest in Purcell ’s part writing and experiencing the first performance of Anton von Webern ’s cantata Das Augenlicht in London in 1938 led her to a personal brand of serialism first seen in the Chamber Concerto No.1 for Nine Instruments (1939), an innovatory British work of the period. Key post-war pieces include O saisons, o châteux! (1946), for soprano, mandolin, guitar, harp, solo violin and strings, the Sixth String Quartet (1952), the motet after Wittgenstein, Excerpta tractatus- logico philosophici (1952) and the first of four works entitled Music for Orchestra (1955), all of which display her characteristic textural economy and organisational rigour. Many of her finest compositions date from the 1960s, including Symphonies for piano, wind and percussion (1961), The Valley of Hatsu-se for soprano and instrumental ensemble (1965), the opera The Numbered (1967), Novenaria for orchestra (1967) and Essence of our Happiness for chorus and orchestra (1968). During this period she also worked on radio, documentary films and especially feature films, including Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960) and Paranoiac (1962) for Hammer and The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) for Lippert Films. In the early years of the Amicus film company, she was their ‘house ’ composer: her budget-friendly gift for creating distinctive, exotic textures with reduced forces greatly enhanced the mood of Dr. Terror ’s House of Horrors (1964), The Skull (1965), The Psychopath (1966) and The Terrornauts (1967), for example. In her last years, whilst most of her income came from television repeats of these horror 14 3 and fantasy films, she produced a steady flow of scores, notably the intense To the loss of his spirit, his reason, his world. Requiescat for soprano and string trio, in memory of Stravinsky (1971), Driving The beasts are loose, inside. out the Death for oboe quartet (1971), Rondel for orchestra (1976) and Music for Our killdom ’s crime Orchestra IV (1981). She completed Triolet I and II , epigrammatic collections of Man ’s will be done. miniatures just before her death in 1983. As he was in the beginning So shall he end, in slime. Elisabeth Lutyens was a pioneer in British music, both as a woman composer and O what is there to sing! as a serialist. Her exceptional prolificacy was achieved largely whilst raising four Man conquered everything. children and supporting her mostly unemployed husband. She is habitually Hate stares out of every face. described as a ‘miniaturist ’, but, concise though many of her works are, and The final victory is near frequently involving chamber forces, she also handled a large orchestra expertly And the baaing of the doomed as they toe and wrote effectively on a substantial scale, as evidenced by the masterly Their righteous marks in the butchers ’ race Quincunx , written between October 1959 and February 1960. Is the only sound I hear. A ‘quincunx ’ is an arrangement of five objects – four occupying the corners of a IV Fall of the evening star square and a fifth the centre. The core of Lutyens ’ design is the extended middle Speak softly sun going down movement, an intensely elegiac setting of a passage by Sir Thomas Browne from Out of sight. The Gardens of Cyrus for unaccompanied baritone voice, wordless soprano and Come near me now. full orchestra, surrounded by four other sections for orchestra. These five tutti Dear dying fall of wings as birds sections enclose four segments for single instrumental groups – woodwind, strings, Complain against the gathering dark Exaggerate the green blood in grass; percussion and brass in turn. The music of leaves scraping space; In a structure combining great strength and delicacy, Lutyens derives a rich, Multiply the stillness by one sound; luxuriant tone and a chamber-music clarity and precision from large forces. She By one syllable of your name draws the listener in to the piece with its potent emotional expressiveness and And all that is little is soon giant, satisfyingly varied textures as the melodic line passes fluently from one group of All that is rare grows in common beauty instruments to another, developing intuitively, this last quality especially apparent To rest with my mouth on your mouth As somewhere a star falls in the atmospheric coda-finale. In its tender romanticism and often pointillist, And the earth takes it softly in natural love gossamer textures, including piquant use of mandolin and guitar, Quincunx is as Exactly as we take each other and go to sleep. much a spiritual successor to the nocturnal central movements of Mahler ’s Seventh Symphony, as to Schoenberg and Webern ’s orchestral pieces. First Words printed by kind permission of Universal Edition (London) Limited performed at the Cheltenham Festival on 12 July 1962, it was critically acclaimed to a degree rarely achieved by her works. 4 13 II If we are to know where we live Elisabeth Lutyens : And Suddenly it’s Evening Op.66 I came to the house: One of Elisabeth Lutyens ’ most celebrated pieces, And Suddenly It ’s Evening It was dark. (1966) was composed for the inaugural concert of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in It was hell standing there. 1967, the most prestigious commission she had received to date. Planned as a No one answered my knock. choral work, she thought initially in terms of Monteverdi ’s madrigals, then What are they doing in my house? canzonas of Gabrielli, with their alternating, divided choirs of voices and brass, I tapped on the window. and interspersed her vocal line with contrasting blocks of sound for four brass I banged on the door. instruments and a double bass. For further contrast, she added two more They pulled the shades. They threw the heavy bolt. instrumental groups – one of harp, celesta and percussion, the other of violin, horn But I knew what they wanted and cello. Upon completion, the choir had been replaced by the more intense And I saw what I was not to see medium of a solo tenor singing four poems by the Sicilian Salvatore Quasimodo, And I heard what I was not to hear whose literary tone appealed to her.

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