2CD SET CD2 the Angry Planet the ANGRY PLANET an Environmental Cantata BOB CHILCOTT (B

2CD SET CD2 The Angry Planet THE ANGRY PLANET An Environmental Cantata BOB CHILCOTT (b. 1955) Part 1 1 I. 6pm [4.42] 2 II. As if [2.15] 3 III. Yellow Eye [2.34]

CD1 Part 2 4 I. Remember [4.57] Five Days that Changed the World 5 II. 9pm [4.46] 1 Thursday 29 March 1455: The Invention of Printing [2.43] 6 III. Green Rain [2.18] 2 Friday 1 August 1834: The Abolition of Slavery [5.46] 3 Monday 14 December 1903: The First Powered Flight [2.17] Part 3 4 Friday 28 September 1928: The Discovery of Penicillin [4.22] 7 I. Midnight [5.48] 5 Wednesday 12 April 1961: The First Man in Space [4.16] 8 II. We need [1.57] 9 III. 3am [6.31] BBC Singers, Finchley Children’s Music Group 0 IV. Sorry too late [0.59] Soloists: Gemma Beeson piano, Markus Gruett timpani Part 4 The Miracle of the Spring q I. Peppermint freckles [3.14] 6 Where Water Waits [2.18] w II. 6am (Lutra lutra) [2.42] 7 The Source of The Spring [3.48] e III. Perhaps [3.56] 8 To Sing of Water [1.22] 9 The Desert [2.02] BBC Singers, The Bach Choir, The Young Singers 0 The Voice of Water [4.38] London Youth Choir, Finchley Children’s Music Group Soloist: Emma Tring soprano BBC Singers Soloists: Olivia Robinson soprano, Eleanor Minney alto Total timing CD2: [46.48] Nigel Charman & Markus Gruett percussion Total timings: [80.27]

Total timing CD1: [33.39] BBC SINGERS • THE BACH CHOIR • THE YOUNG SINGERS LONDON YOUTH CHOIR • FINCHLEY CHILDREN’S MUSIC GROUP DAVID HILL CONDUCTOR www.signumrecords.com Five Days that Changed the World something that could be embraced and enjoyed also made me understand the importance of The Angry Planet was commissioned by The The Miracle of the Spring without prejudice, and without reference to a giving young people the opportunity to take Bach Choir in 2011 and first performed as part The Angry Planet perception of intellectual rigour or historical part in collective performance, whatever their of the BBC Proms in 2012. The text for this expectation. I found this to be very inspiring age. By doing this they become artists at the work, and also for the other two works recorded The three pieces recorded on this CD are all and immediate in terms of motivating a love point at which they take part and this, in my here, is written by the poet Charles Bennett, pieces written for, or pieces which include, of singing and showing how the voice can view, must be celebrated and enjoyed at that with whom I have collaborated on a regular young singers. I first wrote music specifically connect us deeply to our own culture, to our moment in time. basis since 2009. David Hill had the idea to for young singers in 1994, when the conductor own language, and ultimately to a curiosity that commission a piece for The Bach Choir, The Jean Ashworth Bartle asked me to write for can lead to the desire to understand and It is a particular pleasure for me that this BBC Singers, a youth choir, and a choir of her choir, the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the embrace a love of a wider musical heritage. recording has been motivated principally by children on the subject of the fragility of our Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, and players from David Hill, The BBC Singers, and The Bach world and on our need to respect and care for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I went to the I have never been keen on looking back, but Choir. David Hill is a musician who has shared our environment. The title was his, and it was concert in the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto over the past 18 years as a composer and his immense musical gifts with all types of on this theme that Charles Bennett developed before Christmas 1994 and the performance for conductor I have been privileged to conduct tens musicians from the inexperienced amateur to the scenario of a forest at night, a place me was a revelation. I discovered a world where of thousands of young singers in my own music the consummate professional. I have known that here is chosen to depict this fragility. fine musicians and teachers were mentoring and the music of many other living composers the BBC Singers for nearly 40 years now, Through the course of the four sections of young people to love singing and teaching in what is to me a surprising number of firstly as an ad hoc and staff singer, and the piece, each one representing a three-hour them to sing to the highest level. I was drawn countries: the United States, Canada, Brazil, since 2002 as Principal Guest Conductor. The period of night time, the concept of loss and into this world principally as a composer but Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Singers are a group of talented, intelligent, fracture is depicted and traced through the also, at first reluctantly, as a conductor. I loved Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, warm, and funny people who promote good voices of creatures in danger of extinction. the energy that the young singer had to give South Africa, Israel, Russia, South Korea, Japan, singing with such spirit and grace. They have, This is articulated at various points in the and found that their expression of singing, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. This through their own outreach work, quietly piece by the mixed youth choir in an exaggerated words, stories, and melody was a natural fit for made me realise that wherever one comes mentored a large number of young singers spoken style – through the voice of the what I had to give as a composer. I was drawn from, learning to connect with one’s own all over the country in a positive and giving slow-worm, the wildcat, and the horseshoe into an arena that embraced different musical voice can have a deeply visceral effect on how way for more than ten years. The Bach Choir bat, culminating in the voice of the corncrake styles in a way that was not judgemental, a one understands the beauty of what it is to has also developed a very energetic and chanting a litany of animals that have world that was open and energetic. It also, if express, to be vulnerable, and to share with positive outreach programme and it is thanks become extinct through time. The children’s one got it right, drew a composer into a others the mutual sense of how it feels to to them that the groundwork for my piece The choir, meanwhile, punctuates these movements place where the ultimate reward was to write connect with one’s own emotional centre. It Angry Planet was so skilfully realised. with simple songs in which they play the role

- 4 - - 5 - of hardy weeds and flowers that, despite so choir and upper-voice choir and I added timpani I am very grateful to David Hill, to The Bach advocates for choral music in the world, who much loss, have managed to survive. As to the piano accompaniment so the bass of Choir, The BBC Singers, The London Youth has done his job for a good many years with morning comes we see the signs of new life the piano would have a chance of balancing Choir, The Young Singers, and Finchley unfailing commitment, enthusiasm, knowledge, depicted by an otter with young, leaping with a large number of voices in the louder Children’s Music Group for their work and and wisdom, and with a modesty that makes through water. The work is brought to a close and stronger parts of the piece. commitment to the realisation of this him deeply respected worldwide by people in an atmosphere of tentative optimism as recording. I am very proud to see this come who love choral singing. He has also, most the young singers respond like a flock of birds The Miracle of the Spring was composed for to life as a project which brings these different importantly, along with The BBC Singers, given to the question “Can we learn how to live with the choir of Magdalen College School in Oxford kinds of singers together as one. I am also voice and support to so many composers in this world?” with the answer, “Perhaps”. in 2013. The Director of Music, Jon Cullen, grateful to my friend Charles Bennett whose Britain, and in doing so has enabled them had previously performed a work of mine, The wonderful poems give me the motivation to to contribute positively to the choral energy Five Days that Changed the World was written Making of the Drum, for choir and make them become sung words. Finally, I that we have in this country. for the Worcester International Festival for percussion, some years earlier with the choir want to acknowledge the BBC Singers’ Young Singers which took place in the Summer of Latimer School in North London, where he Producer, Michael Emery, one of the great Bob Chilcott, 2015 of 2013. The brief was to write a piece on a was then Head of Music, and he wanted a unifying theme which could be sung by piece from me that might inhabit a similar 400 young singers from 11 different countries, sound-world. Charles and I decided to write performed as the culminating piece in the a piece on the theme of water. Charles had final concert in Worcester Cathedral. On an previously shown me a poem he had written, earlier trip to Barcelona where I worked with a and the idea seemed particularly pertinent to number of children’s choir conductors, I heard me after a trip to the United States where the of a work written by the Catalan composer whole theme of shortage of water had been Antoni Ros-Marbà, based on five things that very much part of the conversation. The unified children’s lives, and this gave me the relatively simple percussion parts, designed in impetus for the theme for our piece. Charles the first instance to be played by the singers, and I came up with five events in history that depict the flow of water through the use of mark we perceived had had a global unifying effect tree and glockenspiel, and the dryness of on our world, and these formed the basis for the ground through a pair of log drums. the poems that Charles wrote. Three of the pieces were designed to be sung with mixed

- 6 - - 7 - cd1 • Five Days that Changed the World Charles Bennett

1 1: Thursday 29th March 1455: 2 2: Friday 1st August 1834: 3 3: Monday 14th December 1903: 4 4: Friday 28th September 1928: The Invention of Printing The Abolition of Slavery The First Powered Flight The Discovery of Penicillin

Chorus: The quick brown fox. Quick brown fox. Sometimes a piece of paper. A thought can learn to fly if you give it wings. Green/blue. It was green/blue. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. A piece of white paper. I said to Orville Perhaps. I happened upon it. Stumbled across it. Can set a person free. Just a few words. Maybe if perhaps we might possibly try. It wasn’t supposed to be there but there it was. I saw them walking like footprints in the snow. A few words written in black ink And we did. And it was. Difficult. Sometimes you find what you’re looking for Saw them walking into houses all over the world. on white paper. Can set a nation free. Where you never thought it would be. Open the door of the eye and let them in. Below us the ground was green Sometimes one person. and heavy with failure. Thrown away. It was nearly thrown away. I saw each letter. Saw each letter like a person. One good person. Ready to break our fall. I clettered the dishes. Washed the pots. Z was lonely and E was everyone’s friend. Can set a nation free. Just a few words. But a thought will fly sometimes if you give it I thought there was something wrong I watched them gather together into words. A few words written on the open page wings. but it turned out right. of the human heart. Can set a people free. I said to Wilbur Why not? Sometimes where you never thought it would be I knew if I took the letters one by one. There’s what you’ve been looking for all along. Knew if I held them tight in forty-two lines. Give me the good words. Most everything that could went wrong before. Holiday. Just back from holiday. They could speak to everyone everywhere. Make me the right person. But it pulled us up in the end. Give me a piece of paper to set me free. We said to each other Let’s toss for who goes first. It was meant to be. Serendipity. What went wrong had gone as right as rain. In the beginning there were footprints over the page. Pure words written on my open heart. And we did. And it was. Glorious. Sometimes what you’re looking for will find you. The footprints of a fox who jumps. Just a few words can set me free. Sometimes what seems wrong was right all Into your eye and over the lazy dog. We carried it back to the top of Kill Devil Hill. How many times? I forget. along. But we did and it was and it is Green/blue. It was green/blue. and there you have it. I hope you find what you’re looking for. Sometimes a dream will fly. Hope what you’re looking for finds you.

- 8 - - 9 - The Miracle of the Spring Charles Bennett

5 5: Wednesday 12th April 1961: 6 Where Water Waits 7 The Source of The Spring 8 To Sing of Water The First Man in Space If I follow a white cloud, In the bed of a dried-up river The desert opens its mouth I saw how beautiful our planet is. one white cloud in a blue sky, I found a broken boat to sing of water, Seventeen thousand miles an hour. perhaps I’ll find the place swept away by floods as if the sand was asking They thought I might go mad. where water waits. and stranded there. to be a beach. But I saw the face of God. Or maybe the cactus wren Today I’ll repair its hull Once, a lake was here: The son of a carpenter circling round the Earth. who drinks from white blossom, and heal the gash under the surface are fish I saw how beautiful our planet is. will show me where where its floating made out of stone, April twelfth nineteen sixty one. the flower of water opens. was eaten by a stone. but still swimming. Stars are the alphabet of God. If I sip the burning air Tonight I’ll make an oar Go down deep enough, One hundred and eight minutes. as if it were a question from a desert tree and you’ll find the place Can it be that you have come from outer space? perhaps I’ll learn to taste and row myself to sleep where a wave Well yes and I’ve seen something beautiful. the smell of water. by following a star. is waiting to break. Keep this beauty safe and let it grow. At night the brilliant stars Tomorrow I’ll drift on a lake Under our feet is a sea, Stars are the smile of God. are raindrops in heaven. and go wherever I’m taken I feel it call in my blood His face was the Earth looking back. Each of them ready to fall until in the end I find as if I were a fish Five hundred and twenty people as the light of water. the source of the spring. who longed for the ocean. Have seen how beautiful it is.

- 10 - - 11 - 9 The Desert 0 The Voice of Water

I went to the desert Under these rocks because I was so dry I hear the voice of water I knew the sand and rock speaking a cool language would be like my skin. beneath these scorching stones.

I came to the desert The soft voice of water because I wanted to taste asking if I am thirsty, water that fell as rain how can it know I am dry where the light was young. as an autumn leaf?

I stayed in the desert O water rush to touch me, because I learned its name gush and dash in streams. was a drop which washed me O let me hear the tears clear of all my days. a mountain cries.

I became the desert O water speak to me now because I wanted you to come and I’ll listen by drinking. and let me show you O let the voice of water what it means to drink. sing in my mouth!

- 12 - - 13 - CD2 • THE ANGRY PLANET Charles Bennett

First Movement 1 6pm 2 As if 3 Yellow Eye

By an English wood one evening as I rested, As if our only gift We open a yellow eye into the sun. where fields come down to drink from a green river is to break and shatter and crush; When our lashes blow away and blackbirds bring the dark in with their song, to grub the orchard up we are dimpled moons or bald old men gone blind. a slenderness swayed and curved of its own accord and rip the hedgerow out, We point the neat arrows of our leaves like a stream the grass gave way for – as if they were a curse or else a blight in all directions at once and there was the blunted stem of a lowly slow worm: as if they were unsightly: because we intend to be everywhere.

There’s a taste of silence in the grass – we have come to hack Our roots go down to the first days of Earth, like a winter we never wake up from, the tree of England down, we flew our seeds where all the world is emptied of us forever. haul its root away before the invention of birds.

And the field was suddenly thronged with a great crowd, and sell it for firewood. Although you do not like us looking for something they’d lost and could not find Tonight we’ll be warm and besides we are here to stay. and sorry, sorry, sorry too late as always. it was already rotten. In time we shall grow over you completely.

- 14 - - 15 - Second Movement 4 Remember 5 9pm 6 Green Rain

Remember those islands, those islands When Venus was the only sail in a blue ocean By ditches and fallen fences we gather together the waves washed over? Where were they? and the wood was a doze of shadow, biding our time Can you remember? a sleekness crept towards me out of the trees until we have taken over the whole field.

What happened to those and soft as falling snow a wildcat came: We love whatever’s broken or left behind. who lived there? It’s water You have planted a sharp darkness We mend the skin under the bridge. as if you were growing a knife to cut your children. of earth where it’s cut and hurt.

It’s water over our heads. Wherever you tread the ground has grown sour, Trying to put things back to how they were A land that’s drowned forever. the wind is bitter with your breath. we fall like green rain. If only we had a raven, When Man comes walking everything runs away. Thriving on nothing but sunlight. we could send him out And the leaves of the trees were small dark tears – Our reach exceeds your grasp. until he came back with an oak leaf. as if the wood and all the woods of the Earth Leave us alone or else If only we had a dove. were crying themselves to sleep. our kisses will give you goosebumps.

- 16 - - 17 - Third Movement 7 Midnight 8 We Need 9 3am 0 Sorry too late

When I woke it was midnight in the wood. This wood is in the way. I was woken at three by the creaking call of the corncrake, We have followed too much Above my head a webbed stretch of darkness Give me a hand a croak or click from the throat of Crex crex: the devices and desires of our hearts. hung a high note on the edge of hearing – and we’ll put it to sleep forever. I am broken and hoarse from reciting a register of the dead, The flowers are felled under concrete. a horseshoe bat, in tune to his own music: Chainsaws whine and howl of those who can no longer speak for themselves: We have done those things I hear the glacier break, the ice-cap creak as the forest dies: the Heath Hen and Bushwren, the Barbary Lion, those things we ought not to have done. beneath a polar bear. I hear the thrum and judder, it’s all in a day’s work. the Laughing Owl and Golden Toad, The ocean is smirched with oil, the whine and howl as the whole world wails. What good is a forest anyway? the Bali Tiger, Caspain Tiger, Javan Tiger, motorways thrum and judder. You have smudged the light and made the We need more land, Paradise Parrot, Passenger Pigeon, Pyrenean Ibex, We have left undone those things darkness pale: we need more food, the Tasmanian Wolf, Wake Island Rail, Thicktail Chub, we ought to have done. be silent now and learn how to listen to the Earth. we need, we need, we need. the Palestinian Painted Frog, the Western Black Rhinoceros... The whole world wails. And all around me corpses came from curbsides Now the forest has gone He called all night and their names were numerous as stars. We are sorry too late as always, came to nests and burrows they’d left behind, how quiet it is! Requiem aeternam. Lux perpetua. Sempiternam requiem. and there is no health in us. lay down, and fell asleep for the last time.

- 18 - - 19 - Fourth Movement q Peppermint Freckles w 6am (Lutra lutra) e Perhaps

We’re printing the form of our faces on the meadow, At dawn I walked down to the river – We’re standing with one foot in winter and the other in spring. peppermint freckles in rolls and spills and ripples of fresh light Turning the clocks forward smelling of fresh air and clear skies. a loose-limbed otter lost himself in water: makes the stars grow older by an hour.

In a blink of years we’ve seen the sun grow old. I am Lutra lutra, the cat who swims for fish. In the middle of dark and dark we take our time. We’re neat and untidy I am slender and lithe and thrive in a long romp. As if we were stood on a see-saw and like to repeat ourselves. I’m a curl, a flip, a slippery slink, a slosh. and felt the summer tilt its weight of light.

We echo the sun in our centre I am Lutra lutra, the dog who barks in darkness. Winter’s a cloud in the shape of a question above us. with a dab of lemon; I am laughter in water, overflowing. It smears the morning sky we twinkle in sprinkled constellations. My pups in the holt are more of me tomorrow. and will not fade until we have found an answer.

You all look the same to us. And I found I was flowed through and flowed into, The seesaw lifts and dips as we wonder to ourselves: We’ll be keeping an eye as if I swam in a river of pure light can we learn how to live with this world? when you can’t see us anymore. filled with the green breath of a day’s beginning. Perhaps, the sparrows sing, perhaps, perhaps.

- 20 - - 21 - BBC SINGERS Basses Marianne Laker Kathy Heald Kate Livesey Anna Shiel Michael Bundy * Susie Laker Patricia Hole Eva Mason Rosie Sinden-Evans Sopranos Stephen Charlesworth * Lucy Lee Diane Hume Anna Munks Zoe Thomas Ildiko Allen Charles Gibbs Sue Macdiarmid Lucy Johnson Cynthia Neaum Tessa Trench Juliet Fraser * Edward Grint + Helen May Ashley Jordan Christine Notley Freda White Jessica Gillingwater Jamie W Hall + Frances McConnell Sarah Keen Becky Palmer Anne Willcocks Micaela Haslam Jimmy Holliday Marian Needham Eleanor Nicholls Annegret Pelchen-Matthews Naomi Wordsworth Helen Neeves Tom Oldham Elizabeth Norris Julia Palmer Clarissa Poulson Elizabeth Poole Andrew Rupp + Lucie Robathan Alice Parry Claire Schlinkert Tenor 1 Olivia Robinson John Ward * Helen Sinclair Linda Penney Raelene Stanley-Ware Andrew Baines Emma Tring Emma Sparrow Christine Rowling Hannah Strange Alex Churchill * The Angry Planet only Lydia Whitehorn Rebecca Tabor Joanna Sullam Andrew Daniels Altos + Five Days that changed the World and Rebecca Wright Christine Tate Juliet Telford Paul Houston The Miracle of the Spring only Joanna Bywater Marina Theodoropoulou Sophie Timms Peter Johnstone Margaret Cameron Soprano 2 Angela Waters Harriet Ward Tim Leates THE BACH CHOIR Rebecca Lodge Shamariah Bennett Penny Whittingham Rachael Williams Derek Matthews Sian Menna Clare Boyd Jan Whittle Tom O’Reilly Soprano 1 Cherith Millburn-Fryer Ellie Bacon Sarah Bradley Alto 2 James Rhodes Eleanor Minney Helen Baxter Rosie Bradshaw Alto 1 Ros Bagshaw Julia Blinko Clare Brigstocke Theresa Allen Morag Bushell Tenor 2 Tenors Maggie Bloor Ali Carter Amanda Barron Ruth Crease Julian Briant Christopher Bowen Maggie Boucherie Gaynor Coules Harriet Creamer Frances Elmslie Alex Carpenter Edward Goater Derrianne Byrne Hester Crombie Helena Dean Dorothy Geary-Jones Mark Dancy Stephen Jeffes Jane Crowther Kate Dawson Sophie Dobson Moyra Gregory Mike Harman Robert Jenkins Kate Faber Katharine Dell Marion Gaskin Katherine Hodgkinson Andrew Millinger Robert Johnston Laura-Jane Foley Alix de Mauny Ruth Harris Caroline Knight Alec Swan * Andrew Murgatroyd Lily German Fern Dickson Annie Ingrassia Ruth Nash Clive Tulloch + Tom Phillips Victoria Henderson-Cleland Anne Francis Pam Johnson Katharine Richman Richard Vincent Esther Kippax Angela Hall Kristiina Leong Helen Rycroft

- 22 - - 23 - Bass 1 Robin Hirsch Mimi Henbrey LONDON YOUTH Izzie Mitchell Clara Evans Mark Anderson Chris Lemar Denzil James CHOIR Rosie Needham Valli Fazzolari Chris Atkinson Andrew Lockley Rosanna Kateley Antonio Oliveira Emilie Geissmar-Wagstaff Simon Bloomfield Alex Philpott Deborah Kapinga Sophie Adams Emily Owen Alessio Grespi Ian Collins David Picton-Turbervill Wynsee Lau Maia Bear David Pfeiffer Evie Guenault Shane Connolly Andy Pincock Caira Lazarus-Clarke Luisa Boselli Alcock Florence Pope Lily Guenault Eddie Creamer Sean Rees Lucie Magniant Hannah Beynon Alex Saikia Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse Paul Cutts Tony Reiss Ava Martin Allen Botsford Hannah Snaith Jenny Hayes James Fleury Michael Sanders Fionnuala McMenamin Shayanne Campbell Isabelle Tett Rojin Kiannejad Peter Floyd Trevor Sandford Sarah Moposito Daniel Cecile Sara-Lily Waite Stephanie Lever Jim Godwin Stefanos Mulugeta Llewellyn Cross Luana Williams Liam Lichy-Lightman Kevin Grafton THE YOUNG Lale O’Reilly Poppy Edwards Smith James Wilson Sarah Meth Martyn Heald SINGERS Lweji Padre Alice Geronzi Jamie Wright Imogen Morris William Hess Rene Pascall Bethany Graves Florence Price Nick Hodsman Eddie Atkinson Asia Phillips Madeleine Hale FINCHLEY Matthew Price Simon Kent Jules Bertrand Reza Pirbhai Anthony Harris CHILDREN’S Eve Rhodes Tim Lewers Genevieve Breen Shadrach Roden Ellie Haston MUSIC GROUP Joshua Russell Don Rowlands Jessica Careless Eleanor Robinson Dorothy Holter Hoskins Isabelle Selina James Ryan Sinead Carlin Madeleine Sanchez Katherine Hurwitz Lily Archer Caitlin Sellis John Speyer Chantai Chatterton Josephine St. Croix Neha Khanderia Harriet Ball Drew Sellis John Stanton Peter Cuffy-Underwood John Sierra Miranda Catherine Kisby Sarah Bandy Caity Shaw Tom Tate Sam Dearlove Yara Niroukh Lucy Lambert Madeleine Baron Chloe Ward Michael Wallace Areanne Denzo Natnael Tadesse Tara Mann Sibylla Baron Sadie Ward Gareth Williams Anna Doyle Sophie Tripp Clara Marshall Cawley Prudence Carter-Phillips Zara Woolf Luisa Fischelt Elissa Yazbeck Sarah Maxted Jack Chambers Maisie Young Bass 2 Rebecca Foster Eva-Marie Weintraub Ben Meyer Emily Chen David Brook Maya Gizachew Amber Worboys Sayers Gawain Moody Natalie Dalcher Richard Crook Ananya Govinderajan Hannah McNaboe Erica De Martini Jamie Gairdner Iain Hinlo Cameron Mitchell James Dillon

- 24 - - 25 - BOB CHILCOTT The BBC Singers and 200 primary school children from London. Described by the Observer newspaper as “a contemporary hero of British choral music”, He has written a number of substantial sacred Bob Chilcott has grown up immersed in the works including Salisbury Vespers (2009), St choral tradition of his country. He grew up as a John Passion (2013) for Wells Cathedral Choir, chorister and choral scholar at King’s College, and his Requiem (2010) which has now been Cambridge, and after singing professionally performed in over 16 countries. In 2013 he in London and also as a member of the vocal wrote The King shall rejoice for the service group the King’s Singers for a number of at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the 60th years, he became a full-time composer in Anniversary of the coronation of Her Majesty 1997. He has embraced his career with energy Queen Elizabeth II. and commitment, not only producing a large catalogue of music for all types of choirs, but In June 2014 he began an 18-month term as also working with singers and choirs in more composer-in-residence for the Washington © Vicki Alhadeff than 30 countries. DC-based choir Choralis as part of their 15th His music has been recorded extensively and anniversary season celebrations. The season there are a number of albums dedicated to his It was perhaps through his many works for features a number of his works and concludes music, including “Man I Sing” (2007), “Making young singers that he first came to prominence with the première of Gloria in December 2015. Waves” (2008), “Requiem” (2012), “The Seeds as a composer, prompting some large-scale of Stars” (2012), “Everyone Sang” (2013), “The performances of his pieces, particularly Can Over the past 18 years Bob has worked with Rose in the Middle of Winter” (2013), and “St you hear me? in BC Place in Vancouver in 2001 many thousands of singers in Britain through John Passion” (2015). His music has been with 2000 singers and at the Estonian Song a continuing series of Singing Days throughout recorded by many leading British choirs and Festival in 2004 with 7000 young singers. the country. Between 1997 and 2004 he was ensembles including The Sixteen, The Cambridge This led to several other large-scale projects conductor of the choir of The Royal College of Singers, Tenebrae, The BBC Singers, The Choir including notably The Angry Planet, written Music in London, and since 2002 he has been of Wells Cathedral, The Choir of King’s College, for David Hill and The Bach Choir for the Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers. Cambridge, and The King’s Singers. 2012 BBC Proms, which was performed by The Bach Choir, The National Youth Choir,

- 26 - - 27 - BBC SINGERS The BBC Singers perform all over the UK and With nearly all concerts broadcast on BBC heritage is as rich as it is diverse. Directed by Chief Conductor David Hill abroad, working regularly with the BBC’s own Radio 3, the BBC Singers have the highest David Hill, one of the country’s most eminent Principal Guest Conductors Paul Brough and orchestras as well as a number of period- broadcast profile of any choir. conductors and choir trainers, The Bach Choir Bob Chilcott instrument and contemporary music ensembles, regularly performs and records across London This world-class ensemble is committed to Conductor Laureate Stephen Cleobury and they play an important role in the BBC and the UK in prestigious venues, from the sharing its enthusiasm and creative expertise Associate Composer Judith Weir Proms each year. The ensemble performs Royal Albert Hall to Abbey Road Studios, and regularly in St Paul’s Knightsbridge, St Giles’ through its nationwide outreach programme. undertakes concert tours all over the world. The BBC Singers hold a unique position in Cripplegate and Milton Court in London. This includes frequent collaborations with British musical life. Performing everything schoolchildren, youth choirs and the amateur With a strong commitment to new music, The from Byrd to Birtwistle, Tallis to Takemitsu, The BBC Singers give frequent performances choral community, as well as with the Bach Choir has commissioned works from their versatility is second to none. The choir’s with Chief Conductor David Hill, Principal professional composers, singers and conductors some of the world’s leading composers including unrivalled expertise in performing the best of Guest conductors Paul Brough and Bob of tomorrow. Regular events include a series Sir John Tavener, Jonathan Dove and Carl contemporary music has brought about creative Chilcott as well as Conductor Laureate Stephen of Come and Sing days open to amateur singers. Rütti. The Angry Planet was commissioned by relationships with some of the most important Cleobury. Judith Weir, the newly-appointed To find out where you can see the BBC Singers The Bach Choir from Bob Chilcott, and given composers and conductors of the 20th and Master of the Queen’s Music, was announced live and for tickets, visit bbc.co.uk/bbcsingers. its world premiere by the Choir, along with 21st centuries, including Poulenc, Britten, Judith as the BBC Singers’s Associate Composer in You can also sign up for our e-newsletter on our the BBC Singers, the National Youth Choir, and Bingham and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. January 2015. homepage. Follow us: @bbcsingers, facebook. over 200 children from Outreach projects com/bbcsingers undertaken by The Bach Choir and the BBC, in the Royal Albert Hall in August 2012, as THE BACH CHOIR part of the BBC Promenade concerts. The Bach Choir’s pioneering Outreach work in London Founded in 1876, The Bach Choir is recognised schools, in partnership with the Tri-Borough as one of the world’s leading choruses, building Music Hub, has led to the formation of The upon a tradition that combines musical Young Singers, an auditioned choir of excellence with creativity and innovation. talented children, who have performed with The Bach Choir in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, From the first performance in Britain of Bach’s and in the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Mass in B minor to the soundtrack for Ridley Psalms for Leo. Scott’s epic Prometheus, the Choir’s musical © Mark Allan

- 28 - - 29 - Together with David Hill, The Bach Choir has talented primary school singers. The Young LONDON YOUTH CHOIR at the BBC Proms in 2014 with the CBSO in a built up an exciting discography of English Singers made their debut at the Royal Festival Chorus Master Esther Jones performance of Britten’s War Requiem; taking music, including Howells’s Hymnus paradisi Hall in June 2014 alongside The Bach Choir part in the RPO/John Rutter Christmas concerts and Stabat Mater, Vaughan Williams’s and the Philharmonia Orchestra, singing at The Royal Albert Hall and Fairfield Halls; Sancta civitas and Dona nobis pacem, David Berlioz’s Te Deum and the world premiere singing with the London Mozart Players at Matthews’s Vespers, and a disc of music by of a new work by Jonathan Dove, Psalms St. John’s Smith Square, and joining with the Charles Villiers Stanford, for release in 2016. For Leo, conducted by David Hill. BBC Singers and The Bach Choir in this recording of Bob Chilcott’s The Angry Planet. www.thebachchoir.org.uk The Young Singers were the finale performers LYC also commissions new music and has for the Music For Youth Primary Prom at the The London Youth Choir (LYC) encompasses worked with a number of guest conductors. THE YOUNG SINGERS Royal Albert Hall in 2014. The choir sang young people aged 8-21 years within 5 different the children’s choruses in Orff’s Carmina choirs: Girls’ Choir, Boys’ Choir, Training The LYC also has a training programme Burana with The Bach Choir at the Royal Choir, London Youth Choir and Chamber which incorporates open access workshops in Festival Hall in Spring 2015. Choir. Founded in Autumn 2012 by Suzi Digby boroughs across London in partnership with OBE and Rachel Staunton, LYC was launched Music Education Hubs. In June 2015 The Young Singers sang as part with 150 singers, representing 30 of London’s of a chorus of 1000 voices at the Royal Albert boroughs. LYC has now expanded to include FINCHLEY CHILDREN’S Hall, in the world premiere of Seven Seeds by all 33 boroughs, with over 200 members, and MUSIC GROUP John Barber and Hazel Gould, a partnership is growing all the time. Our vision is to inspire Musical Director Grace Rossiter The Young Singers is an auditioned choir project between the Tri-borough Music Hub, young people from all backgrounds to achieve Rehearsal Accompanist John Evanson made up of Year 5 – 7 children from primary Aurora Orchestra, the Royal College of Music the highest possible standard in choral singing, schools across the Tri-borough (Westminster, and the Royal Albert Hall. musicianship and vocal production. FCMG is a highly versatile group of mixed-voiced Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & choirs, and is committed to the promotion of Fulham), and is run by the Tri-borough Music Over the first two and a half years, the LYC singing and choral music for young people Hub in partnership with The Bach Choir. family of choirs has appeared at various aged between 4 and 18. Under the direction prestigious venues and occasions. Some of the of Grace Rossiter since 2001, the choirs Directed by Sara Cluderay, Vocal Lead with highlights include – performing with the Rolling are well known for their natural, vibrant the Tri-borough Music Hub, The Young Singers Stones at Glastonbury and Ellie Goulding at vocal quality and high level of musicianship was formed as a training choir for gifted and Wembley; singing at The Guildhall; appearing and professionalism.

- 30 - - 31 - The choir was established in 1958 following FCMG has recorded regularly for radio, Philharmonic orchestras, the Sydney Symphony the London premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Noyes television, film and on the Hyperion, Naxos, Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir Fludde at Southwark Cathedral. A few years Somm, EMI and Decca labels. and RIAS Chamber Choir, Berlin. His later in 1963, Britten became FCMG’s President commitment to new music has led to premieres and his music continues to be at the heart www.fcmg.co.uk of works by Judith Bingham, Naji Hakim, of the choir’s repertory. Since its early years, Jonathan Harvey, Carl Rütti and John Tavener. FCMG has championed contemporary music DAVID HILL for children’s voices, commissioning works by As an organist he has given recitals extensively composers including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Born in Carlisle, David Hill was made a Fellow in the UK and abroad. He has made more than Elizabeth Maconchy, Malcolm Williamson, Brian of the Royal College of Organists at 17. He was 80 recordings and, with The Bach Choir, Chapple, Malcolm Singer, Judith Bingham and an organ scholar at St John’s College, contributed to the soundtracks of Kingdom of James Weeks. FCMG has also premiered works Cambridge, to which he returned as Director Heaven, The Chronicles of Narnia and Shrek by David Bedford, Paul Patterson, Luciano of Music from 2003 to 2007. He is Chief the Third. Berio, Alec Roth and Michael Finnissy. Conductor of the BBC Singers, Musical Director of The Bach Choir, Music Director of Leeds FCMG regularly performs in London’s Philharmonic Society, Associate Guest Conductor major concerts halls and abroad alongside of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and professional choirs and orchestras, including Principal Conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum. the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony His previous posts have included Master of the Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Music at Winchester Cathedral (1987–2002) and Boston Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Westminster Cathedral (1982–7), and Associate Singers. The choir has performed major choral Conductor and then Artistic Director of the works including Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Philharmonia Chorus (1986–97). Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, Mahler’s 8th Symphony and Britten’s War Requiem, under He has appeared as guest conductor with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Richard Hickox, James Levine, Kurt Masur Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the and Sir Colin Davis, who was the Choir’s Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool President for many years. Philharmonic, the Strasbourg and Zagreb © John Wood

- 32 - - 33 - BBC is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under license. BBC ©BBC 1996.

Produced in association with BBC Radio 3

The Bach Choir is very grateful to the Eranda Foundation for its generous support of The Angry Planet commission

Recorded in BBC Studios, Maida Vale, London on 10 January 2015 (The Angry Planet) and 7 February 2015 (Five Days that Changed the World and Miracle of the Spring).

Sound Engineer - Paul Waton Digital Editing - Paul Waton Mastering - Robert Winter Producer - Michael Emery

Cover Image – Shutterstock Session photography – © Beau Images & Photography Design and Artwork – Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk

Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd.

SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] www.signumrecords.com

- 34 - - 35 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

Chilcott: The Seeds of Stars Chilcott: St John Passion Wrocław Philharmonic Choir Wells Cathedral Choir Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny director Matthew Owens conductor Bob Chilcott conductor SIGCD412 SIGCD311

“... this is a choir whose sound is too richly enticing to need “On the evidence of this fine recording, Chilcott’s St John anything more than pleasing music and a sympathetic Passion will connect with audiences and performers.” recording, both of which are much in abundance on this disc.” Choir and Organ HHHHH Gramophone

Available through most record stores and at www.signumrecords.com For more information call +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 - 20 - CTP Template: CD_INL1 COLOURS Compact Disc Back Inlay CYAN MAGENTA Customer SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No.SIGCD422 BLACK Job Title: ANGRY PLANET

SIGNUM THE ANGRY PLANET BOB CHILCOTT ( . 1955)

b CLASSICS SIGCD422 CD1 Five Days that Changed the World

1 Thursday 29 March 1455: The Invention of Printing [2.43] 2 Friday 1 August 1834: The Abolition of Slavery [5.46] CHILCOTT: THE ANGRY PLANET ANGRY THE CHILCOTT: 3 Monday 14 December 1903: The First Powered Flight [2.17] 4 Friday 28 September 1928: The Discovery of Penicillin [4.22] 5 Wednesday 12 April 1961: The First Man in Space [4.16] The Miracle of the Spring 6 Where Water Waits [2.18] 7 The Source of The Spring [3.48] 8 To Sing of Water [1.22] 9 The Desert [2.02] 0 The Voice of Water [4.38] Total timing CD1: [33.39] BBC SINGERS / BACH CHOIR / HILL HILL / CHOIR BACH / SINGERS BBC

BBC SINGERS / BACH CHOIR / HILL CD2 The Angry Planet An Environmental Cantata Part 1 1 I. 6pm [4.42] 2 II. As if [2.15] 3 III. Yellow Eye [2.34] Part 2 4 I. Remember [4.57] 5 II. 9pm [4.46] 6 III. Green Rain [2.18] Part 3 7 I. Midnight [5.48] 8 II. We need [1.57] 9 III. 3am [6.31] 0 IV. Sorry too late [0.59] Part 4 q I. Peppermint freckles [3.14] w II. 6am (Lutra lutra) [2.42] e III. Perhaps [3.56] Total timing CD2: [46.48] Total timings: [80.27]

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CHILCOTT: THE ANGRY PLANET BBC is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corportation and is used under license. BBC © BBC 1996. LC15723 Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth SIGCD422