Judith Bingham (B

Judith Bingham Organ Works Stephen Farr The Organs of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, St Albans Cathedral & Trinity College, Cambridge RES10191 Judith Bingham (b. 1952) Disc One Disc Two Organ works 1. Glass Beatitude (2014) [9:05] The Everlasting Crown (2010) 1. The Crown [3:49] 2. Annunciation IV ‒ Meine Seel’ 2. Atahualpa’s Emerald [3:21] Erhebt den Herren (2012) [3:44] 3. La Pelegrina [4:38] 4. The Orlov Diamond [2:55] Stephen Farr (organ & harpsichord) 3. Angel Fragments (2012/13) [8:23] 5. The Russian Spinel [4:21] 6. King Edward’s Sapphire [5:34] with 4. Hadrian’s Dream (1999/2016) [5:00] 7. The Peacock Throne [7:10] Jeremy Cole (organ) Disc One, track 10 The Three Angels (2015) Jacquet’s Ghost (2012) 5. Lucifer [2:44] 8. Tombeau [2:10] Disc One The Harrison & Harrison organ of St Edmundsbury Cathedral 6. Michael [2:56] 9. Labyrinthe [2:11] Disc Two, tracks 1-7 The Harrison & Harrison organ of St Albans Cathedral 7. Gabriel [2:39] 10. Pastorelle somnambule [1:24] Disc Two, tracks 8-11 The Metzler Organ of Trinity College, Cambridge 11. Envoi [1:52] Missa Brevis ‘Videntes Stellam’ (2014) 8. Accompaniment to 12. Tableaux Vivants (2013) [14:17] Matthew 2:i-xii [2:25] for solo harpsichord 9. Envoi [4:12] Total playing time [53:49] 10. The Linnaeus Garden (2016) [12:25] for organ duet Altartavla (2013) About Stephen Farr: 11. Maria Lacrimosa [1:38] 12. The Living Mary [2:37] ‘Farr rises to the occasion, turning in performances that are as varied and 13. Annunciation in a Small Room [2:58] vital as the music demands, intricate details inked with telling clarity‘ 14. Joseph’s Dream [4:39] Choir & Organ 15. Mandorla [3:41] ‘[...] one can simply enjoy Farr’s rock steady rhythmic All world premiere recordings playing, crisp articulation and commanding overview’ Total playing time [69:13] Gramophone Judith Bingham: Organ Works of a tendency which manifests in various ways throughout Bingham’s output for the Judith Bingham’s response to commission is instrument. Altartavla’s five movements play fundamentally informed by a wide range of continuously, and during its progress the factors, among which two elements are striking main theme (first heard as a imbued with particular significance: the fragmented staccato phrase, illustrative of the unique characteristics of the performance falling tears considered in the poem Maria venue for the new work, and the musical Lacrimosa with which the music is associated) personality of the commissioning performer. undergoes constant transformation before In recent years, these elements have been its climatic, almost overwhelming, final central to Bingham’s developing association appearance in a passage driven by ostinato with Johann Hammarström, organist of chords and marked ‘dark, looming’. Västerås Cathedral in Sweden. Their collaboration has produced several works Like the Mass Bingham wrote for Westminster for organ, inspired by the superb Romantic Cathedral, a further Västerås commission from instrument over which he presides, as well the same period, the Missa Brevis ‘Videntes as music for the cathedral’s choirs. Stellam’, includes two organ solo movements, of less imposing but nonetheless liturgically Altartavla, the first and most substantial of effective dimensions: one to be played during the organ works, was premiered in Västerås the reading of the gospel (Matthew’s account on 27 April 2014. Its chief inspiration is the of the visit of the Magi) which was prescribed Biblical scenes depicted in the magnificent on the occasion of its premiere, the other carved Renaissance altarpiece of the (‘Envoi’) for performance as a closing cathedral, but alongside this visual element voluntary. Each movement makes reference it incorporates contemporary Marian poetry to the thematic content of the choral sections by Bo Setterlind and Ebba Lindqvist: as at the of the Mass setting (Sanctus in the gospel, first performance (which included projections Gloria and Agnus in ‘Envoi’), and in its steady of the scenes from the altarpiece depicted in rhythmic tread the music is eloquent of the the score), the verbal texts may be read aloud movement of the longships which form a as a commentary on the music, with which central part of Swedish heritage. Judith Bingham they exist in a symbiotically responsive (Photography: Patrick Douglas Hamilton) relationship. The explicit ‘texting’ of the Also arising from Bingham’s collaboration with score which results is the logical culmination Johann Hammarström is The Linnaeus Garden (2016), a ‘botanical fantasy’ for organ duet the music, which is not without its macabre intervallic alterations to the theme. The Hadrian’s Dream, a work composed for this paying homage to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), aspects, combines many layers of allusion. overall effect of the work is, in the composer’s recording, could hardly be less formalised. A the Swedish botanist whose house – now The piece makes references to the French own words, ‘intimate, mesmeric, secretive’... paraphrase and re-working of a movement preserved as a museum – in Uppsala is only dance suite, the Nöel, and to composers – akin to a candlelit scene from Vermeer. from a large-scale work for chorus and a short journey from Västerås. The work’s as various as François Couperin, Purcell, orchestra, Otherworld (2000), its fragmentary modified rondo structure reflects both the Balbâtre and Satie, while Bingham’s typically The same historical genre – albeit in more wisps of material and almost pointillistic elegantly ordered classifications developed judicious use of self-quotation incorporates refracted and highly stylised form – also textural touches gradually coalesce into a by Linnaeus and the pleasing geometry of passages from The Everlasting Crown, and lies at the heart of The Three Angels, a cantilena which evanescences into silence the formal gardens of the house, but as a concluding, albeit fragmentary, excerpt trilogy depicting Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel. over a walking bass line. The words of Bingham herself suggests, this formal from Jacquet’s Ghost. The overall effect ‘Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz’, which the chorus in the original work are by structure is barely able to contain music is of progress through a succession of staged appears as cantus firmus in the pedal of Emperor Hadrian (76-138 AD): which is frequently expressive of the tableaux, an impression reinforced for the the first setting (‘Lucifer’) recurs in each infinite variety and sensual richness of the performer by the score’s rubric ‘this way movement; in fragmented form in the Little soul, gentle and wandering, companion and guest of the body, natural world, teeming with detail, ‘forever please...’ at the conclusion of each section. second setting (‘Michael’, a ‘gestural and In what place will you now abide? replicating, unstoppable, driven and At one stage in the work’s composition combative’ treatment, to quote the Go to that impenetrable realm, indifferent’. The textural opportunities of Bingham considered the use of a female composer, of ‘Es steh’n vor Gottes Thron’) That death itself trembles to look on. the duet scoring are explored with narrator for the work: a fascinating and alongside Vom Himmel Hoch in the final consummate skill in lavish depictions of foreshadowing of Altartavla. movement, ‘Gabriel’. This movement quotes Angel Fragments also demonstrates a freer, flora and fauna, including Linnaeus’ pet an excerpt from Bingham’s Collegium Regale sometimes almost expressionistic, approach raccoon, Sjüpp. The chorale setting Annunciation IV – Meine setting of the Magnificat – again, the music to its musical material, in some ways distinct Seel’ Erhebt den Herren shows a different is texted here – in a further allusion to the from the other works in this recording. It Not commissioned by Västerås, but receiving facet of Bingham’s productive engagement Annunciation, an event which she views as takes the form of a set of variations on its first performance there in April 2014, with historical genres. The terms of the a powerful symbol of female creativity. The Thomas Victor, a plainsong hymn in praise Tableaux Vivants (like Jacquet’s Ghost, a work’s commission (for William Whitehead’s extreme discipline of the compositional of Thomas à Becket. Visual elements again homage to the French Baroque, an idiom Orgelbüchlein project) were strongly directive, procedures in the work – the number of inform the music here, which is influenced which Bingham has always found powerfully in terms of duration, use of the instrument, pitches in each bar, for example, is a by the striking – sometimes even nightmarish expressive) marked Bingham’s return to and certain aspects of compositional multiple of three – is reminiscent of the – medieval statuary of Vezelay in France, writing for the harpsichord for the first procedure, but these restrictions proved ‘obligo’ (self imposed technical stricture) where Becket, according to legend, preached time since the completion of Scenes from paradoxically liberating: the work alludes of an earlier generation of contrapuntists, in exile. But despite this the work is not Nature (1983). The later work’s inspiration with great subtlety to Bach’s own settings and charmingly acknowledges the work’s without its humorous aspects; amongst the is historical – its programme concerns the of the same theme, while concealing the dedication to a mathematician. The work demons and wrestling angels a small dog execution of Marie Antoinette, and pedal cantus firmus behind truncated phrase was commissioned by Michael Bawtree, who

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