presents
HÉLOÏSE WERNER & THE TIPPETT QUARTET WITH THE HERMES EXPERIMENT
Join us for our premiere online concert stream 28th July 2020, 7pm at bit.ly/MCTYoutube WELCOME
The Michael Cuddigan Trust was set up in 2014 to support the composition and performance of new vocal chamber music.
We very much hope that you will be able to join us this year for our first ever online concert presentation celebrating new music and making sure that the show goes on.
The concert will feature a repeat performance of 2017 Award recipient Kate Whitley’s ‘Charlotte Mew Settings’ in its entirety, sung by 2018 Award recipient Héloïse Werner and the Tippett Quartet. Héloïse will also perform a small mixed programme with her ensemble the Hermes Experiment, alongside a new commission by the 2020 Award recipient, and Aldeburgh Young Musician, Alfred Hopkins.
These are unprecedented and challenging times, with live performance venues closed across the nation, and we are sad not to be able to share the first of this year’s new commissions with you in person. We are however, incredibly lucky to have recorded a performance of the concert from the relative safety of Suffolk, which we are delighted to share with you online.
Normally, with the lights half-dimmed, you may be reading these pages to follow the lyrics of the vocal chamber works in our programme, and to learn a little more about the pieces and their composers. We invite you to do the same as we present the concert from our new Michael Cuddigan Trust YouTube channel (bit.ly/MCTYoutube).
Our donors and patrons are an invaluable part of the work we do. Your support is crucial in ensuring we can continue to champion the unique role of music in these exceptional times, as well as sharing the best and brightest new works with the world.
We don’t know when we will be able to perform to a live audience again, but we look forward to welcoming you back when we do. Thank you so much for your continued support. Stay safe and take care. HOW TO WATCH
The online concert will be streamed on 28th July 2020 at 7pm
You can watch it by going to the Michael Cuddigan Trust YouTube channel via this link bit.ly/MCTYoutube.
You can also subscribe to our channel in advance to receive a notification and direct link to the stream.
Join our live-chat to discuss the production with viewers from around the world.
The video will be available for seven days at bit.ly/MCTYoutube and michaelcuddigantrust.com alongside our archive of performances from previous concerts around the UK.
Occasionally, slow connection speeds locally may cause buffering. If this happens, reduce the picture quality to suit your connection by clicking on the gear icon, and then selecting an alternate option under ‘quality’.
HOW TO SUPPORT US
We are not selling tickets for this concert. Instead, if you are able, we ask you to consider becoming a Friend or Donor by making a donation to help sustain the the work we do, supporting the musicians in the Michael Cuddigan Trust community
www.michaelcuddigantrust.com/support-us PROGRAMME
Brief introduction
Kate Whitley Six Charlotte Mew Settings (2017 Michael Cuddigan Trust Award)
Alfred Hopkins Journey of the Alde (2020 Michael Cuddigan Trust Award in association with Aldeburgh Young Musicians)
Maurice Ravel (arr. Schofield) Rigaudon from Le Tombeau de Couperin
Freya Waley-Cohen We Phoenician Sailors
Peter Maxwell Davies (arr. Pashley) Farewell to Stromness
Meredith Monk (arr. Denholm) Double Fiesta Héloïse Werner – Soprano
PERFORMERS
Héloïse Werner – Soprano
The Tippett Quartet John Mills – Violin Jeremy Isaac – Violin Lydia Lowndes-Northcott – Viola Bozidar Vukotic – Cello
The Hermes Experiment Anne Denholm – Harp Oliver Pashley – Clarinet Marianne Schofield – Double Bass Hanna Grzeskiewicz – Co-Director Héloïse Werner – Soprano / Co-Director Kate Whitley Six Charlotte Mew Settings words by Charlotte Mew performed by Héloïse Werner and the Tippett Quartet
1. Sea Love Tide be runnin' the great world over: 'Twas only last June month I mind that we Was thinkin' the toss and the call in the breast of the lover So everlastin' as the sea.
Heer's the same little fishes that sputter an swim, Wi' the moon's old glim on the grey, wet sand; An' him no more to me mor me to him Than the wind goin' over my hand.
2. The Farmer’s Bride Three summers since I chose a maid, Too young maybe—but more’s to do At harvest-time than bide and woo. When us was wed she turned afraid Of love and me and all things human; Like the shut of a winter’s day Her smile went out, and ’twadn’t a woman— More like a little frightened fay. One night, in the Fall, she runned away.
“Out ’mong the sheep, her be,” they said, ’Should properly have been abed; But sure enough she wadn’t there Lying awake with her wide brown stare. So over seven-acre field and up-along across the down We chased her, flying like a hare Before out lanterns. To Church-Town All in a shiver and a scare We caught her, fetched her home at last And turned the key upon her, fast.
cont. She does the work about the house As well as most, but like a mouse: Happy enough to chat and play With birds and rabbits and such as they, So long as men-folk keep away. “Not near, not near!” her eyes beseech When one of us comes within reach. The women say that beasts in stall Look round like children at her call. I’ve hardly heard her speak at all.
Shy as a leveret, swift as he, Straight and slight as a young larch tree, Sweet as the first wild violets, she, To her wild self. But what to me?
The short days shorten and the oaks are brown, The blue smoke rises to the low grey sky, One leaf in the still air falls slowly down, A magpie’s spotted feathers lie On the black earth spread white with rime, The berries redden up to Christmas-time. What’s Christmas-time without there be Some other in the house than we!
She sleeps up in the attic there Alone, poor maid. ’Tis but a stair Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down, The soft young down of her, the brown, The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!
cont. 3. Rooms I remember rooms that have had their part In the steady slowing down of the heart. The room in Paris, the room at Geneva, The little damp room with the seaweed smell, And that ceaseless maddening sound of the tide— Rooms where for good or for ill—things died. But there is the room where we (two) lie dead, Though every morning we seem to wake and might just as well seem to sleep again As we shall somewhere in the other quieter, dustier bed Out there in the sun—in the rain.
4. I So Like Spring I so liked Spring last year Because you were here; – The thrushes too – Because it was these you so liked to hear – I so liked you. This year’s a different thing, – I’ll not think of you. But I’ll like the Spring because it is simply Spring As the thrushes do.
5. Absence Sometimes I know the way You walk, up over the bay; It is a wind from that far sea That blows the fragrance of your hair to me.
Or in this garden when the breeze Touches my trees To stir their dreaming shadows on the grass I see you pass.
In sheltered beds, the heart of every rose Serenely sleeps to-night. As shut as those Your garded heart; as safe as they fomr the beat, beat Of hooves that tread dropped roses in the street.
cont. 6. Moorland Night My face is against the grass - the moorland grass is wet - My eyes are shut against the grass, against my lips there are the little blades, Over my head the curlews call, And now there is the night wind in my hair; My heart is against the grass and the sweet earth, - it has gone still, at last; It does not want to beat any more, And why should it beat? This is the end of the journey. The Thing is found.
These Charlotte Mew settings were suggested by Steven Oliver, and put together with the support of poet Julia Copus. I really enjoyed getting to know Charlotte’s poetry, which I knew nothing about before. I love how the strange and dark poems like ‘Moorland Night’ are, as well as how simple and beautiful poems like ‘Sea Love’ are. My favourite in the set is ‘I So Liked Spring’ – it’s such a straightforward, understandable poem but with a really poignant, beautiful and sad message behind it. The original version of the first four poems was for male singer and string quartet before I wrote four more for soprano and string quartet, but I like how the gender of the speaker in Mew’s poems is often ambiguous, so it has seemed to make sense. This version has been reworked so the set is all for soprano. Kate Whitley Alfred Hopkins Journey of The Alde words by John Freeman performed by the Hermes Experiment
How near I walked to Love, How long, I cannot tell. I was like the Alde that flows Quietly through green level lands, So quietly, it knows Their shape, their greenness and their shadows well; And then undreamingly for miles it goes And silently, beside the sea.
Seamews circle over, The winter wildfowl wings, Long and green the grasses wave Between the river and the sea. The sea's cry, wild or grave, From bank to low bank of the river rings; But the uncertain river though it crave The sea, knows not the sea.
Was that indeed salt wind? Came that noise from falling Wild waters on a stonyshore? Oh, what is this new troubling tide Of eager waves that pour Around and over.
The words by John Freeman are written about a river taking its course and how this can be compared to love. I have used the imagery of the river in the structure of the piece by having the changes in mood reflect the changing course of a river; it starts with a trickling harp motif which is reminiscent of a river’s source and moves into a more lyrical melody which reflects the slow meandering nature of the middle section of a river. As the piece approaches its climax it moves into a more intense turbulent atmosphere that evokes the image of a river gaining speed as it nears the end of its course. This piece was commissioned by the Cuddigan Trust for the Hermes Experiment. I am inspired by their ability to convey emotion through music, and I think they are the perfect ensemble for this piece. Alfred Hopkins Maurice Ravel ‘Rigaudon’ from Le Tombeau de Couperin (arr. Schofield) performed by the Hermes Experiment
Ravel wrote the piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin during the years of the First World War. The work can be seen as a musical memorial in a number of ways: each of the six short movements is given a name typical of a Baroque suite (the 'Rigaudon' movement, for example, is a lively French folk dance from the 17th century). Other elements of the musical material and structure of these movements hark back to a general 'olden' style of composition, rather than to the Baroque composer Francois Couperin specifically.
Ravel also dedicated each of the six movements of the suite to the memory of friends who had lost their lives as a result of the Great War, and the Rigaudon is dedicated specifically to two brothers of the composer's acquaintance, Pierre and Pascal Gaudin. However, the character of this movement, and indeed of the suite as a whole, is never mournful or dour; the spirit of the dance is playful and light-hearted, and the work remains a joyful tribute throughout. Marianne Schofield Freya Waley-Cohen We Phoenician Sailors words by Octavia Bright performed by the Hermes Experiment
1. Oyster Watching you drink me, feeling you think me, I drown in the threads of your thoughts as they struggle to sink me. Alchemy. Notes trill through my teeth like krill through a reef and I atrophy. Barnacled bricks stuck limpet slick, Knuckles are shredded, my blood runs thick, Breathing the depths of your full fathom eyes, my oyster flesh pinking in sympathy.
2. Agua Dulce My roundels and mounds were yours to be found You scaled them at speed And then slid down my downs and you drowned. Deafened by the toll of your principles I dream of a lake (And I) wait for the ache to abate. Sun glimmer on the brown shimmer Hear the low-flying flock and let go, let me drown For the deep, reckless call of the infinite blue Speaks to my spine To my hot, live marrow
3. Delta Song Liver soft plum licker gilds the satin mushroom cap As somewhere south of leather, soft fruit begins to grow. Slithery grip on catfish hips Their whiskers a whisper from molten lips Your sideways jive hums in my muscles Mammalian jazz, a two-step hustle Swallow my screams as a citadel falls Where hills are flocked in velvet green Your body an atlas, but I've lost my map, Soul bent in two by your wild, wild gravity. This song cycle explores the way memories of relationships are held together by sensations and impressions of moments of heightened intimacy and pleasure or disappointment. The music and text play with different textures and temperatures in order to get inside the bodily experience of desire. The cycle’s course traces the arc of a relationship from its first agonising spark of desire to its eventual death: First, the powerful thrill of erotic anticipation sings in Oyster’s brackish tingle, before sinking into the fecund contentment of being submerged in Agua Dulce’s freshwater embrace, suspended in the temporal stasis brought about by a sublime experience of pleasure that we know to be ultimately fleeting. Finally, Delta Song explores the often unacknowledged emotional disgust that can emerge when confronted with the body of a lover that is no longer desired. Here, the inviting waters of the first two become shallow and stagnant, fetid, as the song slides away from itself in revulsion. Octavia Bright Peter Maxwell Davies Farewell to Stromness performed by the Hermes Experiment
‘Farewell to Stromness’ is a piano interlude from ‘The Yellow Cake Revue’, a sequence of cabaret-style numbers protesting against uranium mining in the Orkney Islands. The Revue was first performed at the St. Magnus Festival, Orkney, by Eleanor Bron, with the composer at the piano, in June 1980.
Meredith Monk Double Fiesta (arr. Denholm) performed by the Hermes Experiment
Created in 1987 and originally for voice and two pianos, 'Double Fiesta' is an excerpt from American composer and vocalist Meredith Monk's theatre piece, 'Acts from Under and Above'. It features unusual vocal acrobatics over a repetitive accompaniment made up of varying and cumulative patterns. There are only a few phrases in the vocal part that use complete words - the majority of the work uses shorter vocal sounds in a highly rhythmic way. Anne Denholm ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Héloïse Werner
Recently described by The Times as ‘quickly becoming a latter-day Cathy Berberian or Meredith Monk’, French-born and London-based soprano and composer Héloïse Werner was the recipient of the Michael Cuddigan Trust Award 2018, Linda Hirst Contemporary Vocal Prize 2017, a Leeds Lieder Young Artists 2018, and was shortlisted in the Young Artist category of the RPS Awards 2017. Last year, she performed her solo opera ‘The Other Side of the Sea’ at Kings Place as part of their Venus Unwrapped series (‘You can’t help but be dazzled by it’ **** The Times). She is soprano & co-director for award-winning contemporary quartet The Hermes Experiment.
heloisewerner.com / @Heloise_Werner
The Hermes Experiment
Winners of the Royal Overseas League Mixed Ensemble Competition 2019, Tunnell Trust Awards 2017, Nonclassical’s Battle of the Bands 2014, Making Music Selected Artists 2019/20 and Park Lane Group Young Artists 2015/16, The Hermes Experiment is a contemporary quartet made up of harp, clarinet, voice and double bass. Capitalising on their deliberately idiosyncratic combination of instruments, the ensemble regularly commissions new works, as well as creating their own innovative arrangements and venturing into live free improvisation. The ensemble has commissioned over fifty composers at various stages of their careers. They were shortlisted in the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2019 in the Young Artists Category and their debut album ‘HERE WE ARE’ is released in July 2020 on Delphian Records.
thehermesexperiment.com / @TheHExperiment The Tippett Quartet
‘The Tippett Quartet’s performances are little short of astonishing’ The Times
The Tippett Quartet have performed at Kings Place, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Bridgewater Hall and frequently perform on BBC Radio 3. They have performed at the BBC Proms and toured Europe, Canada and Mexico. Their broad and diverse repertoire highlights the Tippett Quartet’s unique versatility. Their impressive catalogue of recordings have been released on Naxos, EMI Classics, Signum, Decca, Classic FM, SOMM Records, Vivat, Guild, Real World, Dutton Epoch and Toccata Classics with universal critical acclaim. Most recently they were awarded Gramophone ‘Record of the Month’ for their recording of Gorécki Quartets: ‘I cannot recommend this recording highly enough, and have run out of superlatives’ - Gramophone. In 2011 they celebrated the anniversary of the iconic film composer Bernard Herrmann with a series of concerts and radio broadcasts. They have worked with Damian Montagu and Hugh Bonneville for ‘In a South Downs Way’, a collection of poems set to music. They can also be heard as featured artists on the film ‘Knives Out’. tippettquartet.co.uk / @tippettquartet ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Kate Whitley (b. 1989) is a composer and pianist based in South London. She runs the Multi-Story Orchestra with conductor Christopher Stark, which performs in car parks around the UK. ‘Forget fusty concert halls, the future of music is emerging in a municipal car park’ The Times.
She writes music for concert, ballets, choirs and orchestras and her music has been broadcast on Radio 3 and performed as part of the BBC Proms.
katewhitley.net
Alfred Hopkins is 14 years old and started composing when he was a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge. One of his first compositions was played by the Hermes Experiment as part of the Cambridge young composers’ competition. He plays the clarinet and the piano as well as studying composition with Alexander Campkin. He enjoys playing in ensembles, especially a clarinet ensemble run by his teacher Claire Baughan. He is in his second year as an Aldeburgh Young Musician, where he loves to find out about new styles of music. This also helps him improve his improvisation and general musicianship.
Described as ‘at once intimate and visionary’ BBC Music Magazine, Freya Waley- Cohen’s music has been commissioned by institutions and ensembles including the LA Philharmonic, BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonia Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, The King’s Singers, the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Presteigne, Santa Fe, and Cheltenham festivals, and released on Signum, Nimbus, Nonclassical, and NMC records. Freya is the Associate Composer of the Wigmore Hall, where the 2019 season featured a day of concerts focusing on her music. She is also associate composer of St. David’s Hall’s contemporary music series, Nightmusic. Winner of a 2017 RPS Composition Prize, she held an Open Space Residency at Snape Maltings from 2015-2017 and was 2016-18 Associate Composer of Nonclassical. She is a founding member and artistic director of the Listenpony concert series and record label, and of Living Room Live, an online live-streamed concert series featuring artists from across the globe, formed during this year's lockdown.
freyawaleycohen.com THANK YOU
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Filmed at Barnes Farm, Suffolk, UK Recorded and edited by Alexander Barnes (Apple and Biscuit) Lighting and location provided by Torben Merriott Programme designed by Jordan Hunt
If you would like a recording of the concert, please contact Anne Cuddigan at [email protected]