• Abstract and Figures
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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.

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