Brian Elias

Electra Mourns Geranos • Meet me in the Green Glen • Once did breathe another’s breath

Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano • Roderick Williams baritone • Iain Burnside piano • Nicholas Daniel cor anglais Britten Sinfonia • Clark Rundell conductor • Psappha • Nicholas Kok conductor Geranos 1 I 7’05 2 II (Adonidia) 6’03 3 III 6’55 Psappha • Nicholas Kok conductor Meet me in the Green Glen * 4 I Meet me in the Green Glen 3’13 5 II Song 2’11 6 III Now is Past 3’12 7 IV Love’s Pains 1’22 8 V Hesperus 2’56 Roderick Williams baritone (I, III, V) • Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano (II, IV) Once did I breathe another’s breath 9 I Dost ask my dear 3’30 10 II Dear, let us two each other spy 1’47 11 III Now sleep, bind fast the fl ood of air 3’44 12 IV Once did my thoughts both ebb and fl ow 2’26 13 V There comes a night 2’38 Roderick Williams baritone • Iain Burnside piano 14 Electra Mourns 18’44 Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano • Nicholas Daniel cor anglais Britten Sinfonia • Clark Rundell conductor Total timing: 66’07

* As these songs were written to be sung by any voice, Brian Elias chose this combination, sung in turn by baritone and mezzo-soprano, for the CD. The complete song cycle is also available to download in separate versions for single voice. See page 20 for more details. 2 Brian Elias photo © Ben Ealovega

3 Mounting towards Electra

A step. Another step. And another. achievements have been partly These steps, they may seem documented on two previous NMC arbitrary. Why this way, now? But releases. then you look back and you see a progression, with turnings that The starting point for this third one appear to have been inevitable in is Geranos, composed in 1985 order to reach this present point. for the Fires of London and made to capitalize more on the group’s Only rarely, perhaps, does life offer aptitude for extended chamber us this kind of consolation, but we music than on their equal skills in can gain it from the course of an music theatre. That said, Geranos artist’s work, and we can certainly is a dramatic piece. The title comes gain it from these recordings, from a kind of ritual dance in ancient of compositions that Brian Elias Greece, reproducing Theseus’s produced over a period of almost dance with the thirteen young thirty years, taking him from his companions he had brought out with mid-thirties to his mid-sixties. At the him from the Labyrinth, once he had beginning of that period he had only conveyed them to the island of Delos recently re-established himself as and set up an altar to Aphrodite. a composer, the works of his late According to some authorities, the teens and early twenties having dance imitated the fl ight of cranes been followed by several years of in high formation, the Greek word withdrawal. By the end he was an for this bird being also geranos. The established master, one whose network – or labyrinth – of images

4 here, including those of a hero, a But again, as important as harmony rescue, an arrival, a maze, bird fl ight is harmonic movement, motivated and a sacred dance, fascinated the by, and enacted by, melody. Almost composer. In his own words, he immediately, for instance, the two ‘became intrigued by such dances top notes of the determining chord, and with the connections between A and G, are coming to life as a the dance, lyric poetry and music. In melodic item: a major second, falling particular I was interested by rhythm or rising. It is with this same interval, as expressed in both dance and this same oscillation, transposed music, and their use and juxtaposition down a tenth, that the main allegro of different types of basic metre.’ of the fi rst movement gets going Hence the strongly pulsed rhythmic as a cello solo. The music is carried motifs that feature so much in the further forward in passages led by outer parts of this geranos. bass clarinet (at a slower tempo) and piccolo (supplanted by the As important as rhythm here, clarinet asserting one of the prime though, is harmony. To quote Elias rhythmic gestures), but there are again: ‘The chord used in the also sequences where events rotate introduction dictates the material in repetition, as if we have reached throughout the piece.’ This is the one of the blind alleys in this chord, partly built up by the piano labyrinth. from the start, that is affi rmed by piano and vibraphone together in Alighting on a middle register G, the second bar, and whose rule which the viola plays on both its may be perhaps more felt than lowest strings, the piece moves recognized until it comes forward seamlessly into a slow movement, again at the close. subtitled ‘Adonidia’ after another

5 ritual practice of ancient Greece, in unaccompanied John Clare cycle which women sang laments over Meet me in the Green Glen (2008- the dead Adonis. Then the viola 9). Encountering a poet who again, more alert, introduces the combined the sturdy habits of folk fi nal movement, which similarly song with fi ne sophistication, Elias continues without a break. As Elias does likewise. He uses a modest puts it, this movement ‘shadows’ the vocal range, around a tenth, and a fi rst, and it is the arrival of a new high degree of motivic repetition instrument, the glockenspiel, that within that narrow limit. For instance, makes possible the return to the the fi rst stanza of the title song, substance of the work’s introduction. which Elias wrote for the NMC The haunting coda is for crotales Songbook, is almost pentatonic, alone, pianissimo. repeatedly emphasizing two note pairs, each of which is usually Right through the piece, as at the unifi ed by a single syllable and start, in the turn from introduction once more outlines a major second, to allegro, cogency comes from whether falling how an instrument or a group will (‘meet…green…Elm…green’) or seem to hear something in what rising, to the note a tritone below the just happened, hear something that other’s resting point (‘me…glen… can be taken further. Statement is a beside…tree…in…glen’). Most of register of listening; you repeat what the song uses just nine notes, and you just heard, but in your own way. one of the two additions – also the highest pitch – appears just We now move a quarter century once, where the fi rst syllable of forward and into vocal music, the ‘crimson’ seems at once to call for fi rst example being the extraordinary and respond to special treatment.

6 Such elemental simplicity, with the With confi dent vocality now added allowance of transposition, suggests to strength of detail (down to the these might be songs for everyone level of two notes – and even the – and yet they would defy nearly all same two notes in Meet Me as in of us by their rhythmic suppleness, Geranos), Electra Mourns (2011) their sometimes awkward intervals might seem, looking back at those and their irregular shapes. A kind of steps, ready to happen – so, too, a antiquity is being touched here, but song cycle for the natural-strange, within a modern world of complexity involved-disenchanted voice and disillusion. Elias had discovered: Once did I breathe another’s breath (2012). Elias had written for unaccompanied The fi ve poems of this work, from voice before, in the earlier phase of two centuries before Clare, are as his composing (Peroration, 1973), intensely personal, though it is the but that was a Berioesque essay. music, recognizably nourished by The Clare cycle blends much more Meet Me, that conjures the persona with our concept of the natural while declaiming them. Loneliness again being lonely and estranged, evoking is key. The Ravelian piano offers no a modality whose frame and centre foundation but rather quick lighting. have been lost. The ‘green glen’ is The joy of love is rapidly outgrown a place we all know but cannot now for more mature experiences, fi nd. It is a place, too, that different growing to the ultimate moment singers (and different listeners) when the voice goes on after will interpret differently, as here the piano has fi nished, as if the we learn from the performances persona were breaking out from the by Roderick Williams and Susan written world that has created and Bickley. confi ned it.

7 Elias is good at endings (cf. the and amplifi ed by the wide-spaced far-off chimes of Geranos), and chord that introduces the strings, Electra Mourns does not disappoint coming as the strum of a giant in that respect. It starts pretty well, instrument. It is with this body of too. The protagonist is the Electra strings as it is with the voice (both of the Sophocles play, caught at the here and in the song cycles), that moment of her great lament over Elias fi nds plenitude in severity, for the urn she believes to contain the there is no recourse to non-standard ashes of her brother Orestes, and effects, only the accurate judgement she begins without accompaniment, of notes. A third participant then not only to indicate she, too, is alone, joins these, a solo cor anglais, but also to summon the image of an similar in register to the mezzo voice. action taking place two and a half Elias has said that the desire for millennia ago, on a Mediterranean such a partnership came to him as stage. Elias’s decision to set the he was writing a duet for alto fl ute original Greek is also important, in and cor anglais in his orchestral allowing him to continue the work work Doubles (which can be heard he had begun in Geranos with on one of the earlier NMC albums music’s links to poetic metre, and in devoted to his music). Here the making it so that most of us will be cor anglais brings with it the rich confronted by a being from an alien history, going back to Bach, of the time and place. obbligato instrument, and, as often before, such an instrument is able to Singing her fi rst hexameter in a express a pathos the singer cannot low register, the singer fi lls in the bring herself to convey. Strong, too, chromatic space down from her are the moments when even this opening E fl at to middle C, echoed instrument has to fall silent.

8 Most often, though, the cor anglais like the nagging pain of an unhealed partners the voice, introducing, wound, or like the constant reminder mirroring or refl ecting on the of a fate that cannot be avoided, shifting currents of grief, outrage because not only of the situation and regret that the words require. in which Electra fi nds herself but Electra’s state is indeed wretched, also of the play. When the mezzo and if her lust for vengeance is and the cor anglais return, it is to unappealing, the music provides participate in the frenzy, the vocal a constant reminder not only that intervals again much wider than is this lust is powerfully and justly the norm for this piece and the cor felt but also that it is thrust on her anglais leaning hard on multiphonic by the text. Sophocles, in making tones. Stability is restored, as it must her an immense and tragic fi gure, be, but that A cannot be forgotten. gives her another tragedy, one that There it is at the end, obstinately perhaps only music can explicate sustained by the cor anglais as and exculpate. Electra, against all the force of consonance, keeps pulling herself Towards the centre of the piece away, up a semitone. Her victory, a long episode for the strings bitter as the music makes it, we may alone is let loose by the sudden also deem sweet. wide intervals of Electra’s ‘gelosi d’exthroi’ (‘Our enemies laugh’, as the translation in the score has it). This episode is a moto perpetuo whose self-contained motor is the A on the treble staff, throbbing rapidly on second violins almost throughout, © 2017 Paul Griffi ths

9 Meet me in the Green Glen poems by John Clare (1793-1864)

1. Meet me in the Green Glen 2. Song Love meet me in the green glen I would not be a wither’d leaf Beside the tall Elm tree Twirled in an autumn sky Where the Sweet briar smells so sweet agen Mine should not be a life so brief There come wi me To fade and fall and die. Meet me in the green glen. Nor would I be a wither’d fl ower Meet me at the sunset Whose stalk was broke before Down in the green glen The bud showed bloom in springs young hour Where we’ve often met Heart sicken’d at the core. By hawthorn tree and foxes den But I would be a happy thought Meet me in the green glen. With thy sweet sleep to lie Meet me by the sheep pen To live unknown, unseen, unsought Where briers smell at een And keep my lonely joy. Meet me in the green glen Yes I would be a ray of light Where white thorn shades are green In the apple of thy eye Meet me in the green glen. And watch o’er thee the live long night Meet me in the green glen In beauty and in joy. By sweet briar bushes there Meet me by your own sen Where the wild thyme blossoms fair Meet me in the green glen. Meet me by the sweet briar By the mole hill swelling there When the west glows like a fi re God’s crimson bed is there Meet me in the green glen.

10 3. Now is Past 4. Love’s Pains 5. Hesperus Now is past – the happy now This love, I canna’ bear it, Hesperus the day is gone When we together roved It cheats me night and day; Soft falls the silent dew Beneath the wildwood’s oak-tree bough This love I canna’ wear it, A tear is now on many a fl ower And nature said we loved. It takes my peace away. And heaven lives in you. Winter’s blast This love wa’ once a fl ower; Hesperus the evening mild The now since then has crept between But now it is a thorn – Falls round us soft and sweet And left us both apart. The joy o’ evening hour, ’Tis like the breathings of a child Winter’s that withered all the green Turn’d to pain e’re morn. When day and evening meet. Have froze the beating heart. Now is past. This love, it wa’ a bud, Hesperus the closing fl ower And a secret known to me; Sleeps on the dewy ground Now is past since last we met Like a fl ower within a wood; While dews fall in a silent shower Beneath the hazel bough; Like a nest within a tree. And heaven breathes around. Before the evening sun was set Her shadow stretched below. This love, wrong understood, Hesperus thy twinkling ray Autumn’s blast Oft’ turned my joy to pain; Beams in the blue of heaven Has stained and blighted every bough; I tried to throw away the bud, And tolls the traveller on his way Wild strawberries like her lips But the blossom would remain. That earth shall be forgiven. Have left the mosses green below Her bloom’s upon the hips. Now is past. Now is past, is changed agen, The woods and fi elds are painted new. Wild strawberries which both gathered then, None know now where they grew. The sky’s o’ercast, Wood strawberries faded from wood-sides, Green leaves have all turned yellow; No Adelaide walks the wood-rides, True love has no bed-fellow. Now is past.

11 Once did I breathe another’s breath

1. Dost ask my dear 4. Once did my thoughts both ebb and fl ow Dost ask (my dear) what service I will have? Once did my thoughts both ebb and fl ow To love me day and night is all I crave, As passion did them move; To dream on me, to expect, to think on me, Once did I hope, straight fear again – Depend and hope, still covet me to see, And then I was in love ... Delight thyself in me, be wholly mine, For know, my love, that I am wholly thine. Once did I waking spend the night, And tell how many minutes move; Terence (c.190-159 BCE) tr. Robert Burton (1577-1640) from The Anatomy of Melancholy Once did I wishing waste the day, – And then I was in love ... 2. Dear, let us two each other spy Once did I breathe another’s breath Dear, let us two each other spy: And in my mistress move; How curious! in each other’s eye Once was I not mine own at all, – We’re drawn to life, and thus we see And then I was in love … Ourselves at once, both thee and me, Distinctly two, yet not alone, Anon Incorporated, that’s but one ... 5. There comes a night Because we two must never part We move down to each other’s heart, There comes a night when once the full-orbed moon And there, all passions turned to joy, Lessens her splendour, and begins to wane; Our loving hearts feel no annoy Clouds from the ocean of the west sweep on, Delated, lest our souls outskips And all things lovely must obscured remain. With joy, kiss quickly! stop our lips! Thou wast my light of heaven. Thy crescent, Sweet, William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle (1592-1676) Promised my heart the all thou didst bestow: ‘Twere not in Nature bliss should stay complete – 3. Now sleep, bind fast the fl ood of air But, O my soul, the dark into which we go! Now sleep, bind fast the fl ood of air, Anon Strike all things dumb and deaf, And to disturb our nuptial pair Let stir no aspen leaf. Send fl ocks of golden dreams That all true joys presage; Bring, in thy oily streams, The milk-and-honey age. Now close the world-round sphere of bliss, And fi ll it with a heavenly kiss. George Chapman (1559?-1634)

12 Electra Mourns

Elektra: Translation Elektra: Transliteration of text O sad memorial of the life I priz’d O philtatou mnemeion anthropon emoi Beyond all other lives, my lov’d Orestes, pseuxes Orestou loipon, hos s’ap elpidon How much this welcome home belies the hope ookh honpèr exepempon eisedexamen. With which I sent you forth, so young, so bright – [noon men gar ouden onta bastazdo kheroin, O child! and now this nothing, which I hold domon de s, o pai, lampron exepemps ego.] * So lightly in my hand. Would I had died hos ophelon paroithen eklipein bion, Before I sent you out, stolen from death, prin es gzenen se gaian ekpempsai kheroin Retriev’d from murder, sav’d, to dwell far off klepsasa tainde kan asosastai phonou, With strangers. Better had you died that day hopos thanon ékeiso te toth hemera, And shared your father’s grave than perish’d so, toombou patroiou koinon elexos meros. Miserably in helpless homeless banishment, noon d’ ektos oikon kapi ges alles fugas Far from my care. Alas! these hands of mine kakos apolou seis kasignetes dixa, Which should have dress’d and bathed you lovingly, koot en philaisi kersin he talain ego Then from hungry fl ames have gather’d in loutrois s’ ekosmes oute pamfl ektou puros Grief’s precious load for burial – not so! aneilomen hos eikos athlion baros, Some stranger did my offi ce – all I have all en [g]zenaisi kersi kedoipheis talas Is this – a little dust, a paltry urn. smikros prosekeis onkos [en smikro kutei.] * Alas for all my care, my loving care, oimoi talaina tes emes palai trophes Prov’d useless now! The labour was so sweet, anopheletou ten ego tham amphi soi Because it was for you, but all in vain. pono glukei pareskhon oute gar pote Your mother never loved you as I loved you; metros su g’ esta mallon e kamou philos, And you would call me ‘Sister’, always, ‘Sister’. outh hoi kat oikon esan all ego trophos, One day you died, and in that one day all ego d’ adelphé soi proseiudomen aei. Has vanish’d, all. You gather’d up my life noon d’ ekleloipe taut en hemera mia And, like a whirlwind, left me. Everything thanonti sun soi pan ta gar sunarpasas Vanish’d. Our father’s dead, and it is death thuell hopos bébèkas. oikhetai pater To me that you are gone. Our enemies teth nek ego soi froudos autos ei thanon Laugh, and our mother, most unmotherly gelosi d’ exthroi maine tai d’ houf hedones Runs mad for joy. How often you would send meter ametor hes emoi su pollakis Your secret messages. You would come, you said, femas lathra proupempes hos phanoumenos And punish her yourself. The luckless chance timoros autos. alla tauth ho dustoukhes That haunts us both has stolen hope away, daimon ho sos te kamos exapheileto, And sent me for the bright form that I lov’d hos s’ hode moi proupempsen anti philtates These ashes and a shade that cannot help. morphes spodon te kai skiyan anophele.

13 Ah me, alas! oimoi moi. O pitiful and strange! o demas oiktron pheu pheu Ah me, alas, alas! o denotatas oimoimoi, O dearest, by what strange and terrible ways pemphtheis keloythoos, philtat hos m’ apolesas You travell’d, to destroy me utterly, apolesas det, o kasigneton kara. Yes, brother, to destroy! Come, welcome me toigar su dexai m’ es to son tode stegos, To this same narrow room, which houses you, ten mèden eis to meden, hos soon soi kato My nothing to your nothing. Let me dwell nayo to loipon kai gar henik esth ano, With you below for ever. Here in life zun soi meteikon ton ison, kai noon pothau We shared and shared alike. Now I would share too soo thanoosa me apoleipestai taphou. Your grave, and never part from you again, tous gar thanontas oukh horo loupoumenous. I see, only the dead can feel no pain.

J. T. Sheppard Bowes & Bowes, Cambridge 1927 *omitted in the setting [The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation 1938]

Brian Elias & Susan Bickley during the recording session photo © Ben Ealovega

14 Brian Elias Bombay was Brian Elias’s fi rst of La Chevelure gave him the home, until he was sent to school in confi dence to tackle larger-scale England at the age of thirteen. By structures: the fi rst signifi cant then he had already composed a fair product was the Petronius setting amount – or rather improvised, as it Somnia (1979) for tenor and was not until the need arose to make orchestra, followed in 1982 by the parts for school performances that song cycle At the Edge of Time. In Elias began properly writing his ideas L’Eylah (1983), he at last felt free down. In 1966 he entered the Royal to write a large, abstract orchestral College of Music, offi cially studying work; it was greeted with enthusiasm composition under Humphrey Searle by audience and critics at its BBC and Bernard Stevens, though it was Proms premiere. the experience of ‘moonlighting’ with the composer Elisabeth Lutyens Geranos for chamber ensemble he found most stimulating. Under (1985) confi rmed his growing Lutyens’s infl uence, Elias produced confi dence and mastery, as did the a Webern-like cantata La Chevelure, vividly atmospheric Pythikos Nomos which made a positive impression at (The Law of the Python, 1987-8) its fi rst hearing in 1968. for alto saxophone and piano. But these were surpassed by Elias’s After leaving the RCM he produced next major work, the orchestral a number of small-scale works, song cycle Five Songs to Poems culminating in the unaccompanied by Irina Ratushinskaya (1989), choral Proverbs of Hell, based on commissioned by the BBC; it was so William Blake. This and a revival well received at its London premiere

15 that it was toured by the BBC ambitious orchestral scores to the Symphony Orchestra, repeated at tiniest instrumental pieces – is the 1991 Proms, and later recorded executed with meticulous care. Yet for NMC (NMC D064). the result is music that never sounds merely ‘careful’. The House That In 1992 came one of Elias’s greatest Jack Built (2001) is bold, dazzlingly successes, The Judas Tree, a riveting inventive and full of dancing forty-minute score written for the energy. His 2004 commission for Royal Ballet and choreographed the Cheltenham Festival was A by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, which Talisman, premiered by the National has remained securely in the Royal Youth Orchestra Sinfonietta and Ballet’s repertory ever since; although Paul Putnins, and scored for bass- written to be danced, it is scarcely baritone and small orchestra; and less impressive performed purely a more recent orchestral work is as an orchestral work. For all his Doubles (2009), commissioned by achievement as a composer of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. largescale works, however, Elias has not forgotten his early liking for music Elias is the recipient of two British of a more intimate scale and manner: Composer Awards; the fi rst in 2010 two recent successes include Three for the orchestral work Doubles, Songs (2003) on poems by Christina which was commissioned by the Rossetti for alto voice and harp, and a BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the piece for solo clarinet, Birds Practise second in 2013 for Electra Mourns. Songs in Dreams (2004). This piece, a setting of Sophocles in ancient Greek, was written for Elias has never been a prolifi c Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano) composer, and all his work – from and Nicholas Daniel (cor anglais)

16 and fi rst performed with the Britten Also by Brian Elias on NMC... Sinfonia at the BBC Proms in 2012. Five Songs to Poems Elias’ String Quartet, composed by Irina Ratushinskaya in 2012 for the Jerusalem String BBC Symphony Orchestra/Brabbins Quartet, was premiered at Wake NMC D064 Forest University in North Carolina in 2013. The piece was performed The House that Jack Built and broadcast by the EBU at the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Brabbins/ Zeist Festival in Holland in 2014 and Davies/Belohlávekv received its London premiere at the NMC D173 Wigmore Hall in 2015. Compilations: Forthcoming works include a Cello Peroration (Jane Manning Sings) Concerto for Natalie Clein and an NMC D025 Oboe Quintet. Moto perpetuo; Plaint (Spectrum) NMC D057 Fantasia (In Sunlight) NMC D098 Meet me in the Green Glen (The NMC Songbook) NMC D150

Information about the artists on this Impromptu (Sound Census) disc can be found on NMC’s website: NMC D160 www.nmcrec.co.uk

17 THANK YOU SUPPORT NMC RECORDINGS PRODUCERS’ CIRCLE Anonymous, Robert D. Bielecki Foundation, Anthony Bolton, Luke As a charity NMC is non-profi t-making, providing Gardiner, Jonathan Goldstein, Nicholas and Judith Goodison, public benefi t through the contribution our work Vladimir Jurowski, Ralph Kanza, George Law, Colin Matthews, makes to enriching cultural life. Our ability James and Anne Rushton, Richard Steele, Charlotte Stevenson, to record and promote the innovative, the Janis Susskind, Andrew Ward, Arnold Whittall. challenging, the obscure and the lost is reliant upon securing the support of individuals who are PRINCIPAL BENEFACTORS as passionate about new music as we are. Benjamin Bruce, Diana Burrell, Robin Chapman, Anton Cox, Brian Elias, Richard Fries, Michael Greenwald, Terry Holmes, Stephen Friends membership (£50 / £20 concession per Johns, Jeremy Marchant, Belinda Matthews, Robert McFarland, year) offers advance notice of NMC releases, a Kieron O’Hara, Tarik O’Regan, Duncan Tebbet, Christoph and quarterly newsletter, and invitations to selected NMC events including CD launches. Benefactors Marion Trestler, Peter Wakefi eld, Judith Weir, (£100) also receive up to 25% discount on NMC Hugh Wood. CDs, are credited in CD booklets, and invited to BENEFACTORS recording sessions. Principal Benefactors (£250+) Anonymous, Raj Arumugan, Peter Aylmer, Peter Baldwin, Sir Alan are additionally welcomed to an annual gathering, Bowness, Gabriel Bray, Tony Britten, Andrew Burn, Sally Cavender, with the opportunity to meet NMC composers. Michael Cayley, David Charlton, Susan Costello and Robert Clark, The NMC Producers’ Circle invites donations of Sheila Colvin, Steven Foster, Matthew Frost, Anthony Gilbert, £1,000+ to help us release particular hidden gems. Alexander Goehr, Jennifer Goodwin, Adam Gorb, Elaine Gould, It allows donors to gain an exclusive insight into Paul Griffi ths, David Gutman, Barry Guy, Matthew Harris, Robin and association with our work. Holloway, Helen Hughes, Norman Jacobs, Peter Jenkins, Alison and Kjeld Jensen, Ed Jones, Neil King QC, Liz Leach, Bertie Leigh, We welcome Corporate Friends (£500+ VAT) who Andrew Lockyer, Sally Marks, Prof Stephen McHanwell, Stephen seek to align themselves with NMC’s values of and Jackie Newbould, Dominic Nudd, Marina Ogilvy, Roy Parker, quality, creativity and innovation. Stephen Plaistow, Chris Potts, Ronald Powell, Lee Rodwell, Julian A gift in your Will is an enduring way to mark your Rushton, Keith Salway, Howard Saunders, Ian Sesnan FRSA, appreciation of NMC’s pioneering work and help Howard Skempton, David Smith, Kenneth Smith, Martin Staniforth, v us secure our future aspirations. Our individual Owen Toller, Kevin Turner, Hannah Vlcek, Anthony Whitworth-Jones. supporters ensure the breadth and ambition of our CORPORATE FRIENDS output; no gift is too small. City & Cambridge Consultancy, Faber Music, Freshfi elds Bruckhaus Please visit: www.nmcrec.co.uk/support-us Deringer LLP, The Incorporated Society of Musicians, The Music email: [email protected], Sales Group, Royal Philharmonic Society, Schott Music Ltd. or phone 020 7759 1826 for more information.

18 Electra Mourns was recorded live by the BBC on 11 August 2012 DISTRIBUTION Cadogan Hall, London for the BBC Proms. NMC recordings are distributed worldwide in CD and download format. For more information visit our website. MICHAEL BACON & CHRISTOPHER ROUSE Recording Engineers ANTHONY SELLORS Recording Producer You can also purchase recordings direct from our online store www.nmcrec.co.uk Geranos was recorded on 20-21 September 2016 at Hallé St Michael’s, Ancoats, Manchester. Once did I breathe another’s breath and Meet me in the Green Glen were recorded on 7 December 2016 at The Menuhin FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT: Hall, Yehudi Menuhin School, Surrey NMC Recordings Ltd DAVID LEFEBER Recording Engineer & Producer Somerset House, Third Floor, South Wing, SUSANNE STANZELEIT Digital Editing Strand, London, WC2R 1LA DAVID LEFEBER Mastering Tel. +44 (0)20 7759 1827/8 • Fax. +44 (0)20 7759 1829 E-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.nmcrec.co.uk COLIN MATTHEWS Executive Producer for NMC All rights of the manufacturer and owner of the recorded material FRANCOIS HALL Cover image and graphic design reserved. Unauthorised public performance, broadcasting and copying of this recording prohibited. Brian Elias’s music is published by Chester Music, part of the Music Sales Group Electra Mourns ® 2012 BBC NMC Recordings is a charitable company (reg. no. 328052) established Electra Mourns (track 14): The copyright in the recording is owned by for the recording of contemporary music by the Holst Foundation; it the BBC. The BBC word mark and logo and the ‘BBC Radio 3’ logo are is grateful for funding from Arts Council England, the Britten-Pears trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and used Foundation, The Boltini Trust and The Delius Trust. under licence. BBC Logo © BBC 2005 ANNE RUSHTON Executive Director All other tracks ® 2017 NMC Recordings Ltd ELEANOR WILSON General Manager © 2017 NMC Recordings Ltd GWENDOLYN TIETZE Head of Development Catalogue no.: NMC D235 ALEX WRIGHT Development and Projects Co-ordinator RACHEL WILMOT Label Assistant Produced in association with BBC Radio 3

Incorporating a BBC Recording

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Complete song cycle, performed in full by Roderick Williams and Susan Bickley.

Brian Elias 1 Meet me in the Green Glen Roderick Williams baritone 2 Meet me in the Green Glen Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano

Enter code: ELIAS235

www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/meet-me-green-glen photo © Ben Ealovega 20