NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 1

Howard Skempton Ben Somewhen Choral and chamber music

BCMG• EXAUDI• James Weeks, conductor NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 2

Howard Skempton : Ben Somewhen

Chamber Concerto 5’38 Birmingham Contemporary Music Group John Tattersdill, double bass 1 Con bravura 1’02 Flute/piccolo Marie-Christine Zupancic 2 Tempo giusto 1’23 Oboe Melinda Maxwell Clarinet Timothy Lines 3 Grazioso 1’47 Bassoon Andrew Barnell 4 Teneramente 1’26 Horn Andrew Antcliff Clarinet Quintet 8’43 Trumpet Jonathan Holland Trombone Duncan Wilson 5 Andante 3’00 Percussion Julian Warburton 6 Comodo 2’57 Piano Malcolm Wilson 7 Largo 2’44 Harp Céline Saout Violin 1 Marcus Barcham-Stevens 8 The Voice of the Spirits 7’30 Violin 2 Judith Templeman 9 The Bridge of Fire 7’04 Viola Christopher Yates Cello 1 Ulrich Heinen Suite from Delicate 18’12 Cello 2 Richard Jenkinson 10 Pulse 8’44 Double Bass John Tattersdill 11 Triangle I 2’53 EXAUDI 12 Easy 0’41 Soprano Juliet Fraser a • Julia Doyle a 13 Triangle II 1’30 Charlotte Mobbs d • Amanda Morrison c 14 Solo 3’30 Katie Trethewey c 15 Ending 0’48 Alto Ruth Massey a • Tom Williams a Polly May b • Anne Jones c 16 Roundels of the Year 7’15 Tenor Stephen Jeffes a • Jonathan Bungard a b c 17 Rise up, my love 8’35 Simon Wall • Thomas Herford Bass Jonathan Saunders a • Jimmy Holliday a 17 Rise up, my love 3’39 Gareth Dayus-Jones b • Tom Oldham c 18 How fair is thy love 1’47 19 My beloved is gone down 1’14 JAMES WEEKS conductor 20 How fair and how pleasant 1’54 photo: Clive Barda EXAUDI and Chamber Concerto a All choral tracks 21 Ben Somewhen 12’16 The line drawings in this booklet are by Ben Hartley (1933-1996), and have b The Voice of the Spirits, The Bridge of Fire, Roundels of the Year been included by kind permission of Bernard Samuels. More information about c The Bridge of Fire Total timing 76’08 the artist can be found at www.ben-hartley.co.uk d The Voice of the Spirits, Roundels of the Year

2 3 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 4

Howard Skempton by James Weeks

Widely celebrated as a master of the miniature, composer of dozens of tiny works for Yet this is Skempton’s terrain, and he inhabits it piano and for accordion of alluring simplicity and refinement, Howard Skempton’s without irony and without the backward glances renown has grown since the early 1990s and led him to embrace larger musical of nostalgia or conservatism. His compositional horizons: works for orchestra (including the popular Lento, recorded on NMC D005), roots lie in the British Experimental tradition that chamber ensembles and choirs. This disc presents the first major survey of grew up around his teacher Cornelius Cardew in Skempton’s larger-scale chamber and choral music, from the Roundels of the Year the 1960s and ’70s, a tradition of radical conceptualism (1992) to Ben Somewhen (2005). Together, the works recorded here exemplify the engaged in finding new ways of seeing, not merely new breadth of his art: the variety of his subjects and materials, the virtuosity of his things to see. In Skempton, familiar things are not craftsmanship, and the consistency of aesthetic vision that makes a Skempton piece as they might at first appear, for no-one has gone utterly unmistakable. further than he in searching within the familiar in order to find fresh truths: it is precisely this For all its transparency, Skempton’s music is highly subtle and frequently that defines the radicalism of his aesthetic. Real elusive. Newcomers to it are often puzzled by his notoriety, for at first illumination, he suggests, is to be sought and found hearing one is overwhelmed not by the music’s novelty but by its in what we think we know best of all. familiarity. A simple round, a folky dance tune, a sentimental air, a two- chord oompah accompaniment, a To reveal the familiar in a new light, Skempton (like a warm Romantic harmony that photographer) skilfully adjusts the angles of vision, showing us a side we had never would scarcely have caused really seen, a harmony previously overlooked, a fleeting texture to be caught and Brahms a raised eyebrow... all of explored, a quirk of melody that stands out when viewed from a new position. Like a it inherited, worn-out syntax, photographer, too, his art is essentially static, even when it describes motion: there is fodder perhaps for a television in all Skempton’s music the stillness of looking – repetition holding our gaze in the costume drama but surely not lyric moment. His is a music of close-ups, the tiniest detail shown in the sharpest focus for a serious composer? – hence the miniature scale of so much of his work, powerful in its economy.

4 5 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 6

Hence too the fact that Skempton’s longer pieces are overarching spans. Yet one senses Skempton revelling, as ever, in the almost always strings of miniatures (Rise up, my love, challenge of so extreme a limitation, turning his material over and Suite from Delicate, Chamber Concerto, Clarinet over to reveal new facets and hold our fascination. Thus it is he is Quintet, Ben Somewhen) or miniatures-writ-large able in his choral music to remain true to the Romantic luxuriance (The Voice of the Spirits, Roundels of the Year, and English consonance of Shelley, Flecker and Drinkwater whilst The Bridge of Fire). The former are perhaps preserving his own experimentalist inclinations. easier to assimilate for the listener, their variety Skempton is no ironist: what is traditional, conventional, allowing each musical image to remain fresher in even child-like in his music is genuinely-felt and lovingly the mind; thus, for example, the four motivically- rendered. He challenges us to dismantle linked movements of the laconic Chamber Concerto, the barricades of our superficial sophistication and to hear these which vividly offset each other both instrumentally things which we have rejected or grown out of through new ears. and stylistically, running an eccentric though quite He confronts and absorbs notions of tradition, folk-art, popular typical gamut from Stravinskian tartness through guileless music and amateur and community music-making with melody to succulent Romanticism. honesty and candour as well as intellectual rigour and radical More demanding for the listener, but also more revealing of their creator, are the imagination. The pianist Ian Pace has written that miniatures-writ-large. Skempton’s choice of poetry in The Voice of the Spirits and ‘Skempton’s work does not present an (inevitably empty) The Bridge of Fire is characteristic, as is his respectful attention to the escape from reality, but rather a heightened perception of that most minute inflexions of metre, and to nuances of meaning which is real. It is music of one who is ever the optimist.’ and mood. Both pieces pursue a single, Skempton’s gentle, brave, optimistic music invites us to employ chordal texture throughout their length, both our keenest critical faculty and our most open heart. requiring a tour-de-force of both composer and performers to sustain their mighty © 2007 James Weeks

6 7 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 8

Chamber Concerto Clarinet Quintet The Bridge of Fire

For 15 players For clarinet and string quartet For SATB choir My Chamber Concerto was commissioned by movements. The second and third are clearly My Clarinet Quintet was commissioned by James Elroy Flecker died in 1915, aged the 1995 Brighton Festival for Cambridge related, but (as in many families) physical Warwick Arts Society with funds provided by thirty. He is perhaps best known to New Music Players. The title dates from a resemblance emphasises individuality. The West Midlands Arts. The first performance musicians as the writer of Hassan (Delius time when I intended to write a piece similar Chamber Concerto is my second piece written took place in the Royal Pump Room, wrote incidental music for the first in scale and character to Webern’s Concerto especially for Cambridge New Music Players. Leamington Spa in July 1997. production in 1923). The Bridge of Fire, written in 1906, is the title poem of Flecker’s Op.24. What emerged was somewhat The first was The Witches’ Wood dating from There are three movements: a subdued prelude, first published volume. The title came before different: four confidently independent 1990. HS an airy interlude, and a bluesy postlude. HS the poem, and according to a friend, once the Howard Skempton with BCMG title had been chosen, “[we] then debated the not unimportant question of what ‘The Bridge of Fire’ would be about. At midnight we parted, the question still unsettled. Flecker, however remarked cheerfully that it did not much matter – it was a jolly good title and he’d easily be able to think of a poem to suit it”. The Bridge of Fire is largely a vivid description of the many Gods of Heaven, the great and the good, the bad and the ugly; this setting deals only with the first and last of the poem’s six verses. It was first performed by the BBC Singers under Bo Holten in New York in May 2001. HS Recording the opening of the Chamber Concerto: Andrew Antcliff (horn) & Duncan Wilson (trombone)

8 9 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 10

The Voice of the Spirits Suite from Delicate Roundels of the Year

For SATB choir For two cellos and percussion For choir The text of this work is taken from Shelley’s This set of six pieces is extracted from 70 Roundels of the Year was commissioned by the epic poem Prometheus Unbound. Shelley minutes of music for Delicate, a Motionhouse Elysian Singers. The text is a set of six poems by studied science at University College for just Dance Theatre production premièred at John Drinkwater (1882-1937). Drinkwater had five months before being sent down, and the Warwick Arts Centre in 1996. Motionhouse’s close associations with Warwickshire and much of choice of text reflects the poet’s scientific work owes much of its vigour and richness his poetry reveals his love of the countryside. The interests. Skempton chose to set passages to the strengths of its team of dancers, first and last of six roundels serve as introduction from the poem in which a Chorus of Hours choreographers and designers, but also and postscript. The central four describe the and a Chorus of Spirits celebrate in ecstatic benefits from the generous scope of its seasons, beginning with spring. HS language the unshackling of the human collaborations. For Delicate, the company spirit through the enlightenment of Science. was eager to work both with BCMG and with Written in his customary style of great writer A L Kennedy, whose powerful and Rise up, my Love simplicity, Skempton’s hypnotic score acutely funny text played a central role and beautifully captures the visionary lyricism stimulated many of the musical ideas. For SATB choir of the poetry: long lyrical sections in two different keys distinguish the hopes and The medium of two cellos was chosen for its Rise up, my Love was commissioned by the fears of the Hours and the Spirits before they range and versatility; a percussionist was Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir who gave are united in song at the end of the piece. added to help take the (considerable) strain. the first performance in Tallinn Methodist Church Lack of space in smaller venues restricted the on 14 September 2002. The work consists of four © OUP 2007 size of the percussion set to a single ‘timpano’, settings of texts from the Song of Solomon and is a pair of congas and a glockenspiel. HS dedicated to the choir’s conductor, Paul Hillier. Two years earlier, in 2000, Paul had commissioned The Voice of the Spirits was commissioned by Delicate was commissioned by BCMG through its University College, Oxford to mark its 750th Sound Investment scheme, with the support of The Song of Songs for The Theatre of Voices. This anniversary, and was premièred by the choir of Catherine and Derrick Archer, Kiaran Asthana, had been a contemplative, perhaps reticent, first University College at St. John’s, Smith Square, Barrie Gavin, Arthur Knapp, Michael Squires, Anne reaction and I was eager to look again at such Ulrich Heinen (front) and Richard Jenkinson recording Suite from Delicate London in November 1999. Strathie, and Alan and Claudine Tune. remarkable poetry. HS

10 11 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 12

Ben Somewhen

For flute, clarinet, harp, violin, viola, 2 cellos and double bass

Commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music After the recording of Ben Somewhen Ben Somewhen, a 12-minute work for chamber ensemble, was commissioned by Group and the following Investors through BCMG’s Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Sound Investment scheme: with financial assistance from BCMG Sound Kiaran Asthana, Viv and Hazel Astling, Valda and Investors. The title refers to a set of Leon Bailey, Amanda Cadman, Alan S Carr, drawings by the brilliantly gifted and Christopher Carrier, Andrew and Elizabeth Coates, original, but equally reclusive, British artist, Simon Collings, Peter Fell: In memory of Frederick Ben Hartley (1933-96). Since Hartley’s Bye – my bass teacher, Anne P Fletcher, John death, his work has become known through Fosbrook, Maggie Giraud, Richard Hartree, Eleanor the efforts of the friend to whom it was and John Hind, Fern Hodges, Timothy Lean, Martyn and Suzanne Leighton, Martin Lygo, Colin entrusted, Bernard Samuels, a former Matthews, Graham Morris Consultancy, In memory director of Plymouth Arts Centre. My piece is of Chris Onion, In memory of Hazel Mary Richards, dedicated to Bernard, and is a musical Elizabeth Robinson, Stephen Saltaire, Maureen and commentary on fifteen of the hundred-odd William Scott, Anthony Sharp, Michael Squires, John drawings (adorned with texts) which and Anne Sweet, Alex Vernon, Chris Walsh and comprise Ben Somewhen. It also serves as a Gabrielle Stanley, Faith Wilson: In memory of tribute to BCMG’s double bassist, John Christine Wilson, Doreen and Harry Wright. Tattersdill. The idea of writing a concertante This recording was produced with the the generous work for double bass and ensemble support of: Kiaran Asthana, Viv and Hazel Astling, contributed greatly to the character of the Valda and Leon Bailey, Christopher Carrier, Simon piece and the choice of instrumentation. Collings, Anne P Fletcher, Barrie Gavin, Richard Hartree, Eleanor and John Hind, Fern Hodges, © 2007 Howard Skempton Timothy Lean, Bernard Samuels, Michael Squires, John and Anne Sweet, Chris Walsh and Gabrielle Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press Stanley, Harry and Doreen Wright.

12 13 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 14

The Voice of the Spirits And it limped and stumbled with many wounds From that deep abyss Then weave the web of the mystic measure; Through the nightly dells of the desert year. Of wonder and bliss, From the depths of the sky and the ends of the earth, Percy Bysshe Shelley Whose caverns are crystal palaces; Come, swift Spirits of might and of pleasure, But now, oh, weave the mystic measure From those skiey towers Fill the dance and the music of mirth, Tutti Of music, and dance, and shapes of light, Where Thought’s crowned powers As the waves of a thousand streams rush by The voice of the Spirits of Air and of Earth Let the Hours, and the Spirits of might and pleasure, Sit watching your dance, ye happy Hours! To an ocean of splendour and harmony! Have drawn back the figured curtain of sleep Like the clouds and sunbeams, unite– Which covered our being and darkened our birth From the dim recesses In the deep. Altos Of woven caresses, The Bridge of Fire Unite! Where lovers catch ye by your loose tresses; Solo From the azure isles, James Elroy Flecker In the deep? Solo Alto (spoken) See, where the Spirits of the human mind Where sweet Wisdom smiles, High on the bridge of Heaven whose Eastern bars Tutti Wrapped in sweet sounds, as in bright veils, approach. Delaying your ships with her siren wiles. Exclude the interchange of Night and Day, Oh, below the deep. Robed with faint seas and crowned with quiet stars Tutti (sung) From the temples high Of Man’s ear and eye, All great Gods dwell to whom men prayed or pray. An hundred ages we had been kept We join the throng Roofed over Sculpture and Poesy; No winter chills, no fear or fever mars Cradled in visions of hate and care, Of the dance and the song, From the murmurings Their grand and timeless hours of pomp and play; By the whirlwind of gladness borne along; And each one who waked as his brother slept, Of the unsealed springs Some drive about the Rim wind-golden cars Found the truth– As the flying-fish leap Where Science bedews his Dædal wings. Or, shouting, laugh Eternity away. Worse than his visions were! From the Indian deep, And mix with the sea-birds, half-asleep. Years after years, The daughters of their pride, We have heard the lute of Hope in sleep; Through blood, and tears, Moon-pale, blue water-eyed, We have known the voice of Love in dreams; Whence come ye, so wild and so fleet, And a thick hell of hatreds, and hopes, and fears; Their flame-white bodies pearled with failing spray, We have felt the wand of Power, and leap– For sandals of lightning are on your feet, We waded and flew, Send all their dark hair streaming As the billows leap in the morning beams! And your wings are soft and swift as thought, And the islets were few Down where the worlds lie gleaming, And your eyes are as love which is veilèd not? Where the bud-blighted flowers of happiness grew. And draw their mighty lovers close and say: Weave the dance on the floor of the breeze, “Come over by the Stream: one hears We come from the mind Pierce with song heaven’s silent light, Our feet now, every palm, The speech of Nations broken in the chant of Spheres.” Enchant the day that too swiftly flees, Of humankind Are sandalled with calm, To check its flight ere the cave of Night. Which was late so dusk, and obscene, and blind; And the dew of our wings is a rain of balm; Between the pedestals of Night and Morning, Now ‘tis an ocean And, beyond our eyes, Between red death and radiant desire Once the hungry Hours were hounds Of clear emotion, The human love lies With not one sound of triumph or of warning Which chased the day like a bleeding deer, A heaven of serene and mighty motion. Which makes all it gazes on Paradise. Stands the great sentry on the Bridge of Fire.

14 15 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 16

O transient soul, thy thought with dreams adorning, The spring is passing through the land The wizard of the year has spread Not wise as cunning scholars are, Cast down the laurel, and un-string the lyre: In web of ghostly green arrayed, A glory over wood and wold, With curious words upon your tongue. The wheels of Time are turning, turning, turning, And blood is warm in man and maid. The loaded sheaves are harvested, Surely, clear child of earth, some far The slow stream channels deep and doth not tire. The sheep are in the stubbled fold, The arches of desire have spanned Dim Dryad-haunted groves among, Gods on their Bridge above The barren ways, the debts is paid, The yellow apples and the red Your lips to lips of knowledge clung, Whispering lies and love The spring is passing through the land Bear down the boughs, the hazels hold Not wise as cunning scholars are, Shall mock your passage down the sunless river, In web of ghostly green arrayed. No more their fruit in cups of gold. With curious words upon your tongue, Which, rolling all its streams, Sweet scents along the winds are fanned The loaded sheaves are harvested, Are you for whom my song is sung. Shall take you, king of dreams, From shadowy wood and secret glade The sheep are in the stubbled fold, The tale of labour crowned is told. – Unthroned and unapproachable for ever – Where beauty blossoms unafraid, Rise up, my love To where the kings who dreamed of old The spring is passing through the land The year is lapsing into time from The Song of Solomon Whiten in habitations monumental cold. In web of ghostly green arrayed, Along a deep and songless gloom, And blood is warm in man and maid. Unchapleted of leaf or bloom. Rise up, my love Roundels of the Year Proud insolent June with burning lips Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. And mute between the dusk and prime For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; John Drinkwater Holds riot now from sea to sea, The diligent earth resets her loom, – And shod in sovran gold is she. The flowers appear on the earth; The year is lapsing into time I caught the changes of the year The time of the singing of birds is come, To the full flood of reaping slips Along a deep and songless gloom. In soft and fragile nets of song, And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The seeding-tide by God’s decree, For you to whom my days belong. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, Proud insolent June with burning lips While o’er the snows the seasons chime Their golden hopes to reillume And the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. For you to whom each day is dear Holds riot now from sea to sea. The brief eclipse about the tomb Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Of all the high processional throng And all the goodly fellowships The year is lapsing into time O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, I caught the changes of the year Of bird and bloom and beast and tree Along a deep and songless gloom, In the secret places of the stairs, In soft and fragile nets of song. Are gallant of her company Unchapleted of leaf or bloom. Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; And here some sound of beauty, here Proud insolent June with burning lips For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Not wise as cunning scholars are, Some note of ancient, ageless wrong Holds riot now from sea to sea, Rise up, my love, my fair one. With curious words upon your tongue, Reshaping as my lips were strong, And shod in sovran gold is she. Are you for whom my song is sung. How fair is thy love I caught the changes of the year The loaded sheaves are harvested, How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse, In soft and fragile nets of song, The sheep are in the stubbled fold, But you are wise of cloud and star, How much better is thy love than wine! For you to whom my days belong. The tale of labour crowned is told. And winds and boughs all blossom-hung, And the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

16 17 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 18

My beloved is gone down and Gemini Dances (1994), which received 2000, a tour of India in 2002 with Judith HOWARD SKEMPTON its Italian premiere from Ensemble Sentieri Weir and Indian storyteller Vayu Naidu, and My beloved is gone down into his garden, to Selvaggi at a sell-out concert at La Scala, visits to the Berlin, Radio France Présences the beds of spices, Howard Skempton was born in Chester in 1947; he has worked as a composer, Milan. Tendrils was premiered by the Smith and Vienna’s Wien Modern Festivals, To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. accordionist, and music publisher. From Quartet at the 2004 Huddersfield Festival Denmark, Sweden and Portugal. Recent UK I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: 1967 he studied in London with Cornelius of Contemporary Music: it went on to win engagements have included appearances Cardew, who helped him to discover a both the prize for Best Chamber-scale at the Aldeburgh and Cheltenham He feedeth among the lilies. Festivals, and at the BBC Proms with musical language of great simplicity; since Composition at the 2005 RPS Awards, and Birmingham Opera Company for Benjamin then he has continued to write undeflected the chamber prize at the BACS British How fair and how pleasant Composer Awards in December of the same Britten’s Curlew River. How fair and how pleasant art thou, by compositional trends, and has produced a corpus of more than 300 works – many year. BCMG was awarded The Arts Ball 2002 O love, for delights! being miniatures for solo piano or Outstanding Achievement Award and has I am my beloved’s, accordion. Skempton calls these pieces BIRMIMGHAM CONTEMPORARY also won prestigious Prudential, Royal And his desire is toward me. “the central nervous system” of his work. Philharmonic Society (RPS), Gramophone MUSIC GROUP and PRS Millennial awards: in 2005, BCMG Many of Skempton’s compositions have BCMG was formed in 1987 from within the was awarded the RPS Award for Audience been recorded, including the highly Development for its Rural Tours programme. successful Lento by the BBC Symphony City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra (on NMC), piano works by John is established as one of Europe’s leading BCMG is committed to engaging the widest Tilbury, and Shiftwork by Ensemble Bash. ensembles. Sir Simon Rattle is the Group’s possible range of people with its work, and 2001 saw the release on Guild of The Flight Founding Patron, and has conducted BCMG runs extensive learning and audience- of Song, an acclaimed choral collection in the UK, on tour in Europe and America, building programmes in pursuit of this aim. performed by the choir of Queens’ College and on several recordings. The Group has Projects with young people in and out of school and with adults in a range of Cambridge under James Weeks. strong relationships with its two Artists-in- Association Oliver Knussen and John community settings are complemented by In recent years Skempton has concentrated Woolrich, and also with Thomas Adès, who free performance projects such as the increasingly on vocal and choral music; in conducted the Group during 2006-07 in Group’s popular ‘Rural Tours’, Late-Night addition to the works on this disc, Birmingham, London, Cologne and Paris, performances and Meet-the-Composer days. Lamentations (2001), for bass and theorbo, and in New York in 2008. BCMG broadcasts often on BBC Radio, has was premièred by Paul Hillier and Nigel North. made TV programmes for BBC and The core of BCMG’s work is the performance Independent Television, and CD recordings Recent works have included Gleams and of new music, and the Group has premiered for EMI, Decca, Cantaloupe and NMC. The Fragments (for OKEANOS), Random Girl (for over 100 new works by leading UK and relationship with NMC is particularly strong, New Noise), Three Pieces for guitarist Tom overseas composers: most have been including discs of music by Simon Holt Kerstens, and Slip-Stream for Ensemble Bash. commissioned with the support of a large (Boots of Lead, NMC D094), Benjamin number of individuals through BCMG’s Other major works of recent years have Britten (Britten on Film, NMC D112), Stuart ground-breaking Sound Investment scheme. included Eternity’s Sunrise (2004) MacRae (NMC D115) and Philip Cashian (Dark Inventions, NMC D061); several more commissioned and toured by the Wakeford BCMG regularly tours nationally and recordings are planned. Ensemble; Ballade, performed by the Apollo internationally; projects have included a Saxophone Quartet and Goldberg Ensemble; European tour with Sir Simon Rattle in www.bcmg.org.uk

18 19 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 20

Glamorgan, Aldeburgh, Spitalfields and As a conductor he is known for his Exaudi EXAUDI Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festivals, JAMES WEEKS championing of both early and contemporary JAMES WEEKS, DIRECTOR Dartington International Summer School Born in Blackburn in 1978, James Weeks was music, particularly with EXAUDI, which he and London’s South Bank and National formed in 2002 with soprano Juliet Fraser Since its debut in 2002, EXAUDI has Organ Scholar of Queens’ College, Cambridge Portrait Gallery. EXAUDI broadcasts and has directed exclusively since then. He emerged as one of Britain’s leading young from 1997-2000, where he read Music, and contemporary music ensembles. With a regularly on BBC Radio 3 and has released completed his PhD in composition at the has also worked as a conductor with BCMG, repertoire that encompasses Ockeghem and critically acclaimed recordings of Michael University of Southampton. His music is New Music Players, New London Chamber Ferneyhough, Tallis and Xenakis, EXAUDI Finnissy, Elisabeth Lutyens and Christopher regularly heard across Europe, has been Choir, Fretwork, IXION, I Fagiolini and has performed to great acclaim throughout Fox on NMC. In January 2007 the ensemble broadcast on German and Dutch radio and Endymion. He teaches composition at Eton BBC Radio 3, and is promoted by the BMIC’s the UK and in Europe, and established a made its European debut for CDMC Madrid College, gives organ recitals of new music, New Voices scheme. Recent works have been ground-breaking and much-praised with a programme of Dillon, Xenakis, writes regularly for a number of new music completed for Alison Balsom, Kürbis, discography on NMC. Scelsi, Rihm, Sciarrino and Ferneyhough. journals, and is a member of the EXAUDI has twice been shortlisted in the Bloomsbury Trio, EXAUDI and CoMA South, contemporary/experimental music Founded by James Weeks (director) and Ensemble category of the RPS Awards, in and he has been heard at festivals and halls ensembles Klangsieben, Kürbis and The Juliet Fraser (soprano), EXAUDI is based in including Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall, 2006 and 2007. Hola. London and draws its singers from among City of London Festival, Vale of Glamorgan the UK’s brightest new vocal talents. The www.exaudi.org.uk Festival, Gaudeamus and Mafra (Portugal). www.bmic.co.uk/alias/jamesweeks newest new music is at the heart of EXAUDI’s repertoire, and it has given UK and world premières of Sciarrino, Rihm, James Weeks with Marcus Barcham-Stevens Finnissy, Skempton, Richard Ayres, Christopher Fox and James Saunders among many others. EXAUDI is particularly committed to the younger generation of composers currently in their twenties and early thirties, and is proud to champion the work of major emerging voices including Evan Johnson, John Habron, Chung Shih Hoh, Philip Howard, Dorothy Ker, James Weeks and Claudia Molitor. Collaboration with other leading soloists and ensembles is an increasing feature of EXAUDI’s schedule, including appearances with ASKO Ensemble, Apartment House, Anton Lukoszevieze, Rohan de Saram, Irvine Arditti and Fretwork. EXAUDI has appeared at many leading UK

photo: Andrew Post venues and festivals, including Vale of

20 21 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 22

NMC FRIENDS

The choral music on this disc was recorded at St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, London on 16-17 January 2007. As a step towards placing This disc has been released with the generous support of NMC Friends: Engineer ANDREW POST Producer AARON CASSIDY NMC Recordings on a FOUNDER MEMBERS The instrumental works were recorded at the CBSO Centre, Anthony Bolton • W M Colleran • Richard Fries • Jeremy Marchant • Birmingham on 14-15 April 2007. sustainable long-term financial Engineer & Producer DAVID LEFEBER Belinda Matthews • Colin Matthews • Neale Osborne • Edward Smith footing, we have launched Mastering DAVID LEFEBER BENEFACTORS Executive Producer for NMC COLIN MATTHEWS NMC Friends. We very much Cover and booklet illustrations BEN HARTLEY, © BERNARD SAMUELS Graham Elliott • Mr & Mrs S Foster • Tim Frost • Penny & Clive Gillinson • Session photos JAMIE CAMPBELL hope that you will want to join Elaine Gould • Mr TM Holmes • Mrs AM Holmes • Andrew Lockyer • Graphic design FRANCOIS HALL us, and take this opportunity Jane Manning & Anthony Payne • Jackie Newbould • Stephen Newbould • Howard Skempton’s music is published by Oxford University Press. Dominic Nudd • James Rodley to support our continuing and NMC Recordings is a charitable company established for the recording FRIENDS of contemporary music by the Holst Foundation; it is grateful for central role in the future of funding from the Britten-Pears Foundation and Arts Council England. David Aldous • Raymond Ayriss • Peter Baldwin • Sebastian Bell • Sir Alan Bowness • HANNAH VLC˘EK Label Manager British contemporary music. Martyn Brabbins • Gavin Bullock • Robin Chapman • Simon Collings • Rebecca Dawson • ELEANOR WILSON Sales and Marketing Manager ANNE RUSHTON Business & Development David Mark Evans • David Ellis • Anthony Gilbert • Jenny Goodwin • Ian Gordon • DISTRIBUTION Cathy Graham • David Gutman • Matthew Harris • Dr Anthony Henfrey • NMC recordings are distributed in Australia, Austria, Belgium, By becoming a Friend of NMC, Dr Trevor Jarvis • Prof. Stephen McHanwell • David H J Morgan • Dr Kieron O’Hara • Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, your donation will help us to Stephen Plaistow • Andrew Porter • Keith Purser • Clark Rundell • Bernard Samuels • the United Kingdom and the United States, and are also available Howard Skempton • Ian Smith • Roger Stevens • Owen Toller • Janet Waterhouse • through our website www.nmcrec.co.uk record new and recent works James Weeks • Keith Whittock • Richard J Wildash • Graham Williams • NMC recordings are now available to download as MP3s from our website. by primarily British composers, David Wordsworth FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT: giving you the opportunity to DONATIONS NMC Recordings Ltd. at 18-20 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TJ, UK. W T L Farwell • K J Salway • Anonymous donations Tel: +44 (0)20 7403 9445 Fax: +44 (0)20 7403 9446 play a vital role in contributing E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.nmcrec.co.uk to the development and If you would like to help NMC to release more of the best of British contemporary All rights of the manufacturer and owner of the recorded material reserved. Unauthorised public performance, broadcasting and copying realisation of our future music, please contact us for details at: of this recording prohibited. Catalogue number: NMC D135 activities. For more details, NMC Friends, NMC Recordings Ltd ® 2007 NMC Recordings Ltd. please contact us at the 18-20 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TJ • Tel 020 7403 9445 © 2007 NMC Recordings Ltd. E-mail [email protected] • Web www.nmcrec.co.uk address opposite. Reg. Charity No. 328052 23 NMC1xx-skempton long rn 7/6/07 12:47 Page 24