Gabriel Jackson Requiem He Vasari Singers Gave the with People Today
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Oxford Winter 2008 musicnow32 Gabriel Jackson Requiem he Vasari Singers gave the with people today. We worked closely world premiere of Gabriel on the choice of poems and those which TJackson’s Requiem at St Gabriel ultimately selected for musical Martin-in-the-Fields on Tuesday setting reflect our desire to focus on life 11 November. The Vasari Singers, who renewal rather than death. commissioned the work, have a long The result is a unique blend of tradition of performing and commis- the traditional and the refreshingly sioning new music, and remain at the unfamiliar. Gabriel infuses the whole forefront of the contemporary choral with his luminous and ecstatic writing, music scene. producing a sublime work of true Jeremy Backhouse, Music Director of the profundity and vibrancy. Vasari Singers, and Gabriel Jackson reflect JEREMY BACKHOUSE on the Requiem: Photo: KatieVandyck I had long been an admirer of the choral output of Gabriel Jackson, one of the sit comfortably within the context of a leading composers of his generation, and cathedral Evensong, but that the works had been delighted with his anthem Now could also look beyond any constraints I have known, O Lord, written for our of Liturgy or formal religious doctrine 25th Anniversary in 2005. That encour- to embrace a wider, more ecumenical aged me to approach Gabriel to write us audience; something more humanistic a more extended work and thus the idea perhaps, that might connect more of a Requiem was born. relevantly with multi-cultural, multi-faith societies of the world in the twenty-first I wanted the traditional format to century. In a similar way, Gabriel and be given a wide-ranging appeal. My I were keen to look beyond the Latin brief for the set of ten anthems had Requiem texts by introducing verse that suggested that they should be able to resonated more personally and relevantly y new Requiem interweaves other times is that in their very different and our place it in, and of the meaning sonorous, slow-moving ways they all express a similar view of of loss. When set to music—with all Msettings of the hieratic, death to the Christian one—that it is its unique capacity to console and to unchanging words of the Latin rite with not the end, but the gateway to another uplift—the ritual power of ancient texts, more immediately personal meditations life. There will always be a need for their structure unchanged through the on death by Tagore, Hôjô Ujimasa, Walt Requiems, for we will always need centuries, offers a very special act of Whitman, the Australian Aboriginal to mourn, to memorialise, and to be healing. poet Kevin Gilbert, and the eighteenth- granted some brief glimpse of a better GABRIEL JACKSON century Mohican Chief Apuhumut. The world. And there will always be a need interesting thing about these various for new Requiems, to reflect our ever- texts from other spiritual traditions and evolving understanding of the world Contents ❙ Page 2 Gabriel Jackson ❙ Page 3 Howard Skempton ❙ Page 4 Libby Larsen ❙ Page 5 Walton’s Troilus and Cressida ❙ Page 6 Gerald Barry ❙ Page 7 Martin Butler ❙ Page 8 Bob Chilcott ❙ Page 9 Vaughan Williams ❙ Page 10 Michael Berkeley ❙ Page 11 Anniversary celebrations ❙ Page 12 New Composer Catalogues ❙ Page 13 New CDs ❙ Page 14 New Hire & Sales titles ❙ Page 16 Contact details www.oup.com/uk/music 2 OxfordMusicNow OxfordMusicNow Oxford composers at Kings Place Howard Skempton The first music to be heard at the exciting new London venue during the opening The celebrated pianist, John Tilbury, performed the world premiere of Howard concerts in October included works by Berkeley, Butler, and a Jackson premiere. Skempton’s work for solo piano, Notti stellate a Vagli on 10 June 2008 at St. John’s, Smith Square. The concert was preceded by a feature on BBC Radio 3 In Tune on 6 June, in The opening of Kings Place was heralded Berkeley’s Music for Chaucer was performed and the choice of an electric instrument which Tilbury performed an extract of the new work. by a performance of Martin Butler’s by the Royal Academy of Music Brass opened up all sorts of timbral possibili- Hunding, his show piece for solo horn. Soloists, and Martin Butler’s American ties through the use of effects pedals. The otti stellate a Vagli is named Taking place from 1-5 October, and Rounds was performed by the Schubert text, Ave, Regina caelorum, is one of the after a fourteenth-century incorporating a staggering 100 concerts, Ensemble. four great Marian Antiphons, originally N Tuscan hamlet, Borgo di the opening festival introduced Kings Place sung at None on the Feast of the Vagli, which has been restored The final day of celebration saw the to concert-goers and art-lovers in style. Assumption, and interpolated into the by the award-winning architect much-anticipated world premiere of Latin are some lines in English by Fulvio Di Rosa. Di Rosa is also Kings Place is a brand new building on Gabriel Jackson’s new work for voices and Christina Rossetti.’ the founder of the contemporary Regent’s Canal, near to Kings Cross/St electric guitar. Specially commissioned for classical musical foundation Pancras station. The building houses the the opening of Kings Place, Ave, Regina Atopos, who commissioned first newly built concert hall in London caelorum was magnificently performed by Skempton’s new piano work. since the Barbican opened 26 years ago. Tom Kerstens and The Sixteen. Gabriel The five-day opening festival turned Kings Jackson was thrilled to be involved in the Howard Skempton is not the first Place into a hive of artistic activity, with opening festivities at Kings Place, and composer to have been commissioned by performances taking place in the foyer and wrote of his new work: the Foundation, but all of the works have two art galleries, as well as in the recital ‘The archetypal Spanish associations of had a common inspiring theme at their base, as Fulvio Di Rosa explains: hall (Hall One), and the smaller, flexible the guitar suggested an obvious resonance performance space (Hall Two). with the great Iberian polyphonists that ‘All the composers were asked to refer Borgo di Vagli are such a speciality of The Sixteen, Photo: R Bryant their compositions to a place, i.e. As well as Butler’s Hunding, Michael Kings Place Hall 1 one of my restorations in Tuscany, He hasn’t been there... so far. ‘Notti stellate a Vagli is a companion or a specific magical area in Brazil, or piece to Triadic Memories and a homage But he couldn’t have expressed more ...... Howard dreamt of a starry night to Morton Feldman. It is nocturnal in intimately the emotions and the feelings over the hills around Cortona, where tone and stellar in texture. In place of of a whole night there.’ Borgo di Vagli—the latest of my memories we have an image of Tuscany.’ David Wilde plays Gabriel Jackson’s Piano Sonata restorations—“sleeps”. HOWARD SKEMPTON On 29 May, pianist David Wilde gave the world premiere of Gabriel Jackson’s Piano Sonata at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. Commissioned by David Wilde with funds provided by the Scottish Arts Council and the Britten-Pears Trust, the Sonata was Michael Finnissy in Norway Gabriel Erkoreka wins enthusiastically received. the Reina Sofía Prize lthough the tonal idiom is in its use of variable meter, but the the new Steinway at St Mary’s Episcopal stablished in 2003, the Borealis of Michael Finnissy as featured Erkoreka’s orchestral work Fuegos Festival is held at venues composer in 2009. Michael’s music approachable, Jackson’s Piano harmonies are not nearly so acerbic as Cathedral, Edinburgh, in 2007. It (Fires) was chosen from submissions across Bergen, a picturesque will form the basis of a wide range of Sonata is highly original in Stravinsky’s. In the first movement there remains, for me, the heart of the Sonata. E by 150 composers from around the A medieval town on the west coast of concerts, seminars, and film screenings, world to win the 25th Reina Sofia unexpected ways. For instance, the is a beautiful, long, winding melody Beginning in a tranquil mood, its ever- Norway. The 2009 festival will take including works for ensemble, organ, Prize. composer’s love of rhythmic canons with florid accompaniment, starting on increasing floridity builds to a climax place over five days 24–29 March. and piano, as well as projects for using different tones demands the same tone as the second subject of that is intensely dramatic. After this, Performances of Finnissy’s works will amateurs, children, and local homeless The final of the competition was ambidextrous skills. His skill at writing Chopin’s B minor Sonata— the music subsides to a passage over a be given by visiting ensembles, as organisations. held in Madrid on 10 October, when near, but not exact, repeats of short F Sharp—and in a closely related key, ground bass like the tolling of a bell. well as Norwegian groups such as the the short-listed compositions were We are really looking forward to phrases also requires an alertness from suggesting to me a comparable lyricism Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and performed by the Orquesta de RTVE. The finale, an ebullient dance, brings having Michael spend five days with the performer that must never be relaxed that contrasts most effectively with the the BIT20 Ensemble. the Sonata to a triumphant, but not us in March, not only as a dynamic Gabriel Erkoreka joins an illustrious for a moment. Stravinskian element. list of composers who have won this triumphalist, conclusion.