Colin Matthews Horn Concerto
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≥ COLIN MATTHEWS (b. 1946) 1. – 26. ALPHABICYCLE ORDER . .31.12 COLIN MATTHEWS WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING see inside booklet for full track listing HORN CONCERTO EDWARD GARDNER CONDUCTOR HENRY GOODMAN NARRATOR SIR MARK ELDER/RICHARD WATKINS CHILDREN’S CHOIR ALPHABICYCLE ORDER 27. – 36. HORN CONCERTO . .22.27 WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING EDWARD GARDNER/HENRY GOODMAN see inside booklet for full track listing SIR MARK ELDER CONDUCTOR RICHARD WATKINS HORN TOTAL TIMING . .53.53 ≥ MUSIC DIRECTOR SIR MARK ELDER CBE LEADER LYN FLETCHER HORN CONCERTO ALPHABICYCLE ORDER RECORDED 12 JULY 2004 PRODUCER COLIN MATTHEWS IN BBC STUDIO 7, NEW BROADCASTING ENGINEER STEVE PORTNOI HOUSE, MANCHESTER ASSISTANT ENGINEER GRAHAM JACOB ALPHABICYCLE ORDER HORN CONCERTO RECORDED 10–11 JULY 2007 PRODUCER ANDREW KEENER IN THE BRIDGEWATER HALL, ENGINEER SIMON EADON MANCHESTER ASSISTANT ENGINEER WILL BROWN All tracks pub. Faber Music Ltd., London CD HLL 7515 All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited. In the United Kingdom, licences for public performance or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd, 1 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DE. Manufactured and printed in Great Britain. COLIN MATTHEWS (b. 1946) COLIN MATTHEWS ALPHABICYCLE ORDER HORN CONCERTO ALPHABICYCLE ORDER WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE AND RECORDING WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING HORN CONCERTO PART I 27. Vigoroso (offstage horns) . 0.47 Colin Matthews has written many orchestral works but only three concertos: two for cello and this for horn, which 1. Alphabike . .2.05 28. Freely . 2.29 he completed in March 2001, and which had its first performance in London the following month, played by 29. Sostenuto. 0.52 2. Butterflea . .1.24 Richard Watkins and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen. 3. Cluckwork . .0.33 30. Andante con moto . 3.15 Like any concerto, the piece is the story of an individual – in this case an individual moving through different 4. Diffodils . .1. 37 31. Calmo . 1.43 5. Eyeland . .1.06 32. Scorrevole . 2.52 atmospheres with always the same principal thoughts in mind, those atmospheres being present circumstances or 6. Fountain-climbing . .1.53 33. Poco sostenuto . 1.38 memories, or perhaps some blend of the two. One thing horns always seem to remember is their history on the PART II 34. Sostenuto. 2.49 hunting field. That is how the concerto begins, with the four orchestral horns in full cry, sounding from offstage 7. Gruntparents . .0.41 35. Più sostenuto . 1.41 (where they remain throughout) as if from a wilder world. The solo horn at this point is with them yet not with 8. Hair-bear . .1.03 36. Sostenuto . 4.20 them, hesitatingly starting its own theme with a downward scale pattern. Strings, opening on a magical wide 9. Iciclist . .1.04 MARK ELDER CONDUCTOR chord, invite the soloist onto the platform, and – entering at the left – the horn delivers a melodious declamation. 10. Jelliments . .0.30 RICHARD WATKINS HORN The orchestral horns try to recall their fellow, whose response is to keep on track and complete its opening gesture 11. Knu . .1.18 TOTAL TIMING. 53.53 with a crushing second semitone: D–C sharp–B–B flat. This idea recurs throughout the piece, sometimes extended, PART III sometimes balanced by a rising arpeggio. Here it is answered aggressively by the only near relatives the horn has 12. Liarbird . .1.23 in its new environment: pairs of flugelhorns and trombones. Apparently the horn does not fully belong either with 13. Moonologue . .1.44 its outdoor kin or with this new company indoors, and the concerto unfolds from this point as a study in the PART IV separateness and connectedness of a loner. 14. Nose-bush . .0.39 15. Oy-oy . .0.46 The horn’s immediate response to confrontation is to sing, perhaps to itself. Then it repeats its descending scale to 16. Popgum . .1.02 reach a stopped G sharp, a decisive arrival, which leads into some of the most sheerly beautiful music in the work: a 17. Queen Bean . .0.55 sequence of solo melodies against rippling backgrounds, drawing to a close after the G sharp has been reached again. 18. Rabbitsong . .1.42 To a gentle Mahlerian surge from the strings the horn responds in the same spirit, but it is also gently recalling the PART V hunt music, and the offstage horns duly return, the soloist now moving to a central position for what amounts to a 19. Sleepdogs . .1.59 scherzo. The solo horn stays with its theme, but at the other horns’ faster speed – this time keeping going in the face 20. Trash-Chest . .0.56 of ironic imitation, and defiantly veering ‘out of tune’ into natural harmonics. When the offstage horns sound once 21. Umbrellaphant . .1.02 more, the solo horn is again resolute, and this time the tempo gradually slackens towards the slow finale, initiated 22. Vumpire . .0.36 when the horn falls to middle C and the note is taken up by the strings. There are more natural harmonics and a 23. Wherewolf . .0.58 wistful melody from the solo instrument. When the strings take up the burden, the soloist moves to the right of the 24. Xylophonophobia . .1.27 stage. From here everything is farewell. The horn in its last song is joined by violas and cellos, and almost vanishes 25. Yatch . .0.48 among them. Physically the player does then vanish, offstage, as the strings continue the adagio. The solo horn rejoins 26. Zagzig . .1.41 the offstage quartet, but finally – as the strings return to their initial wide chord – it is on its own. One might think of EDWARD GARDNER CONDUCTOR Oedipus leaving his city: when a sequence of powerful events has run its course, the protagonist can only depart. HENRY GOODMAN NARRATOR CHILDREN’S CHOIR (members of the Hallé Youth Choir If the Horn Concerto is something of a tragic work, Alphabicycle Order is decidedly a comedy. Setting alphabetical and Cantores Roborienses) rhymes by Christopher Reid for children’s choir, narrator and orchestra, it was finished in March 2007 and given its premiere (this live recording) in July the same year at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. The work was from 1985 until 1996, and is currently a member of the Nash Ensemble and a founder member of London Winds. commissioned by the Hallé Concerts Society, but it was sparked by the words, as the composer writes: As well as premiering Colin Matthews’ Horn Concerto, he has given premieres of concertos by Maxwell Davies, ‘As soon as I read Christopher Reid’s collection of children’s poems Alphabicycle Order I wanted to set them to Osborne, Lindberg, Muldowney, Lefanu, and David Matthews. Future commissions will include works for solo music. The poems play on words in, as you might expect, alphabetical order, ranging from sinister (the menacing horn by Nicholas Maw and James MacMillan. ‘Vumpire’, a cross between an umpire and a vampire) to absurd (the ‘Umbrellaphant’, half elephant, half umbrella) EDWARD GARDNER CONDUCTOR (ALPHABICYCLE ORDER) with plenty of room for humour, and a little sentiment thrown in for good measure. I’ve hugely enjoyed writing Edward Gardner began his tenure as Music Director of English National Opera in the 2006–07 season. Since these 26 numbers, and hope they’ll be fun to sing, shout, play, and also speak.’ becoming Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour at only 28 years old, he has emerged as one of the most Matthews calls these ‘children’s poems’, as in a way they are, but they belong in a very English tradition of nonsense talented conductors of his generation and is sought after by traditional and contemporary establishments alike. literature that, simultaneously amusing and unsettling, speaks also to adult sensibilities. They are set to music in the In 2006 his achievements were recognised by the Royal Philharmonic Society when he received the award in the same vein – the same multi-layered veins of crisp and original imagery, delight, diversion and questioning. The young ‘Young Artists’ category. He was formerly the Hallé’s Assistant Conductor and since that time has worked with choristers do indeed get to shout and speak in notated rhythm (as the narrator does); they also enter ringing many major orchestras in Europe and America. (alpha)bicycle bells and have balloons to burst (in ‘Queen Bean’) and tin cans to rattle (in ‘Trash-Chest’). Most of the HENRY GOODMAN NARRATOR (ALPHABICYCLE ORDER) writing for the choir is in unison or in two-part harmony, though occasionally there are little canons. Henry Goodman is the recipient of Olivier Awards for his performances in The Merchant of Venice and Assassins. Meanwhile, the orchestra is used with great variety in what is almost a five-movement concerto for it, and not He made his Broadway debut in 1998 as Serge in Art. Other theatre credits include the title roles in Tartuffe, least for a diverse percussion section that includes ratchets, a yacht (or yatch) siren, a referee’s (not a vumpire’s) Henry VIII, Pericles and Richard III, and lead roles in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, After the Fall, Volpone, as well as whistle and, irrepressible, the much maligned source of xylophonophobia. To give just a few alphabetical examples: many others. His film credits include The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Churchill, The Final Curtain, The ‘Diffodils’ shake their proud heads from feet in the depths of the orchestra, among contrabassoon, low strings and Labyrinth, Notting Hill, Queen of Hearts, Son of the Pink Panther, The Saint and Private Parts. He has extensive the bottom notes of the piano; violins in muted chords survey ‘Eyeland’; ‘Fountain-climbing’ requires negotiating television credits, including The Merchant of Venice, Foyle’s War, Measure for Measure, Lovejoy, The Arabian watery music from strings, woodwind, harp and piano, with glockenspiel at the summit; and ‘Gruntparents’, in a Nights, After the War, Dirty Tricks, Murder Rooms, and 99-1.