NMC210-Narcissus-Wyastone Booklet-07.10.15.Indd
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Ryan Wigglesworth, RSVP VOICES recording Echo and Narcissus at All Saint Church, East Finchley. Ryan Wigglesworth Claire Booth soprano • Pamela Helen Stephen mezzo-soprano Mark Padmore tenor • Barnabás Kelemen violin Hallé • Ryan Wigglesworth conductor/piano 2 Augenlieder 1 Eurydice to Orpheus 3’03 2 Visionen 5’44 3 Voyelles 1’59 4 Keep your eyes open 5’22 Claire Booth soprano • Hallé • Ryan Wigglesworth conductor 5 A First Book of Inventions 9’03 Hallé • Ryan Wigglesworth conductor 6 Echo and Narcissus: A Dramatic Cantata 16’16 Pamela Helen Stephen mezzo-soprano • Mark Padmore tenor RSVP Voices • Ryan Wigglesworth piano Violin Concerto 7 Largamente/Allegro movendo 5’10 8 Arioso: molto calmo 5’39 9 Allegro furioso 4’25 Barnabás Keleman violin • Hallé • Ryan Wigglesworth conductor Locke’s Theatre 10 The First Music 1’00 11 The First Music (double) 2’17 12 Rustic Music 1’17 13 Rustic Music (double) 3’37 14 Curtain Music 3’02 15 Curtain Music (double) 5’50 Hallé • Ryan Wigglesworth conductor Total timing 74’37 Photo: Benjamin Ealovega 3 Notes from Ryan Wigglesworth Augenlieder (2009) act of seeing. The deliberate ambiguity another. The intention is for each song ostinato with woodwind interjections, for soprano and orchestra of Rimbaud’s ‘Ses Yeux’ offsets Schiele’s to stand as a distorted mirror in which to building towards the fi rst climax; 4) an seemingly more straightforward view the others. ostinato passing between horns and I Eurydice to Orpheus: picture. His is a defi nitively fi rst- muted trumpets together with a dialogue A Picture by Leighton (Robert Browning) Augenlieder was written for the soprano person experience – the experience, for high woodwind and low strings; 5) a II Visionen (Visions) (Egon Schiele) Claire Booth and the BBC Symphony not surprisingly, of a great visual artist very slow canon for string harmonics and III Voyelles (Vowels) (Arthur Rimbaud) Orchestra. pizzicato double basses; 6) a fast, one- IV Keep your eyes open (John Berryman) struggling to achieve a similar directness part invention beginning with solo piccolo, in a medium other than the one for which A First Book of Inventions (2010) Berryman’s poem, ‘Keep your eyes and gradually leading to the second he is famous. for chamber orchestra open’, provided the initial stimulus for climax; 7) a fi nal chorale-like episode. Augenlieder. On discovering the sonnet During the cycle, specifi c sonorities The two principal ideas behind my The work is scored for a modestly-sized it became linked in my mind to a short underpin the crosscurrents and piece are, fi rstly, perpetuum mobile, or orchestra of double woodwind, two horns, lyric by Browning, a poem written to correspondences between the texts. In continuous movement, and secondly, the two trumpets and strings, and was written accompany Frederic Leighton’s painting the fi rst and last songs, for instance, the elaboration of a basic one- or two-part for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orpheus and Eurydice at its showing combination of harp and celesta acts as a texture. Each of the seven ‘inventions’ that Orchestra during the Royal Academy exhibition reference point at several junctures, and comprise the unbroken 9-minute span of in the second song a lack of conventional in 1864. Here in the respective texts the work are founded on a regular pulse, Echo and Narcissus: were pairs of lovers connected by the orchestral ‘colour’ (the accompaniment is a pulse that sometimes forms stable A Dramatic Cantata (2013-2014) drama of a look – a look avoided, or a provided almost entirely by muted violins) ostinati that run for the entire length of a for tenor, mezzo-soprano, look consummated. Much later I chanced is relieved by the kaleidoscopic nature section, or on other occasions provokes female voices and piano upon another, equally unlikely, marriage of the instrumental writing in the third a highly varied and constantly shifting of poems. The virtuoso excitement of song. Similarly, the harmonic and melodic pattern of melodic events. The seven Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid were Rimbaud’s synaesthetic experiment in materials for each of the four songs share sections can briefl y be described thus: 1) published in 1997, and my desire to Voyelles came to sit alongside Schiele’s certain characteristics. An innocuous, an active, miniature ‘theme and variations’; compose a setting of ‘Echo and Narcissus’ quieter word-colour painting. And again, ‘split-second’ gesture in one song often 2) the juxtaposition of various fragmentary dates pretty much from that time. As often the crux of both poems resided in the provides the main point of expansion for two-part inventions; 3) a tremolo string happens, deciding upon the form such a 4 5 setting should take was a lengthy process. D. Swarovsky for the Musik im Riesen unbroken arc. The slow Arioso, found at Locke’s Theatre (2013) In the end, performing Janácek’s The Diary Festival, Wattens, Austria. My adaptation the work’s midpoint, is itself divided into for orchestra of One Who Disappeared with tenor Mark of Hughes’ text appears with the kind three subsections. Locke’s Theatre was commissioned by Padmore and mezzo-soprano Pamela permission of Mrs Carol Hughes and the The ‘drama’ of the piece centres on Aldeburgh Music to mark the 100th Helen Stephen proved the breakthrough. Ted Hughes Estate. The work is dedicated a twofold search. First there is the anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s birth. It Here, at last, were the ideal forces. to Sally Groves. ongoing pursuit to recapture the simple was premiered at Snape Maltings Concert In my piece the all-important role of the melodic material stated by the solo Violin Concerto (2011/2013) Hall in November 2013 by the BBC narrator/Chorus is taken by the mezzo- violin – accompanied only by the harp’s Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Oliver for solo violin and orchestra soprano. The further group of female bass register – during the opening bars. Knussen. voices portray Echo (heard predominantly Introduction While aspects of this melody continue We are reminded of Matthew Locke’s offstage), and Narcissus is sung by the I Allegro movendo to be invoked (especially during the name from time to time. Recently a tenor. Of these roles, the Chorus traverses II Arioso – molto calmo violin cadenza which closes the Arioso graffi tied signature was discovered, the widest dramatic range. Though III Allegro furioso movement), it is only with the fi nal and dating from his days as a chorister, carved standing outside the action she describes, Epilogue most important climax of the work that into the organ loft of Exeter Cathedral. He the Chorus is anything but a typically cool, the melody appears again in its complete My Violin Concerto is scored for a also makes fl eeting, cameo appearances detached storyteller. Instead she betrays a form, now accompanied by violent, Classical-sized orchestra, with the in Pepys’ diary, singing Italian and Spanish deep emotional attachment to the plights orchestral stabs. The second search is for addition of a harp and celesta. Although songs in a London coffee-house together of both Narcissus and Echo – particularly, a tonal resting place, the arrival of which is the work sets out to explore the lyrical with Henry Purcell’s father. In 1674 he it seems to me, the latter. delayed until the close of the epilogue. characteristics of the solo instrument, it provided incidental music for Thomas I wished to harness as much of the is only gradually that the violin fi nds its The original version of the Violin Concerto, Shadwell’s version of Shakespeare’s directness, beauty, and power of Hughes’s full, lyric voice, and thence, as the work commissioned by the Netherlands The Tempest, and three of these short poem as possible. In telescoping and progresses, a more dominant role. This, in Chamber Orchestra, was premiered movements have been taken as the basis condensing the original version of the one sense, is the ‘journey’ of the piece. in Amsterdam in February 2012 with for Locke’s Theatre. text I have tried simply to carve the space Gordan Nikolic as soloist. The present, The work’s straightforward formal scheme Whereas aspects of Locke’s idiosyncratic, necessary for music to do its job. revised version was created for Barnabás consists of three movements (roughly, daringly advanced harmonic and rhythmic Kelemen and the Hallé. Echo and Narcissus was commissioned fast–slow–fast) framed by a refl ective language were to be appropriated by Aldeburgh Music; Wigmore Hall with introduction and epilogue. However, these The piece is dedicated, with admiration, to and perfected by Purcell junior, it was the support of André Hoffmann; and formal divisions take place within a single, my friend Oliver Knussen. the rawness of Locke’s theatre music 6 7 that I wished to both acknowledge Augenlieder II Visionen Visions and emulate. In Locke’s Theatre rather I Eurydice to Orpheus Alles war mir lieb — All was dear to me – straightforward arrangements of the ich wollte die zornigen Menschen lieb ansehen, I wanted to look lovingly at the angry people three original movements are heard damit ihre Augen gegentun müssen; so that their eyes had to reciprocate, But give them me, the mouth, the eyes, the brow! und die Neidigen wollt’ ich beschenken und and to the jealous I wanted to give presents and before their respective, and much more Let them once more absorb me! One look now ihnen sagen, tell them elaborate, ‘doubles’. In these ‘doubles’ Will lap me round for ever, not to pass daß ich wertlos bin. that I am worthless. the original music remains a constant, Out of its light, though darkness lie beyond: Hold me but safe again within the bond …ich hörte weiche Wulstwinde durch Linien von … I heard soft billowing winds waft through shadowy presence despite the many Of one immortal look! All woe that was, Lüften streichen.