Benjamin Britten Richard Rodney Bennett Colin Matthews Helen Grime
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CLASSICS COSTARECORDS.COM Benjamin Britten Richard Rodney Bennett Colin Matthews Helen Grime A British Phantasy movement inserted in the middle, thus constructing capricious and lyrical, though not necessarily at the The oboe quartet from Benjamin Britten to Helen an arch form of structural and expressive intensity. same time. Colin Matthews’ Oboe Quartet No. 2, Grime In contrast to the earlier classical oboe quartets, written as a gift for The Berlin Oboe Quartet in 1989, Britten gives equal importance to the oboe and string is even more concise than the first and gives the The oboe quartets on this recording span nearly 80 instruments. Although treating the oboe as a soloist oboe a more individual role. The oboe writing and years of British music and demonstrate a dedication from the lyrical lines of the opening to the development of thematic material is distinctly to the genre and development of the form that are improvisatory section leading to the recapitulation, he different to that of the strings, which form a compact perhaps unique to British composers. Benjamin reserves the central Andante for the string trio and trio in contrast to the oboe for much of the work, and Britten, Richard Rodney Bennett, Colin Matthews divides the thematic material generously between all the quartet culminates in a virtuosic cadenza for the and Helen Grime are only a few of the names on the four instruments. oboe. Colin Matthews again: illustrious list of British composers who have written The work is, like the earlier quartet, in a single works for this combination of instruments. Influenced Richard Rodney Bennett goes further than Britten in movement, with quite a complex structure of by Britten, many of these composers were also his treatment of the four instruments as equal overlapping variations; but the oboe has more of a inspired by commissions from the oboist Janet partners in his Quartet for oboe and string trio concertante role, and the music is on the whole Craxton and her London Oboe Quartet. written in 1974. Also constructed in an arch form, faster and more concentrated. with the first and last sections presenting the same In 1905, the British businessman Walter Willson material and framing two slow movements and a The newest work on the present recording is the Cobbett had established a competition for the central scherzo, Bennett’s Quartet displays a Oboe Quartet by the Scottish composer Helen Grime, composition of Phantasies, chamber compositions systematic exploration of the possible combinations who worked with Colin Matthews at the Aldeburgh in a single movement, inspired by his love of the 17th of two, three and four instruments. The five distinct composition course in 2005. Written in 2011, century English Fantasies by Henry Purcell and his sections are linked by four cadenzas, one for each Grime’s Oboe Quartet is also in a single movement contemporaries. Winners of the competition included instrument accompanied by secondary instruments: which climaxes in a cadenza for the oboe, leading into Frank Bridge, John Ireland, Ralph Vaughan Williams cello with viola; viola first with oboe, then violin; an exquisite, timeless final section. Very often, both in and in 1932, Britten, with his Phantasy in F minor for violin with cello, then oboe; and finally oboe with cello. the virtuosic passages and in the final slow aria, string quintet. All five of the one-movement works on Not only are these cadenzas idiomatic in their the strings provide a harmonic carpet by imitating this recording - each in its own way a Phantasy - have instrumental writing but they also link the and stretching the oboe’s melodic line. an intricacy of structure in common, which, whether surrounding movements thematically, with the Grime, herself an oboist, exploits the lyrical and concealing sonata form or sets of variations, secondary instrument introducing the new material dynamic possibilities of the instrument to the utmost, examines the possible combinations of the four of the following section. making extensive use of the highest and lowest notes instruments to create an uncommonly wide spectrum of the instrument’s range. She writes: of tonal variety within a strict formal discipline. Colin Matthews provides a direct link to Benjamin The oboe is the protagonist throughout with the Britten, having been his assistant and amanuensis in string trio set against it in a unit, sometimes opposing, Oboe quartets had been popular since the first works the last years of Britten’s life. However, his musical sometimes shadowing, commenting or expanding composed for this genre by Johann Christian Bach, language represents an enormous break with the first upon on the oboe’s line. The character of the music Carl Stamitz and Franz Krommer. The pinnacle of works on this recording, especially considering that moves between plaintive, virtuosic and fantastical, these classical quartets is Wolfgang Amadeus his Oboe Quartet No. 1 was written only seven years to reflective and somewhat melancholy. Mozart’s Quartet in F major K. 370, composed in 1781 after Bennett’s. Matthews’ Quartet avoids obvious for the Munich oboist Friedrich Ramm. Originally a division into separate sections, being tightly virtuosic vehicle for oboists during the classical era, structured and concise in its use of thematic material, the oboe quartet experienced a revival in Britain in the but is in effect a set of variations. Matthews also 20th century heralded by Benjamin Britten’s develops the idea of experimentation in the grouping astonishingly inventive Phantasy Op. 2, written in 1932 of the four instruments. In the composer’s own words: for the English oboist Leon Goossens when Britten The work is in fifteen short sections (all linked by was only 19. Britten achieves a technical mastery and related tempi) in which all four instruments alternate an emotional maturity in this work which belies his with the four different combinations that can young age. The flexible form of the Phantasy gives make up a trio. This framework is separate from the him a freedom to create a fascinating structure musical argument, in which variations on the three consisting of approaching and receding march ideas set out in the opening section evolve episodes framing a sonata form with a slow continuously. The music attempts to be both CLASSICS COSTARECORDS.COM Benjamin Britten Richard Rodney Bennett Colin Matthews Helen Grime Benjamin Britten 1913-1976 Richard Rodney Bennett 1936-2012 Colin Matthews b. 1946 Helen Grime b. 1981 Benjamin Britten was born in Suffolk, the county Richard Rodney Bennett was also immersed in music Colin Matthews is one of the most respected and Helen Grime started her musical life as an oboist where he chose to spend most of his life. Already a from an early age, his mother having studied with widely performed British composers of his before concentrating on her composition studies with prolific composer as a child, he wrote his official Op. Gustav Holst. His early interest in serial music generation. His extensive orchestral output includes Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal 1 (the Sinfonietta for chamber ensemble) and Op. 2 resulted in visits to the Darmstadt summer schools, works written for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, College of Music. Her music is dense but finely (the Phantasy for oboe and string trio) while still a and a period of study in Paris with Pierre Boulez, the Royal Opera House, the London Symphony textured and displays an immaculate sense of student. A lifelong pacifist, Britten composed his Violin although his style of serialism remained closer to that Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, structure and colour as well as a love of melodies Concerto in response to the Spanish Civil War while in of Berg and Webern. His extensive output includes the New York Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw in the upper register. While the influence of Ravel, the United States during the 2nd World War, and his numerous concertos, three symphonies, chamber Orchestra among others. From 1992-99, Matthews Debussy and Ligeti is significant, Grime has already War Requiem in 1961 for the consecration of the new music and songs. Bennett was a prolific composer of was Associate Composer with the London Symphony found a distinctive personal voice. In 2003 she won Coventry Cathedral. The premiere of his opera Peter film music (Murder on the Orient Express, Four Orchestra, where works included a Cello Concerto for a British Composer Award for her Oboe Concerto, Grimes in 1945 established Britten as the leading Weddings and a Funeral) and won many awards for his Mstislav Rostropovich. He held the same position from and in 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein post-war British composer. Many of his major works film scores. He was also an accomplished jazz pianist 2001-10 with the Hallé, for whom he wrote Pluto, his Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music Center, are vocal or operatic, often written for and inspired and incorporated aspects of the jazz idiom in his film addition to Holst’s The Planets, and his orchestration where she studied with John Harbison. by the voice of his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, scores and concert works, such as the Rondel in of Debussy’s 24 Preludes. His works have been Grime has had works commissioned by the London and with his operas, from Paul Bunyan in 1941 to homage to Duke Ellington. By the late 1980s, Bennett premiered by Sir Simon Rattle, Lorin Maazel, Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Death in Venice in 1973, he created a new English- was increasingly integrating the styles of his film, jazz Bernard Haitink, Ricardo Chailly, Esa-Pekka Salonen Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center. language style of opera. His founding of the English and concert music, culminating in the Concerto for and Michael Tilson Thomas.