THE MOTH REQUIEM HARRISON BIRTWISTLE both sacred and secular traditions of text choice CHORAL WORKS BY HARRISON BIRTWISTLE (b.1934) 4HE 2ING $ANCE OF THE .AZARENE s 4HREE ,ATIN and treatment. -OTETS s #ARMEN 0ASCHALE s ,ULLABY s /N THE 3HEER 4HRESHOLD OF THE .IGHT s 4HE -OTH 2EQUIEM All of this gives his choral music a less 1 The Ring Dance of the Nazarene (2003) [24.14] ‘prehistoric’ slant than much of his instrumental Roderick Williams baritone Chris Brannick darbuka With two short seasonal pieces nested at its and dramatic work, but Birtwistle is not one of centre – one Easter- and one Christmas-related, those composers whose choral music seems to Three Latin Motets from ‘The Last Supper’ (1999) one early and one recent – this disc might, if its stand entirely separate from the rest of their 2 O bone Jesu [3.39] composer were a more conventional figure, have output. Recognisably Birtwistlian concerns are 3 Pange lingua [2.45] 4 In supremae nocte cenae [3.25] been a survey of sacred choral music from a present throughout this disc, and recognisably career now spanning fifty years. In fact it is Birtwistlian sounds, too – particularly in the 5 Carmen Paschale (1965) [5.50] rather less easy to categorise than that, even accompaniments, with their avoidance of Philippa Davies flute if we exclude from consideration the one work bowed string instruments and concomitant 6 Lullaby (2006) [2.08] with apparently pre-Christian subject matter. focus on woodwinds, harp and percussion. 7 On the Sheer Threshold of the Night (1980) [13.17] But perhaps Harrison Birtwistle is not so Furthermore, all but the two shortest works Eurydice - Emma Tring soprano unconventional a composer after all, and if there here relate in some way to Birtwistle’s operas, Orpheus – Margaret Cameron alto, Stephen Jeffes tenor Hades – Charles Gibbs bass is little here that the Christian liturgy could either sharing their subject matter or setting accommodate, we are not so far away as one words by one of their librettists. Birtwistle has 8 The Moth Requiem (2012) [18.32] might at first think from Western sacred music’s tended, particularly in the last twenty years or Philippa Davies alto flute Lucy Wakeford harp themes (Christ’s life, death, and continuing life so, to work repeatedly with certain favoured Helen Tunstall harp in us) and genres (hymns, motets, even a sort writers, and the two major recent works which Hugh Webb harp of requiem). Birtwistle’s music has always been frame this programme both use texts by writers Total timings: [73.54] concerned with memory, and here too, even as with whom he had already collaborated on an choral music’s traditional styles and functions opera. In the case of The Moth Requiem, as BBC SINGERS s RODERICK WILLIAMS baritone fall away, we see him taking on a range of we shall see, it was to an earlier poem by THE NASH ENSEMBLE s NICHOLAS KOK conductor English and Latin texts in ways that engage with that writer that he turned, whereas for The

www.signumrecords.com - 3 - Ring Dance of the Nazarene – as is his more practice well into medieval times). But the the Canadian poet Robin Blaser, had departed trace the story of Christ’s Passion in reverse, usual practice – he requested a new text from mystical association between a circular dance and from Biblical orthodoxy in a different way, using beginning with a prayer to the crucified Christ David Harsent, who had been the librettist for themes of eternity and resurrection is clear a female character called Ghost to mediate and moving through the Stations of the Cross Birtwistle’s 1991 opera Gawain and who had enough, and Harsent’s text frames them for between the historical setting and our present to the Last Supper itself, the night of Christ’s also provided the text for The Woman and the Birtwistle within a characteristically ritualised day and to question the story’s contemporary betrayal (when the action of the opera also ends). Hare, for reciter and small ensemble. More structure of call and response, verbal echoes, meaning. The Three Latin Motets were composed recently the two have collaborated again on and longer, aria-like statements. ‘The Nazarene’, for that opera, although they function within If the idea of treating such a familiar story as a further opera, The Minotaur, and a smaller of course, is Christ, who is sometimes it not as part of the drama but as interludes, the Last Supper (and, within such a retelling, dramatic work, The Corridor, and in 2012 represented by a baritone soloist, although accompanying three ‘Visions’ – still tableaux of treading in the footsteps of a composer like Harsent provided the poems for Birtwistle’s at other times his words are taken over by the that in the opera’s first Glyndebourne production Palestrina or Victoria) appealed to Birtwistle’s first voice-and-piano song cycle, Songs from choir, which thus conveys at different times were staged as reconstructions of paintings by interest in placing familiar objects in new the Same Earth. the words of Jesus and of the disciples, as Zurbarán. Scored for a six-part a cappella choir contexts, a similar concern must have informed well as fulfilling a more conventionally choric (three voices per part) which in the first his selection of the middle English carol text Like Holst in The Hymn of Jesus, Birtwistle turns role. The overall manner of the setting, with motet is further subdivided into shifting ‘The faucon hath born my mak away’ in one of for his subject matter to a gospel episode individual wind instruments occasionally combinations of single and paired voices, his earliest works, Monody for Corpus Christi. connected with the Last Supper but described emerging from the accompanying sextet they were further separated from the action Birtwistle returned to a sixteenth-century text only in the apocryphal Acts of John, a collection in obbligato fashion, suggests a Baroque by being pre-recorded (there are no male – this time in Scots, the Wedderburn brothers’ of texts suppressed by the Church for carrying inspiration, while an intriguing additional voices in the opera’s on-stage chorus). Their famous depiction of Mary singing to the infant traces of the docetic belief that Christ’s human contribution is the sound of an Iranian drum texts, too, are separate, not part of Blaser’s Jesus – in 2006 in a short work for divided form was illusory (“We wanted to see the print (perhaps itself a symbol for Christ as dancer?) libretto but drawn from a fourteenth-century sopranos: Lullaby was premiered by the trebles of his foot”, as Harsent puts it: “if it showed on which is present throughout much of the work as a prayer and from a hymn by Thomas Aquinas: of Southwark Cathedral Choir in November the ground …”). The central role of dance in kind of percussion continuo. canonical Latin texts, then, all set for example of that year. this episode was presumably also problematic by Palestrina, and treated by Birtwistle in a for the Church as it became more equivocal This was not in fact Birtwistle’s first engagement style which if not strictly polyphonic seems The earliest piece included here was completed about the role of dance in worship (although with the story of the Last Supper. Four years designed to evoke the aura of Renaissance on New Year’s Day 1965, fulfilling a commission dance seems to have featured in paraliturgical earlier his opera on the subject, to a libretto by sacred music. As placed in the opera, they – from the BBC Transcription Service of all

- 4 - - 5 - places – for that year’s Aldeburgh Festival. A simpler than in any of the other choral works sopranos, four altos, four tenors and four directly with the myth. The work has a turning little confusingly perhaps, its text is not by the on this disc, the choir remaining in four parts basses), but to very different effect from in point of its own, with the four soloists absorbed fifth-century poet Sedulius (known as Coelius (SATB) throughout and alternating passages ‘O bone Jesu’, assigning to one singer in each into the choir for the central cry of “Quis legem Sedulius), author of the Christmas and Epiphany in unison rhythm with passages of gentle vocal range a dramatic role. The first soprano …” (‘Who makes the law for lovers? Love is his hymns ‘A solis ortis cardine’ and ‘Hostis Herodis counterpoint led off by the women and is Eurydice, the fourth bass is Hades, and own greater law’). After this the discourse is split impie’, whose long poem Carmen paschale was men in turn. At the mention of a nightingale the fourth alto and first tenor sing together as again, in texture but now in language too: the a five-volume narrative and commentary on Birtwistle adds a new, instrumental line; marked a double-voiced Orpheus. four soloists begin to narrate Orpheus’s episodes from the Gospels. Rather, Birtwistle’s ‘Free like a bird’, it is assigned in the published awful mistake in Waddell’s English (“On the text is a shorter poem by a ninth-century Irish score to an organ, although Birtwistle now says The work opens with Orpheus gently calling sheer threshold of the night Orpheus saw grammarian also called Sedulius, now generally that he intended a flute, and that is what is Eurydice by name, while the twelve ensemble Eurydice, looked, and destroyed her”) while the known as Sedulius Scotus to distinguish him heard on this recording. voices start to sing Boethius’s poem, in Latin. basses stammer out the same lines in Latin. from his earlier namesake. This Sedulius left Eurydice calls back to Orpheus in elaborate high Eurydice again sings out to Orpheus, but now Ireland for Liège, where he taught, wrote, and When Birtwistle came to choose a text for a melismas, but Hades calls him at the same desperate, beyond help, finally inaudible. is believed to have been both scribe and major choral work commissioned by German time: the high soprano and the low bass Orpheus continues to repeat her name too, but translator of a dual-language Greek/Latin radio and premiered by the John Alldis Choir in simultaneously suggesting the two different in a separate space, unanswered, perhaps just version of Paul’s Epistles whose manuscript 1980, he turned again to Waddell’s Medieval directions in which Orpheus will be pulled. as a memory rather than an address, while the survives today. The classical scholar and Latin Lyrics. In the 1970s he had begun work on For a while Hades falls silent, and Orpheus choir voice the poem’s Latin moral, which then at translator Helen Waddell (1889–1965) included his opera The Mask of Orpheus (finally completed and Eurydice call to each other across the the close is taken up by Hades in Waddell’s the Easter poem in her influential collection in 1984), the apex of his interest in different, choral textures of the poem; presently Hades English paraphrase. Medieval Latin Lyrics, giving it the title sometimes simultaneous, tellings of the same re-joins them, and utters his warning to Carmen Paschale (in a subconscious memory story. The choral work, On the Sheer Threshold Orpheus to lead Eurydice out of Hell but not Loss of a different kind, and memory too, are of the earlier Sedulius?), and Birtwistle must of the Night, represents a further version again, to look back at her until they have passed the the subject of the newest work included here, have found it there, although he sets it in the setting Boethius’s poem on the subject – gates. Not only is this the crux of all versions The Moth Requiem, for twelve female voices original Latin rather than the English and thus in fact an early Christian era of the Orpheus myth, but the turning point and an unusual – but again typically Birtwistlian translation that Waddell provides alongside. retelling. Birtwistle uses a complexly divided – or peripeteia – is a key formal principle in – accompanying ensemble of alto flute and The style is metrically fluid but texturally choir with just one singer on each part (four Birtwistle’s works, even those not dealing three harps. By now we might be beginning to

- 6 - - 7 - recognise Birtwistlian fingerprints in the without Christian content and without TEXTS Dance to the Father treatment of voices, too: here again each voice anything of the traditional structure of a We circled and said Amen. has a separate part, and only occasionally do requiem Mass, and the greater part of the text 1 The Ring Dance of the Nazarene (2003) [Dance to the Word they join (usually into four groups of three). is a simple incantation of the Latin names of We circled and said Amen.] The word-setting is also highly original, with various moth species, some of them still Before he went out / before he delivered himself / Dance to the Spirit, to Grace; the poem at the work’s centre split in hocket commonly found but others believed close to to the law of the lawless, he said, ‘Join hands / in dance to the light of life, the death of darkness fashion between different lines so that each extinction – and coming here to stand, we a ring’ and he put himself at the centre, and said: We circled and said Amen. singer sustains one syllable as another might suspect, for the departed loved ones commences the next; audibility of the text, whose commemoration has been one of choral Nazarene: Listen to me He stood among us, then, while those below as often in these works, is far from central music’s chief concerns. Return Amen to me nailed him. He said: I had it in mind to Birtwistle’s expressive intentions. to say these things to you, teacher to men. © 2014 John Fallas Amen … We wanted to see the print of his foot: The poem, ‘A Literalist’, is the first from a if it showed on the ground … sequence called The Moth Poem which Robin We wanted to see the print of his foot: Blaser wrote in the early 1960s, and was inspired if it showed on the ground Nazarene: Listen to me by mysterious sounds he heard in his house but we never saw it, his step Return Amen to me at night, which he finally traced to a moth was too light, too light … caught inside the lid of his piano. If the Amen … poem is an elusive response to this stimulus, Nazarene: Watch how I dance Nazarene: Next I said this: then Birtwistle’s instrumental writing, particularly Follow me in the dance at the opening of the work, is extraordinarily I will be saved vivid and mimetic in its evocation of the Alleluia! and I will save sounds of the moth hitting the piano strings I will be freed as it flies around. But as the title indicates, Nazarene: Next I said this: and I will set free the work is a meditation on loss and a I will be wounded memorialising of what is lost, albeit one and I will wound.

- 8 - - 9 - We circled and said Amen. Nazarene: We dance to give thanks He said to us then, How could you know all this We dance towards the light This is not the cross they hang me on. except through me? I will be born I am not the man upon the cross. [I am the Word,] and I will give birth Alleluia! Nothing they say about me is true. I am the mystery. I will eat and I will be eaten Nazarene: Next I said this: Nazarene: You will hear I was pierced, We circled and said Amen. I will be washed but I am whole. and I will wash. I will play the pipe if you will dance, You will hear I shed blood, Take the Word as your guide, he said: I will mourn if you will mourn with me. but no blood flowed. The Word was pierced We circled and said Amen. What they say I suffered The Word was hanged Nazarene: I said Amen. I did not suffer. The Word was nailed I will be thought What they do not say, The Word shed blood. since all I am is thought, word, spirit, The zodiac knows our song, that was my suffering. grace, the light of life. The planets dance in a ring, like us. Nazarene: You who dance Alleluia! and saw me suffer We circled and said Amen. Nazarene: I said Amen. saw yourselves: Nazarene: Next I said this: fear brought wisdom. He stood among us, then, while those below The universe sings our hymn, it dances our dance. nailed him. He set up a cross of light Everyone must dance or live in darkness. Listen to me You who dance and appeared again then see yourselves in me; and saw me suffer not as man but as voice. He said: This cross Nazarene: I said Amen. watch what I do and were changed, might sometimes be called Word, but guard my mystery. rest in me. sometimes Man, sometimes Lord, We gave him back Amen. sometimes door, sometimes path, We circled and said Amen. We said Amen. We gave him back Amen! sometimes bread, sometimes seed, Alleluia! sometimes life after death, sometimes truth, sometimes belief, sometimes grace.

- 10 - - 11 - Nazarene: What I seem Alleluia! Three Latin Motets from ‘The Last Supper’ (1999) 4 In supremae nocte cenae is not what I am. You will see what I am Nazarene: Next I said this: 2 O bone Jesu, exaudi me In supremae nocte cenae if you follow my dance. recumbens cum fratribus By the word O bone Jesu, exaudi me, observata lege plene I am the Lord of truth I challenged the world. et ne permittas me separari a te. cibis in legalibus, not Lord of death. In the world cibum turbae duodenae Let your soul sing with mine, I proved the word. O good Jesus, hear me se dat suis manibus. let your soul dance with mine. and do not allow me to be separated from You To understand what I was On the night of that Last Supper, This is the word you must hear my hymn. 3 Pange lingua seated with His chosen band, that brings you wisdom; To know what I shall become He the Pascal victim eating, dance to the word, you must live in dreams. Pange, lingua, gloriosi first fulfils the Law’s command; dance to the death of darkness. Corporis mysterium, then as food to His apostles Nazarene: When you have understood it, Sanguinisque pretiosi, gives Himself with His own hand. We said Amen. We gave him back Amen! say Amen. quem in mundi pretium 5 Sometimes man, sometimes word Dance to the spirit, to grace, and fructus ventris generosi Carmen Paschale (1965) sometimes door, sometimes path say Amen. Rex effudit Gentium. sometimes bread, sometimes seed Surrexit Christus sol verus vespere noctis, sometimes belief, sometimes grace. Amen … Sing, my tongue, the Saviour’s glory, surgit et hinc domini mystica messis agri. of His flesh the mystery sing; nunc vaga puniceis apium plebs laeta labore Nazarene: Listen – listen to me – Text: ‘The Ring Dance of the Nazarene’ by David Harsent (© of the Blood, all price exceeding, floribus instrepitans poblite mella legit. David Harsent 2003) is printed by permission of United Agents Do you want to know what I was? shed by our immortal King, nunc variae volucres permulcent aethera cantu (www.unitedagents.co.uk). Do you want to know what I destined, for the world’s redemption, temperat et pernox nunc philomela melos. shall become? from a noble womb to spring. nunc chorus ecclesiae cantat per cantica Sion, Then hear the hymn. alleluia suis centuplicatque tonis.

- 12 - - 13 - Tado, pater patriae, caelestis gaudia paschae The knees of my hert sall I bow, maior lex amor est sibi. Yet is not Love his greater law? percipias meritis limina lucis: ave. And sing that richt Balulalow! heu, noctis prope terminos And who for lovers shall decree? Orpheus Eurydicen suam On the sheer threshold of the night Last night did Christ the Sun rise from the dark, Text: James Wedderburn (1495-1533), John Wedderburn vidit, perdidit, occidit. Orpheus saw Eurydice. Thy mystic harvest of the fields of God, (1505-1556) and Robert Wedderburn (1510-1555) vos hæc fabula respicit, And now the little wandering tribes of bees quicumque in superum diem Looked, and destroyed her. Ye who read, 7 Are brawling in the scarlet flowers abroad. On the Sheer Threshold of the Night (1980) mentem ducere quæritis. Look up: the gods in daylight dwell. The winds are soft with birdsong; all night long nam qui Tartareum in specus All that you hold of loveliness Darkling the nightingale her descant told, Stupet tergeminus novo victus lumina flexerit, Sinks from you, looking down at Hell. And now inside church doors the happy folk captus carmine ianitor, quicquid præcipuum trahit, quae sontes agitant metu The Alleluia chant a hundredfold. perdit, dum videt Inferos. Text: Boethius (c.480-524), trans. Helen Waddell O father of thy folk, be thine by right ultrices scelerum deae iam maestae lacrimis madent. The Easter joy, the threshold of the light. Cerberus at Hell’s gate was still. 8 The Moth Requiem (2012) non ixionim caput Dazed captive to an unknown song: velox praecipitat rota, Text: Sedulius Scottus (c.820-880), trans. Helen Waddell No longer plunged the turning wheel, [Moth names included in the text] (1889-1965) et longa site perditus And Tantalus, athirst so long, spernit flumina Tantalus. Scopula immorata 6 Lullaby (2006) vultur dum satur est modis, Heeded the streams no more: the three Depressaria discipunctella non trahit Tityi iecur. Avenging goddesses of ill Leucodonta bicoloria O my deir hert, young Jesus sweit, tandem “vincimur” arbiter Wept, sad at heart; of melody Paranthrene tabaniformis Prepare thy creddil in my spreit, umbrarum miserans ait: The very vulture drank his fill. Euclemensia And I sall rock thee in my hert “donamus comitem viro Isturgia limbaria And never mair from thee depart. emptam carmine coniugem. “Yea, thou hast conquererd,” said the Lord Acronicta auricoma sed lex dona coerceat, Of Shadows, “Take her, but be wise. Laelia coenosa But I sall praise thee evermoir ne, dum Tartara liquerit, Thy song hath bought her, but on her Costaconvexa polygrammata With sangis sweit unto thy gloir; fas sit lumina flectere.” Turn not, this side of Hell, thine eyes.” Borkhausenia minutella quis legem dat amantibus?

- 14 - - 15 - Eremobina pabulatricula an earlier un Birtwistle’s works of recent decades include in major festivals and concert series including Kessleria fasciapennella ease of the senses Exody, premiered by the Chicago Symphony the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne, disturbed ( by Mrs Arpan, Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim, Panic which Holland Festival, Lucerne Festival, Stockholm wife of a sailor received a high profile premiere at the Last Night New Music, Wien Modern, Wittener Tage, the A Literalist of the 1995 BBC Proms with an estimated South Bank Centre in London, the Konzerthaus in Text: ‘The Moth Poem’, in The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin worldwide audience of 100 million, and The Vienna and Settembre Musica in Turin and Milan. the root and mirror Blaser. © 2006 by the Regents of the University of California. Shadow of Night commissioned by the Cleveland Reprinted by permission of the University of California Press. of a plant Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnányi. The Birtwistle has received many honours, including its shape Last Supper received its first performances the Grawemeyer Award in 1987 and the Siemens and power familiar at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin and at Prize in 1995; he was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1986, awarded iris HARRISON BIRTWISTLE Glyndebourne in 2000. His opera The Minotaur received its premiere at the Royal Opera House a British knighthood in 1988 and made a the light is disturbed by Sir Harrison Birtwistle was born in Accrington Covent Garden in 2008 and has been released Companion of Honour in 2001. He was Henry the boxwood leaves in the north of England in 1934 and studied on DVD by Opus Arte. His music theatre Purcell Professor of Music at King’s College, shining clarinet and composition at the Royal Manchester work The Corridor opened the Aldeburgh Festival University of London (1995-2001) and is currently rosemary College of Music, making contact with a highly and toured to the Southbank Centre and the Director of Composition at the Royal Academy green, unblossoming talented group of contemporaries including Bregenz Festival, with further performances in of Music in London. Recordings of Birtwistle’s (the earth is too damp) Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr, John New York and Amsterdam. music are available on the Decca, Philips, Ogdon and Elgar Howarth. In 1965 he sold Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, Black Box, NMC, the eye catches his clarinets to devote all his efforts to The music of Birtwistle has attracted CPO and Soundcircus labels. almost a tune composition, and travelled to Princeton as international conductors including Pierre Boulez, 2014 is Birtwistle’s 80th birthday year, including a Harkness Fellow where he completed the Daniel Barenboim, Elgar Howarth, Christoph a concert series at the Barbican in London, a the moth in the piano opera Punch and Judy. This work, together von Dohnányi, Oliver Knussen, Sir Simon Rattle, new piano concerto to tour internationally, and a wherein with Verses for Ensembles and The Triumph Peter Eötvös and Franz Welser-Möst. He has selection of new recordings. unhammered of Time, firmly established Birtwistle as a received commissions from leading performing the air rings with leading voice in British music. organisations and his music has been featured Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes.

- 16 - - 17 - BBC SINGERS conductors Paul Brough and Bob Chilcott as well as Conductor Laureate Stephen Cleobury. Chief Conductor David Hill The group works closely with composer Gabriel Principal Guest Conductors Jackson, their Associate Composer from January Paul Brough and Bob Chilcott 2010 to 2013, and have given several world Conductor Laureate Stephen Cleobury premieres of his works.

The BBC Singers hold a unique position in With nearly all concerts broadcast on BBC British musical life. Performing everything Radio 3, the BBC Singers have the highest from Byrd to Birtwistle, Tallis to Takemitsu, broadcast profile of any choir. their versatility is second to none. The choir’s unrivalled expertise in performing the best of This world-class ensemble is committed to contemporary music has brought about creative sharing its enthusiasm and creative expertise relationships with some of the most important through its nationwide outreach programme. composers and conductors of the 20th and This includes frequent collaborations with 21st centuries, including Poulenc, Britten, Sir schoolchildren, youth choirs and the amateur Harrison Birtwistle and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. choral community, as well as with the professional composers, singers and conductors Sopranos Altos Tenors Basses Jennifer Adams-Barbaro X Margaret Cameron * Christopher Bowen Michael Bundy The BBC Singers perform all over the UK and of tomorrow. Regular events include a series of Margaret Feaviour * X Jacqueline Fox * X Edward Goater Stephen Charlesworth * Come and Sing days open to amateur singers. abroad, working regularly with the BBC’s own Micaela Haslam * X Ruth Kiang X Stephen Jeffes * Charles Gibbs * orchestras as well as a number of period- Rebecca Lea Rebecca Lodge * X Robert Johnston * Jamie W Hall * instrument and contemporary music ensembles, To find out where you can see the BBC Singers Elizabeth Poole * X Deborah Miles-Johnson X Neil MacKenzie * Cheyney Kent * and they play an important role in the BBC live and for tickets, visit bbc.co.uk/bbcsingers. Ruth Provost Cherith Millburn-Fryer * X Andrew Murgatroyd * Edward Price Proms each year. The ensemble performs You can also sign up for our e-newsletter on Olivia Robinson X Stephanie Seeney X regularly in St Paul’s Knightsbridge, St Giles’ our homepage. Emma Tring * X Cripplegate and Milton Court in London. Follow us: facebook.com/bbcsingers * - On the Sheer Threshold of the Night

The BBC Singers give frequent performances twitter.com/bbcsingers - Three Latin Motets X with Chief Conductor David Hill, Principal Guest - The Moth Requiem

- 18 - - 19 - THE NASH ENSEMBLE An impressive collection of recordings illustrates The Nash has received many accolades including upon her in 2006. She has also been awarded Artistic Director: Amelia Freedman CBE FRAM the same varied and colourful combination of two Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in the the prestigious Leslie Boosey Award by the classical masterpieces, little-known neglected chamber music category “for the breadth of its Performing Right Society and the Royal The Nash Ensemble, “Resident Chamber gems and important contemporary works. taste and its immaculate performance of a wide Philharmonic Society. In 2010 she was awarded Ensemble at Wigmore Hall” since 2010, has built The Ensemble’s British Composers series for range of music”. the Officier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres up a remarkable reputation as one of Britain’s Hyperion Records has received much praise. by the French Ministry of Culture, for her finest and most adventurous chamber groups, Releases receiving critical acclaim have included The Nash Ensemble’s artistic director Amelia services to classical music. In 2011 she received and through the dedication of its founder and recordings of all the Mozart String Quintets, Freedman has received many honours including the IAMA award “as a sign of great respect for her artistic director Amelia Freedman and the Russian chamber music by Arensky, Glazunov an FRAM and the CBE, which was conferred work from the artist management profession”. calibre of its players, has gained a similar and Borodin, and chamber works by David reputation all over the world. Its repertoire is Matthews, Robert Schumann and the Spanish Ring Dance Andrea de Flammineis bassoon The Moth Requiem vast, and the imaginative, innovative, and composer Joaquin Turina, works by Frank Bridge Philippa Davies flute 1 Chris Brannick darbuka Philippa Davies alto flute unusual programmes are as finely designed and Alexander Goehr, and a CD of chamber Nicolas Bricht flute 2 / piccolo Lucy Wakeford harp as the beautiful Nash terraces in London from music by Pavel Haas, Victor Ullmann, Gideon Gareth Hulse oboe / cor anglais Carmen Paschale Helen Tunstall harp which the group takes its name. Klein and Hans Krasa, who were incarcerated Richard Hosford Bb/Eb clarinet Philippa Davies flute Hugh Webb harp in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Jessica Lee bass clarinet Not that the Nash Ensemble is classically Czechoslovakia between 1941 and 1945. restricted; it performs with equal sensitivity and musicality, works from Haydn to the avant- The Nash Ensemble makes many foreign RODERICK WILLIAMS garde. Indeed, it is one of the major contributors tours: concerts have been given throughout towards the recognition and promotion of many Europe, the USA and Canada. The group is a Roderick Williams encompasses a wide repertoire, Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire leading composers. By the end of the 2013/14 regular visitor to many international music from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera with all the BBC orchestras, and many other season the group will have presented over festivals and is heard on the radio, television, house, on the concert platform and in recital. ensembles including the Royal Scottish 300 new works, of which 188 have been at the BBC Proms, at music clubs throughout National Orchestra, the Philharmonia, London He enjoys relationships with all the major UK especially commissioned, providing a legacy the country and at Wigmore Hall, where Sinfonietta, Manchester Camerata, Royal opera houses and is particularly associated with for generations to come. its regular annual series have been Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, the baritone roles of Mozart. He has also sung enthusiastically received. Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony, Scottish world premieres of operas by, among others, Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie- David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michel van der Aa, Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel.

- 20 - - 21 - Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Bernard Haitink) for Philips, and an extensive he also conducted the British premiere of In the concert hall, in opera and for radio he has Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Academy of repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Hindenburg, the first part of a major work conducted numerous world and British premieres, Ancient Music, The Sixteen, Le Concert Spirituel, Burnside for Naxos. by Steve Reich. He made his debut at the including works by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Rias Kammerchor and Bach Collegium Japan. Staatsoper Stuttgart with Purcell’s King Arthur; Peter Maxwell Davies, Simon Holt, Mark-Anthony His many festival appearances include the Roderick Williams is also a composer and has directed The Marriage of Figaro and a new Turnage and Xenakis. BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh had works premiered at the Wigmore and production of Semele for Cologne Opera; and and Melbourne. Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and live on conducted Alceste and Iphigenie en Aulide for national radio. Leipzig Opera. Nicholas played a large part Recent and future engagements include Oronte in setting up Almeida Opera, for which he in Charpentier’s Medée, Toby Kramer in Van der conducted Stephen Oliver’s Mario the Magician, Aa’s Sunken Garden and Don Alfonso in Così NICHOLAS KOK and has conducted numerous productions BBC is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is for English National Opera, Van der Aa’s After for Opera Factory London and Opera Factory used under license. BBC ©BBC 1996. Life at Melbourne State Theatre, Van der Aa’s Nicholas Kok studied at New College, Oxford, Zurich, as well as productions for Scottish Ballet Produced in association with BBC Radio 3 Sunken Garden at Opera de Lyon, a concert and London’s Royal College of Music. He has and Birmingham and Stockholm Royal ballets. Recorded in BBC Studios Maida Vale on 20, 21 and 22 September 2012 and performance of Ned Keene in Peter Grimes with served as Principal Guest Conductor of the 9 January 2013. Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome WDR Choir, Cologne, and from 1996 to 2006 Orchestras and ensembles he has worked with Sound Engineer - Marvin Ware as well as concert performances with many of was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director include the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Digital Editing - Marvin Ware & Robert Winter Producer - Michael Emery the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles. of Sinfonia Viva, with which he is now BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Cover Image – Shutterstock He is also an accomplished recital artist who Principal Guest Conductor. He has toured and Royal Scottish National, Radio Sinfonie Orchester Design and Artwork – Woven Design can be heard at venues and festivals including recorded extensively with the contemporary Berlin, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC www.wovendesign.co.uk Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, the music ensemble Psappha, and has collaborated Scottish Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra, RTE P 2014 The copyright in the recording and programme are owned by the BBC © 2014 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd Perth Concert Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, London with leading orchestras throughout the UK National Symphony Ireland, Ulster Orchestra, Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Song Festival, the Musikverein, Vienna and on and Europe. Halle, Het Gelders Orkest, Munich Chamber Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic BBC Radio 3, where he has participated on Iain Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Scottish Chamber Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval Burnside’s Voices programme. In opera, Nicholas has conducted numerous Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. performances for English National Opera; he Group, Jenaer Philharmonie, Orchestra of St SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, His numerous recordings include Vaughan made his debut with Opera North conducting John’s Smith Square, Orquestra Nacional do Middx UB6 7JD, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for the premiere of Simon Holt’s The Nightingale’s Porto and the BBC Singers. www.signumrecords.com Chandos, Verdi’s Don Carlos (conducted by to Blame at the Huddersfield Festival, where

- 22 - - 23 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

Choral Images: Sir Michael Tippett Gesangbuch: Choral Works by Edward Cowie BBC Singers BBC Singers, Simon Joly, Stephen Cleobury Stephen Cleobury Endymion SIGCD092 Stephen Preston SIGCD331

“An essential for any Tippett lover. But with these dazzlingly “Like all his music they are expansive, sometimes unruly, but vibrant performances, if you love good choral music, then you always attractively wrought and harmonically sumptuous ... should buy it.” Altogether, it’s a fine tribute to an underrated composer…” MusicWeb International, Recordings of the Year - 2007 ++++The Guardian

Available through most record stores and at www.signumrecords.com For more information call +44 (0) 20 8997 4000

- 20 - CTP Template: CD_INL1 COLOURS Compact Disc Back Inlay CYAN MAGENTA Customer SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No.SIGCD369 BLACK Job Title: Wolf & Brahms: Lieder

SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD368

THE MOTH REQUIEM ENSEMBLE/KOK SINGERS/NASH BBC REQUIEM MOTH THE BIRTWISTLE: CHORAL WORKS BY HARRISON BIRTWISTLE (b.1934)

1 The Ring Dance of the Nazarene (2003) [24.14] Three Latin Motets from ‘The Last Supper’ (1999) 2 O bone Jesu [3.39] 3 Pange lingua [2.45] 4 In supremae nocte cenae [3.25] 5 Carmen Paschale (1965) [5.50]

6 Lullaby (2006) [2.08] 7 On the Sheer Threshold of the Night (1980) [13.17] 8 The Moth Requiem (2012) [18.32]

Total timings: [73.54]

BBC is a trademark of the British WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS Broadcasting Corportation and is used under license. BBC SINGERS BBC © BBC 1996. RODERICK WILLIAMS baritone THE NASH ENSEMBLE BIRTWISTLE: THE MOTH REQUIEM BBC SINGERS/NASH ENSEMBLE/KOK NICHOLAS KOK conductor LC15723

Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road,

SIGCD368 CLASSICS Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, United Kingdom. P 2014 BBC DDD SIGCD368 © 2014 Signum Records www.signumrecords.com 24 bit digital recording 6 35212 03682 2 SIGNUM