In three years as the BBC Singers’ Associate installation spaces as often as in concert halls AIRPLANE CANTATA Composer, from 2010 to 2013, Gabriel Jackson or churches). It was an aesthetic of radical CHORAL WORKS BY GABRIEL JACKSON wrote for them eight works (including a simplicity which won him the friendship and bilingual work for two choirs, written for a support of composers as seemingly different joint concert with the Latvian Radio Choir). as Steve Martland and ; and its This disc collects the four secular ones with essential elements first found expression in a 1 The Voice of the Bard [6.59] 0 Winter Heavens [6.02] Olivia Robinson soprano English texts, and prefaces them with an short piano piece, Angelorum (1987), of Lynette Alcántara mezzo-soprano earlier BBC commission written in 2007. which Jackson declared at the time in a brief Choral Symphony Christopher Bowen tenor Roughly coinciding with a decade in which programme note – almost more like a mission q First movement: Quite quick [7.42] Stephen Charlesworth baritone he has impressively consolidated his reputation statement – that it w Second movement: Slow [10.08] as a choral composer (he has been shortlisted 2 e Third movement: Quick [4.16] Ruchill Linn [9.10] seven times in the Liturgical and Choral has a key signature of E flat major. Apart r Fourth movement: Quite quick [4.42] categories at the British Composer Awards from a momentary modulation at the Airplane Cantata * Elizabeth Poole; Alison Smart; Emma Tring sopranos Margaret Cameron mezzo-soprano since 2003, winning three times, and this is climax there are no accidentals. There is 3 Overture: Icarus [2.18] Christopher Bowen tenor the fifth disc devoted to his choral music no counterpoint or polyphony, only block 4 Take-off [2.51] Stephen Charlesworth baritone released in the same period), they well chords, simple diatonic melodies and pedal 5 Flight [2.41] exemplify his approach to the medium, as well notes in the left hand. 6 Landing [3.29] Total timings: [68.47] as setting the seal on a relationship which 7 Toccata Aeronautica [1.18] began with Jackson’s first BBC Singers With only very slight modification, much of 8 Newsreel/Narration [3.20] commission, Cecilia Virgo, in 2000. this could equally be said of the music on the 9 Chorale-Coda [3.42] present disc. Already characteristic, too, is Stephen Jeffes tenor Charles Gibbs speaker At the same time, they contain stylistic and the suggestion (contained within the title of Rex Lawson pianola technical features, and express themes and the piano piece) of a spiritual or metaphysical ideas, that he began to develop as early as dimension even to pieces which are the mid-1980s, a period when his work was ostensibly secular. And perhaps the roots primarily centred not on choirs but on small of the aesthetic go even further back, to BBC SINGERS REX LAWSON PIANOLA chamber ensembles, and often related to Jackson’s time as a chorister at Canterbury DAVID HILL, JAMES MORGAN* CONDUCTORS visual art (sometimes physically as well as Cathedral, where he developed a deep love of conceptually, being presented in galleries and the English Tudor composers. Like theirs, he www.signumrecords.com - 3 - has said, his music is “not about conflict and but not identical to the poem’s. It is a form of the same music – before “break of day” as a sign under which the poet’s contemplation resolution; even when animated, it is essentially of attentiveness to the text that can include provokes a final turn to the tonic major. takes place – is set off from the prevailing contemplative”. It moves, but it stands still. the bringing out of structural features (and for Jackson unusual) contrapuntal which music can realise perhaps even more In the Scottish poet Robin Bell’s exquisite textures, in a sequence of chords filling out the The clear lines and contrasts intrinsic to this successfully than words alone: the contrast of Ruchill Linn (“linn” is a Scottish dialect word whole registral space and framed by silence approach fit Jackson well both for larger-scale “calling” and “weeping” in the first two lines for “waterfall”, and here describes a location before and after, not unlike the way Tudor choral works – in which he likes to construct of the second stanza, for instance, which the in the poet’s native Perthshire), by contrast composers often set the words “Jesu Christe” an array of texts appropriate to the subject lower voices repeat expressively underneath to the Blake, the poem’s syntax does not in the Gloria section of their masses. matter – and for short to medium-length pieces the decoratively melodic, divided soprano lines. coincide so tidily with its rhyme-scheme. Jackson says it wasn’t a conscious allusion like the three included here, which each take Jackson treats the text as heightened prose, in this case, but it’s nonetheless characteristic a single poem and set it using a single span As in Angelorum, Jackson’s style does not following its punctuation rather than line breaks, of his approach and aesthetic: while he of music with clear internal subdivisions. involve a high degree of modulation, or even of and yet the music again provides its own, rarely quotes directly from specific pieces by Jackson typically responds to his chosen text chromaticism in the harmony – indeed, all of subliminal yet ingenious structure. Although other composers, he thinks of all his work as, both on the level of detail and as a structure the pieces on this disc, however complex their the listener is unlikely to notice this beyond in the Dutch composer ’s to be elucidated musically. Thus, The Voice textures, are remarkably diatonic in harmony – the second line or so, every verbal “sentence” Stravinskian phrase, “music about music”. of the Bard opens with a great choral cry but occasional “side-slips” into neighbouring up to and including the pivotal two-word Even if it is subconscious here, it might also of “Hear”, lasting a full fifteen bars (words tonalities are characteristic, and these too statement at the poem’s centre begins with be heard as confirming a spiritual dimension referring to music or to listening are often serve both a structural and an expressive the same three notes: E, F sharp and G. (In the to the work, one that fits and enhances its elaborately set by Jackson, as by another of his function. Notable here is the sudden shift from second stanza the key changes – again to E magical sense of place. composer-heroes, ). The stark, E minor into E flat major for the third stanza, flat major, as it happens – and the first two imposing octaves of this opening invocation representing the poem’s shift into direct speech. notes are flattened to E flat and F natural.) A Jackson has described powered flight as give way to chordal writing for the second The two tonalities then briefly coexist to colour more directly audible unity comes from two “the great technological miracle of our time”, line’s “present”, “past” (hushed, remembering “Night”, a minute or so later, before E minor strongly pictorial elements – the curlew, with and it is the subject of several of his works, …), and “future” (another elaborate figure, is reasserted at the beginning of stanza four, its distinctive downward glissandi, and the including his first string quartet (1992; drawing attention to the most unique of the effectively a modified return of the piece’s waterfall, a series of overlapping descents subtitled From Schiphol to Shannon), Luna Bard’s qualities). Jackson finds a new texture or opening. The closing lines contain another in multiple voices. 21 in the Sea of Serenity (2003; for the idea for each line, while also establishing typically Jacksonian conceit – “starry” and unusual mixed chamber line-up of the larger-scale contrasts and recurrences, as if “watery”, the first set with dappled ecstasy That central statement of “Ruchill Linn” – ensemble OKEANOS) and the saxophone quartet the music had its own “rhyme-scheme”, parallel and the second as a flowing, liquefied version the invocation of the place by name serving LM-7: Aquarius (2006) as well as the earlier

- 4 - - 5 - choral work A Vision of Aeroplanes (1997), literary texts from various periods with Hart Crane despatches us back into the realm before subsiding to an equally typical ambiguous also premiered by the BBC Singers. Airplane documentary reports of the early history of of the imagination, and “the gleaming cantos closing chord. Cantata is his most ambitious treatment flight (a newspaper report of the Wright of unvanquished space”. yet of the theme, and if its choral aspect brothers’ first flight, a telegram from one of the And so to the Choral Symphony, written in the inevitably gives weight to the quasi-spiritual brothers, and accounts by other early pioneers Like Ruchill Linn, Winter Heavens describes summer of 2012 as the climax to Jackson’s dimension here too (a dimension which is Louis Blériot, who crossed the English Channel and explores a spiritual apprehension of a Associate Composership, and premiered by perhaps further underlined by the use of in an aircraft in 1909, and Amelia Earhart, scene from nature. This time the text is the Singers on a tour to Denmark and Sweden the word “cantata” in the title), then the who in 1932 became the first woman to fly traditionally prosodic, with the fixed line in October of that year. The work is a glorious choice of pianola as accompanying instrument solo across the Atlantic). The most telling lengths and rhyme-scheme of a sonnet, and homage to Jackson’s adopted city of London, – motivated primarily by Jackson’s admiration juxtaposition comes in the sixth section, unlike Bell’s charged simplicity, the language as well as a tribute to the extraordinary for the incredible sensitivity as well as virtuosity where an astonishingly clairvoyant prediction is high-flown and the expression convoluted – in group of singers also based there, and with of Rex Lawson, as well as his efforts in from the 19th-century British engineer Sir fact it’s the sort of poem that Eliot, Pound and whom he had now worked closely for almost single-handedly reviving the pianola as George Cayley is juxtaposed with the their English contemporary T.E. Hulme were three years. It has texts from every century a serious concert instrument – also evokes the evidence of its realisation: a series of spoken reacting against around the same time as from the sixteenth to the present day (plus a instrument’s original lifetime, which coincided announcements, as if by a newsreader, airplanes were being developed. But again, line from Tacitus – the only non-English text on with the early development of the aeroplane. detailing further milestones in early aviation Jackson can clarify in music what in words this disc), and Jackson arranges them into the In the second section of the cantata, indeed, beyond the Wright brothers and Blériot. (A neat might seem obscure, and his setting gets substantial four-movement shape that the title the instrument gives the impression of itself incidental touch here is the jazzy style-allusion past the complex syntax to the poem’s expressive “symphony” implies: a mostly brisk opening being some vast whirring machine of in the pianola at the first occurrence of core by means of both clear large-scale movement (though Jackson’s setting of the unprecedented power, operating on the edge trans-Atlantic travel in 1927, as if Lindbergh textural contrasts – as when the sopranos short third poem is unexpectedly slow, investing of human possibility. had brought the jazz of the period across the and altos fall silent and the texture is built up the text with a hushed expectancy that is ocean with him. Note, too, how Earhart’s lyrical from eight solo male voices in lines 3-6 – and special indeed); a nocturnal slow movement Preceding this section is a setting of a 16th- description of her own experience of flying apposite word-painting. The canonic overlapping (three texts, all late nineteenth- or early century poem about Icarus, which thus is given to the chorus as an insertion before when the female voices re-enter suggests twentieth-century); scherzo (a single text, establishes the symbolic weight of the work’s Cayley’s final sentence, and how Jackson both “waves” and, a few bars later at the climax twenty-first-century, with a setting to match theme – life and death are at stake here, and ensures that the “newsreel” mention of of the phrase, “bursts”. Both texture and key its wry blend of humour and social commentary); immortality is the potential reward – as well Earhart is timed to coincide, further cementing change for the sonnet’s final sestina, and and synoptic finale. But a “choral symphony” as the long history of man’s fantasies of the connection between exposition and the work rises to a high-point on “radiance”, implies virtuosity as well (the term is flight. Throughout the work, Jackson alternates reflection.) A hushed final setting of lines by another key word in the Jacksonian vocabulary, arguably parallel to “Concerto for Orchestra”

- 6 - - 7 - rather than to the usual instrumental TEXTS 2 Ruchill Linn “Symphony”), and – like all the works here – the piece is beautifully tailored to the 1 The Voice of the Bard I heard a curlew in the almost dark Singers’ individual and corporate abilities, of midnight June. I heard it wake whether in the breathtaking precision of Hear the voice of the Bard, among the wheat and free itself from fear the first and third movements, the weaving Who present, past, and future sees; with one clear call. of solo lines with the slow movement’s closing Whose ears have heard The waterfall chorale, or the gradually increasing activity The Holy Word was to itself a waterfall, of the finale as it moves from the central That walked among the ancient trees; a moving in water, a white arc “Londinium” episode inexorably towards of foam. It did not seek to slake Calling the lapsed soul, its jubilant conclusion. the trees nor thirst of you not here. And weeping in the evening dew; That might control Ending as it began, with a bright burst of Heavy green branches overhung the pool. The starry pole, E flat major, this first piece written after The water formed itself on stone and formed And fallen, fallen light renew! Jackson’s fiftieth birthday is still identifiably the stone. the work of the twenty-five-year-old composer “O Earth, O Earth, return! Its swirling rings of Angelorum. Like the individual pieces Arise from out the dewy grass! succour the movement of bright wings which comprise it, Jackson’s prolific output is Night is worn, and hidden roots and mindless bones. both animated and contemplative, a dance And the morn Ruchill Linn. The world relaxes its hermetic rules around a still centre. It stands still, and it moves. Rises from the slumbrous mass. and lets us be tonight. Lie on the ground © 2014 John Fallas “Turn away no more; and listen to the curlews’ calls Why wilt thou turn away? and waterfalls The starry floor, and the innocent sounds the world makes The watery shore, going round. Are given thee till the break of day.” Text: Robin Bell (b. 1945). Used by permission of the author. Text: William Blake (1757–1827) from Songs of Innocence and Experience

- 8 - - 9 - Airplane Cantata his brother unfastened the catch which held the Then he selected a suitable place to land, and, 6 Landing invention at the top of the slope. gracefully circling, drew his invention slowly to 3 Overture: Icarus the earth, where it settled, like some big bird, I am alone. I can see nothing at all. For 10 The big box began to move slowly at first, in the chosen spot. minutes I am lost. It is a strange position to Love feathereth my wings, and bold desire acquiring velocity as it went, and when half way be alone, unguided, without a compass in the Spreadeth them for such lofty flight that I, down the hundred feet the engine was started. “Eureka,” he cried, as did the alchemist of old. air over the middle of the channel. I touch For ever soaring, hour by hour aspire nothing. My hands and feet rest lightly on the Text from The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 18 December 1903 To assail the very portals of the sky. The propeller in the rear immediately began to levers. I let the aeroplane take its own course. When I look down afraid through the boundless space, revolve at a high rate of speed, and when the Success four flights Thursday morning all I care not whither it goes. For 10 minutes I He speaketh, proudly promising so be end of the incline was reached the machine against twenty one mile wind started from continue, neither rising nor falling nor turning, I fall and perish in such noble race, shot out into space without a perceptible fall. level with engine power alone average speed and then 20 minutes after I have left the Death’s leap will be my immortality. through air thirty one miles longest flight fifty French coast I see the green hills of Dover, By this time the elevating propeller was also in nine seconds inform press home Christmas the castle, and away to the west the spot Text: Luigi Tansillo (1510–1568) motion, and, keeping its altitude, the machine where I intended to land. English translation by Lorna de’ Lucchi slowly began to go higher and higher until it Text: Orville Wright (1871–1948) finally soared sixty feet above the ground. What can I do? It is evident that the wind has 4 Take-off 5 Flight taken me out of my course. I am almost west Maintaining this height by the action of the of Margaret’s Bay, and I am going in the The problem of aerial navigation without the use of under wheel, the navigator increased the Give me the wings, magician! So their tune direction of the Goodwin Sands. Now it is time a balloon has been solved at last. revolutions of the rear propeller, and the Mix with the silver trumpets of the Moon, to attend to steering. I press a lever with my forward speed of the huge affair increased until And, beyond music mounting, clean outrun foot and turn easily toward the west, reversing Over the sand hills of the North Carolina coast a velocity of eight miles an hour was attained. The golden diapason of the sun. the direction in which I am now traveling. Now, yesterday, near Kitty Hawk, two Ohio men proved There is a secret that the birds are learning indeed, I am in difficulties, for the wind here that they could soar through the air in a flying But the inventor waited. Not until he had Where the long lanes in heaven have a turning by the cliffs is much stronger and my speed is machine of their own construction, with the power accomplished three miles, putting the machine And no man yet has followed: therefore these reduced as I fight against it, yet my beautiful to steer it and speed it at will. through all sorts of maneuvers en route, was Laugh hauntingly across our usual seas. aeroplane responds— he satisfied. I’ll not be mocked by curlews in the sky; Wilbur Wright, the chief inventor of the machine, Give me the wings, magician, or I die. sat in the operator’s car and when all was ready Text: Humbert Wolfe (1885–1940) - 10 - - 11 - Once more I turn my aeroplane, and describing a most prominent feature in the progress In 1922 the first purpose-built air passenger 9 Chorale-Coda a half-circle I enter the opening and find myself of civilisation. terminal was opened, in Königsberg-Devau. again over dry land. Avoiding the red buildings Breathe deep, mine eyes, the frosty saga of on my right, I attempt a landing, but the Text: Sir George Cayley (1773–1857) On October 26th 1925 Jimmy Doolittle won the eternal suns wind catches me and whirls me around two Schneider Trophy, setting a world speed record of From unseen depths and dreams undreamt, or three times. At once I stop my motor, and After midnight the moon set and I was alone 245 miles per hour. I sing the gleaming cantos of unvanquished space instantly my machine falls upon the land with the stars. I have often said that the lure By thought I embrace the universal from a height of 65 feet. In two or three seconds of flying is the lure of beauty, and I need no In May 1927 Charles Lindbergh made the first With wings of mind I sail the infinitude. I am safe upon your shores. Soldiers in khaki other flight to convince me that the reason solo crossing of the Atlantic in his Spirit of Glory! ’tis the stars which beckon man’s spirit run up, and a policeman and two of my flyers fly, whether they know it or not, is the St Louis. and set our souls adrift! compatriots are on the spot. They kiss my cheek. esthetic appeal of flying. Text: Hart Crane (1899–1932) The conclusion of my flight overwhelms me. I have In May 1930 Amy Johnson became the first Text: Amelia Earhart (1897–1937) nothing to say, but accept the congratulations. woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia. 9 Winter Heavens

Text: Louis Blériot (1872–1936) On April 12th 1911 Pierre Prier made the first Amelia Earhart made only the second solo Sharp is the night, but stars with frost alive non-stop flight from London to Paris, in 3 hours flight across the Atlantic, and the first by a Leap off the rim of earth across the dome. 8 Newsreel/Narration and 56 minutes. female pilot, in May 1932. It is a night to make the heavens our home More than the nest whereto apace we strive. An uninterrupted navigable ocean, that comes In March 1914 the first commercial passenger On February 3rd 1934 the first transatlantic Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive, to the threshold of every man’s door, ought service was launched, between St Petersburg airmail service was established, from Stuttgart In swarms outrushing from the golden comb. not to be neglected as a source of human and Tampa, Florida. to Buenos Aires. They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam: gratification and advantage … I feel perfectly The living throb in me, the dead revive. confident that this noble art of flying will On November 22nd 1914 the first German In August 1938 a Lufthansa Focke-Wulf Fw Yon mantle clothes us: there, past mortal breath, soon be brought home to man’s personal aircraft was shot down in aerial combat. 200 made the first nonstop passenger flight Life glistens on the river of the death. convenience, and that we shall be able to from Berlin to New York. It folds us, flesh and dust; and have we knelt, transport ourselves and families, and their In June 1919 Captain John Alcock and Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs goods and chattels, more securely by air than Lieutenant Arthur Brown made the first non-stop By the late 1930s Aeroflot, then the world’s Of radiance, the radiance enrings: by water, and with a velocity of from 20 to 100 crossing of the Atlantic, winning the £10,000 largest airline, was operating around three And this is the soul’s haven to have felt. miles per hour … Aerial navigation will form Northcliffe Prize. thousand aircraft. Text: George Meredith (1828–1909)

- 12 - - 13 - Choral Symphony The stony buildings blindly stare w Second movement: Slow Barred with silver and black. Unconscious of the crime within, Cabs go down it, q First movement: Quite quick While man returns his fellow’s glare The Thames nocturne of blue and gold One, The secrets of his soul to win. Changed to a Harmony in grey: And then another, London, thou art of townes A per se. And each man passes from his place, A barge with ochre-coloured hay Between them I hear the shuffling of feet. Soveraign of cities, seemliest in sight, None heed. A shadow leaves such trace. Dropt from the wharf: and chill and cold Tramps doze on the window-ledges, Of high renoun, riches and royaltie, Night-walkers pass along the sidewalks. Of lordis, barons, and many goodly knyght; Text: ‘Fleet Street’. Isaac Rosenberg (1890–1918) The yellow fog came creeping down The city is squalid and sinister, Of most delectable lusty ladies bright, The bridges, till the houses’ walls With the silver-barred street in the midst, Of famous prelatis, in habitis clericall, Empty city, one tower still standing, Seemed changed to shadows and St Paul’s Slow-moving, Of merchauntis full of substaunce and broken dustbins, scattered wind. Loomed like a bubble o’er the town. A river leading nowhere. of myght: Once a pattern, organised streets, London, thou art the flour of Cities all. traffic lights, nowadays a bed for desert flowers. Then suddenly arose the clang Opposite my window, But wait, a glittering, reflections on walls, Of waking life; the streets were stirred The moon cuts, Text: Anonymous (c.1500) a smile, a happening in a future. With country waggons: and a bird Clear and round, Somewhere I read about a Festival. Flew to the glistening roofs and sang. Through the plum-coloured night. From north and south, from east and west, She cannot light the city: Here in one shrieking vortex meet Text: ‘A poem about London’. Anonymous But one pale woman all alone, It is too bright. These streams of life, made manifest The daylight kissing her wan hair, It has white lamps, Along the shaking quivering street. Hail, London! Justly queen of cities crowned, Loitered beneath the gas lamps’ flare, And glitters coldly. Its pulse and heart that throbs and glows For freedom, wealth, extent, and arts renowned; With lips of flame and heart of stone. As if strife were its repose. No need of fables to enhance thy praise, I stand in the window and watch the moon. No wandering demi-god thy walls to raise: Text: ‘Impression du matin’. Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) She is thin and lustreless, I shut my ear to such rude sounds Let Rome imperial claim an elder date, But I love her. As reach a harsh discordant note, And boast her kindred to the Dradan state; They have watered the street, I know the moon, Till, melting into what surrounds, Thy ancient heroes palms as glorious grace, It shines in the glare of lamps, And this is an alien city. My soul doth with the current float; Thy British founders, and the Saxon race. Cold, white lamps, And from the turmoil and the strife And lies Text: ‘A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M.’. Amy Lowell (1874–1925) Wakes all the melody of life. Text from ‘Hail, London!’. Anonymous (1739) Like a slow-moving river,

- 14 - - 15 - The evenfall, so slow on hills, hath shot then we Lots of crime, the violent kind, Lotta diversity, so what could I personally Far down into the valley’s cold extreme, Learned to despise the strife and forgot that va- you might have heard about the Hate a complexion for? I see different-coloured Untimely midnight; spire and roof and stream Riety’s the spice of life—look around you. Rocks, the grime, the hype and shine. Hands outstretched for more. Like fleeing specters, shudder and are not. Constantly standing on the brink of history It’s not just Cockney rhyming slang, The Hampstead hollies, from their sylvan plot watching we’ve got block-beef, violent gangs Feel Yet cloudless, lean to watch as in a dream, Newsreaders linking mysteries, even though a Awkward interactions which most don’t force Free to come to London and still see the London From chaos climb with many a sudden gleam, Few reporters taught us to be cautious ’cause they Children navigating through postcode wars in e- Dungeon. London, one moment fallen and forgot. Stink of this disease called inconsistency, see my States with the least funding, look at the state of Ex-perience a tube of mad claustrophobics, where East London, Food and bad posture don’t mix and join us in Her booths begin to flare; and gases bright City has a lot of faces. That’s a paradox: witness economy blooming Moving along to the groove of the song. Prick door and window; all her streets obscure Four of them belonging to Big Ben, the rest of them for the What a sight to see, we could swap a nicety. Sparkle and swarm with nothing true nor sure, Hidden behind big business and Big Brother Hav-a-lots: business is gonna be booming Some of us feel you’ve forgotten my city but Full as a marsh of mist and winking light; Ensures all of them are monitored with them. Under but there’s a Hopefully you’ll be proving us wrong, if Heaven thickens over, Heaven that cannot cure Social tensions you can see London languishes: Difference between having a front row seat You can take the rough with the smooth then it’s on. Her tear by day, her fevered smile by night. 30% minorities, 300 languages. And watching from the sidelines. Differences—race and class, it’s all Text: ‘My city’. George the Poet (b.1991) Text: ‘The lights of London’. Louise Imogen Guiney (1861–1920) enormous but the TFL knows the world is your Oyster as Common ground we found surpasses all Long as you can afford it, even though you r Fourth movement: Quite quick e Third movement: Quick the borders. might need to re- If you meet a rich man, ass-kiss all his daughters Mortgage just to get from Aldwych to Shoreditch. Let others chant a country praise, My … Inconvenient if you’re poor, which Fair river walks and meadow ways; City has a lot of faces. Or his sons. We all live once, and Could be expected in a tax system where the more Dearer to me my sounding days Some can be found in forgotten places. Who among us wouldn’t want all of his funds? rich get more rich. In London Town: Comfortably sound with a lot of graces. The That’s rhe-torical but I don’t need call 273 times the wealth of the poorest … yet your To me the tumult of the street Sun could be down on his hungry town but in and response to know door is Is no less music, than the sweet London he found him a shot at greatness, my That’s how Londoners are from time to time: only Next door to the extra poor, we Surge of the wind among the wheat City has a lot of faces. Got the time to grind and whine. Look on the bright side but we’re vexed for By dale or down. Some can tell you what a “loss of faith” is. Be- Technically I’m from an elegant city but I’m sure like all we Fore we hated people we were all created equal Not the kind to wine and dine, I grew up around Have to ourselves is sex and war, and a Text: from ‘London Town’. Lionel Johnson (1867–1902)

- 16 - - 17 - Why how now Babel, whither wilt thou build? A rumour broke through the thin smoke BBC SINGERS I see old Holborn, Charing Cross, the Strand, Enwreathing abbey, tower, and palace, Are going to Saint Giles’s-in-the-field; The parks, the squares, the thoroughfares, Sopranos Altos Basses Saint Katherine’s she shakes Wapping by the hand: The million-peopled lanes and alleys, Ildikó Allen ° Lynette Alcántara *§ Michael Bundy †° And Hodgson will to Highgate er’t be long. An ever-muttering prisoned storm, Jennifer Adams-Barbaro *§† Julia Batchelor-Walsh † Stephen Charlesworth *§†° London is got a great way from the stream; The heart of London beating warm. Jenny Bacon § Cathy Bell ° Charles Gibbs *§† I think she means to go to Islington, Margaret Feaviour *§† Margaret Cameron *§† Gabriel Gottlieb * To eat a mess of strawberries and cream. Text from ‘London’. John Davidson (1857–1909) Micaela Haslam †° Jacqueline Fox §†° Simon Grant ° The city’s sure in progress, I surmise, Rebecca Lea † Ciara Hendrick *† Jamie W. Hall §†° Or going to revel it in some disorder Emilia Morton §° Ruth Kiang ° Adrian Peacock *§ Without the walls, without the liberties, Helen Neeves ° Rebecca Lodge *† Edward Price *§†° Where she need fear nor Mayor nor Recorder. Elizabeth Poole *§†° Ruth Massey § Andrew Rupp *§ Well, say she do; ’twere pretty, but ’twere pity Olivia Robinson *†° Deborah Miles-Johnson ° Graham Titus † A Middlesex bailiff should arrest the City. Alison Smart *§ Cherith Millburn-Fryer *§† John Ward ° Katie Trethewey * Eleanor Minney ° Text from ‘London’s Progress’. Thomas Freeman (c.1590–c.1630) Emma Tring §† Kim Porter * ______Residents and visitors alike find London Suzanne Wilson §† Juliet Schiemann ° impossibly large in square mileage, impossibly Stephanie Seeney § * 28 Jan 2011 (Ruchill Linn and The crowded with things to be seen, traditions or Tenors Voice of the Bard) St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge; memories to be recalled … Christopher Bowen *§†° Andrew Busher § §10 Feb 2013 (Symphony) BBC Studios, Text from Through London’s Highways. Walter Jerrold (1865–1929) Jon English §° Edward Goater *§†° †19 Sept 2013 (Airplane Cantata) BBC Londinium … sed copia negotiatorum Stephen Jeffes *§† Studios, Maida Vale et commeatuum maxime celebre … Robert Johnston *†° °10 Mar 2014 (Winter Heavens) BBC Neil Mackenzie * Studios, Maida Vale London … was much frequented Andrew Murgatroyd *§†° by a number of merchants and trading vessels … Philip Salmon †

Text from Annals. Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56–117)

- 18 - - 19 - Hall, with concerts including music by Steve evening also continue, with many of the Reich, Brahms, Schumann and Eric Whitacre, BBC Singers concerts being broadcast live on conducted by Chief Conductor David Hill, BBC Radio 3. Paul Brough and Eric Whitacre. Based at the BBC’s , the The BBC Singers feature in five of the BBC BBC Singers also give regular free concerts at Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014, where St Paul’s Knightsbridge, as well as regularly they will give the world premiere of I Am Man appearing at major festivals across the UK From the The Future, composed by Neil Tennant and beyond. and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys. The BBC Singers perform modern choral masterworks This world-class ensemble is committed to such as Steve Reich’s The Desert Music as well sharing its enthusiasm and creative expertise as rarely performed masterpieces by Richard through its nationwide outreach programme. Strauss and opera including Stravinsky’s This includes frequent collaborations with Oedipus Rex and Strauss’ Elektra. schoolchildren, youth choirs and the amateur choral community, as well as with the The 2014-15 season celebrates the 90th professional composers, singers and conductors birthday of the BBC Singers, and in a special of tomorrow. concert will be performing some of the works written specially for them by Britten, Tippett .co.uk/bbcsingers

© John Wood and Berkeley as part of an exciting series facebook.com/bbcsingers of concerts in the stunning surroundings of twitter.com/bbcsingers The BBC Singers hold a unique position in composers and conductors of the 20th and Milton Court. These concerts include a British musical life. Performing everything 21st centuries, including Poulenc, Britten, thrillingly diverse range of music, with first- from Byrd to Birtwistle, Tallis to Takemitsu, Harrison Birtwistle and Sir . rate soloists and leading choral conductors. their versatility is second to none. The choir’s The Singers at Six series of early-evening unrivalled expertise in performing the best of The 2013-14 season has seen the BBC concerts at St Giles’, Cripplegate which contemporary music has brought about creative Singers launch a series of concerts in London’s complement the BBC Symphony Orchestra relationships with some of the most important newest concert venue, Milton Court Concert concerts in the Barbican later the same

- 20 - - 21 - REX LAWSON

In concert halls throughout the world, Rex his major international debut in 1981 in performance since 1931 of a lost ballet by Lawson’s name is synonymous with the pianola; Paris, performing in the world première of , la Bien-Aimée, with the not the brash, mechanical variety found in Stravinsky’s Les Noces (1919 trial version), Orchestre Nationale d’Île de France, under the cowboy films and backstreet bars, but rather under the direction of . baton of Enrique Mazzola. the original pianola, a sophisticated instrument which responds well to serious study, and Highlights of a rewarding international career Rex Lawson pursues a parallel career as a which fits in front of the keyboard of any have included an appearance as soloist musicologist and lecturer, participating in normal concert grand, playing it by means of at Carnegie Hall in George Antheil’s Ballet many academic symposiums and university a set of felt-covered wooden fingers. Mécanique, the renewed resuscitation of Percy courses. At present he is retained as a Grainger for the Last Night of in consultant to Stanford University in California, Rex was born in Bromley, Kent, in 1948, to 1988, and the first concert performances of which is in the process of setting up a parents who met through playing two-pianos nearly all of Stravinsky’s pianola works, comprehensive archive and study centre for together. He studied music at Dulwich College, including the Rite of Spring at the Théâtre the player piano and its rolls. Rex has recorded as a junior exhibitioner at the Royal College des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the first extensively, with many CDs still in current of Music, and at Nottingham University. performance with live pianola, of the newly- catalogues – see www.pianola.org (which he Fascinated by his first pianola in 1971, he completed 1919 version of Les Noces, with writes) for more details. abandoned plans for a more traditional James Wood and the RIAS Kammerchor, at musical career, and initially concentrated on the Berlin Festival in 2013. In recent years concerts with reproducing pianos, bringing back Rex has had two pianola concertos written Percy Grainger to play the Grieg Piano Concerto specially for him, by the British composer, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1972, over ten Paul Usher, and the Venezuelan, Julio years after the pianist’s death. d’Escrivan, and in 2007 he gave the first pianola performance of Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano At the same time, inspired by William Candy, Concerto, with the Brussels Philharmonic once the music roll critic of the Gramophone Orchestra under Yoel Levi. Future concert and Musical Times, Rex began studying the plans include a solo Rachmaninoff recital pianola, the foot-operated player-piano, making at the Royal Festival Hall, and the first

- 22 - - 23 - DAVID HILL

Renowned for his fine musicianship, David Hill (1980-87) and Associate Conductor and David Hill has appeared as guest conductor is widely respected as both a choral and then Artistic Director of the Philharmonia with the London Philharmonic, Royal orchestral conductor. His talent has been Chorus (1986-1997). Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, recognised by his appointments as Chief Conductor Zagreb Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, City of of The BBC Singers, Musical Director of The He is in great demand for choral training London Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, The Bach Choir, Music Director of Southern workshops worldwide and his handbook on the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Sinfonia 21, Sinfonia, Music Director of Leeds Philharmonic subject Giving Voice was published in 1995. the Northern Sinfonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Society and Associate Guest conductor of He is a choral advisor to music publishers RTE National Symphony Orchestra, The Minnesota The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Novello, for whom he has edited a number of Orchestra, Omaha Symphony and the Orchestre from July 2013, Principal Conductor of Yale publications, and regularly contributes articles Philharmonique de Strasbourg as well as the Schola Cantorum. He was awarded an honorary to Choir and Organ. As an organist, David Hill Radio Choir and RIAS Kammerchor, Doctorate by the University of Southampton in has given recitals in most of the major venues Berlin. 2002 in recognition of his Services to Music. in the UK and has toured extensively abroad. His commitment to new music has led to Born in Carlisle in 1957 and educated at David Hill’s broad-ranging discography of over his conducting first performances of works Chetham’s School of Music, where he is now 70 recordings, including many award-winners, by Judith Bingham, Carl Rütti, Francis Pott, a Governor, David Hill was made a Fellow of can be found on the for Decca/Argo, Hyperion, Patrick Gowers, Jonathan Harvey, Philip Moore the Royal College of Organists at 17. He took Naxos, Signum and Virgin Classics labels. The and Naji Hakim, Sir John Tavener and Philip an organ scholarship to St John’s College, discs span repertoire from the renaissance Wilby amongst others. Cambridge under the direction of Dr George to the present day. With The Bach Choir David Guest and returned to the college as Director Hill has contributed to the film sound tracks of of Music from 2003-2007. David Hill’s previous Kingdom of Heaven, The Chronicles of Narnia posts have included Master of the Music at and Shrek the Third. He is engaged in a series Winchester Cathedral (1987-2002), Music of recordings of major English choral composers Director of The Waynflete Singers (1987-2002) with The Bach Choir and the Bournemouth Master of the Music at Westminster Cathedral, Symphony Orchestra for Naxos. Musical Director of the Alexandra Choir

- 24 - - 25 - JAMES MORGAN

James combines careers as conductor, record soundtrack recording) and Dustin Hoffman’s producer, and as one half of the composing Quartet. Their piece the Great Enormo- a partnership Morgan Pochin. He studied at guide to the orchestra for children written Trinity College, Cambridge, and then joined with Michael Rosen, was premiered at the Ruchill Linn and The Voice of the Bard recorded on 28 Jan 2011 in St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge ENO from 1994-8. Opera conducting include Brighton Festival in 2013, with a further Gaddafi (ENO), Tangier Tattoo, The Bartered performance by the CBSO in October – the Choral Symphony recorded on 10 February 2013 in BBC Studios Maida Vale. Airplane Cantata recorded on 19 September 2013 in BBC Studios Maida Vale. Bride and Zoe (Glyndebourne), Cav and Pag next performance is at the RFH in February 2014. Winter Heavens recorded on 10 March 2014 in BBC Studios Maida Vale (Gubbay), and Don Giovanni (ETO). Concerts Sound Engineer – Paul Waton and recordings include the RPO, Philharmonia, Digital Editing – Paul Waton, Philip Ashley LPO, CLS, and LCO at home at home, and the Mastering – Rob Winter City of Prague Philhamonic, Tivoli Symphony Producer – Michael Emery

Orchestra, Danish National Chamber Orchestra Produced in association with BBC Radio 3 and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra Cover Image – Shutterstock Design and Artwork - Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk abroad. His repertoire varies widely from renaissance polyphony to arena pop concerts P 2014 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd © 2014 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd - with artists as varied as Andrea Bocelli, Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer Jamie Cullum, Rick Astley and the BBC Singers, liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet for whom he is a regular guest conductor. may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd.

Morgan Pochin’s credits include five best SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] selling albums for Decca by Alfie Boe, Katherine www.signumrecords.com Jenkins and Joe McElderry, with combined sales of over a million albums. Other credits include Julian Lloyd Webber, Elton John, the EMMY winning Kumars at No.42, and Juliette Pochin’s Venezia for Sony. Feature films include First Night (with James also conducting the

- 26 - - 27 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

Judith Bingham: Remoter Worlds : Gesangbuch BBC Singers BBC Singers David Hill SIGCD144 , Stephen Preston SIGCD331

“Under David Hill’s direction, this superb choir gives precise, “Like all his music they are expansive, sometimes unruly, but passionate and powerful readings” always attractively wrought and harmonically sumptuous ... The Times Altogether, it’s a fine tribute to an underrated composer”

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.SIGCD381 BLACK Job Title: Airplane Cantanta

SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD381 AIRPLANE CANTATA

CHORAL WORKS BY GABRIEL JACKSON

JACKSON: AIRPLANE CANTATA CANTATA AIRPLANE JACKSON:

1 The Voice of the Bard [6.59] 0 Winter Heavens [6.02] Olivia Robinson soprano Lynette Alcántara mezzo-soprano Choral Symphony Christopher Bowen tenor q Stephen Charlesworth baritone First movement: Quite quick [7.42] w Second movement: Slow [10.08] 2 Ruchill Linn [9.10] e Third movement: Quick [4.16] r Fourth movement: Quite quick [4.42] Airplane Cantata * Elizabeth Poole; Alison Smart; Emma Tring sopranos 3 Margaret Cameron mezzo-soprano Overture: Icarus [2.18] Christopher Bowen tenor BBC SINGERS / LAWSON / HILL / MORGAN / HILL / LAWSON / SINGERS BBC 4 Take-off [2.51] Stephen Charlesworth baritone 5 BBC SINGERS / LAWSON / HILL / MORGAN Flight [2.41] 6 Landing [3.29] Total timings: [68.47] 7 Toccata Aeronautica [1.18] 8 Newsreel/Narration [3.20] 9 Chorale-Coda [3.42] Stephen Jeffes tenor Charles Gibbs speaker Rex Lawson pianola

BBC SINGERS REX LAWSON PIANOLA JACKSON: AIRPLANE CANTATA DAVID HILL, JAMES MORGAN* CONDUCTORS

LC15723

Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road,

SIGCD381 CLASSICS Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, United Kingdom. P 2014 Signum Records DDD SIGCD381 © 2014 Signum Records www.signumrecords.com 24 bit digital recording 6 35212 03812 3 SIGNUM