572744 bk Christmas US_572744 bk Christmas US 23/08/2011 09:36 Page 2

ANOTHER NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS Another Night Before Christmas and Scrooge various adventurous and humorous encounters take monthly issues of the magazine Nouvelliste. For place, until finally arriving triumphantly back at home.!! November (the last issue to be actually published) the and John Fox was born in Sutton, Surrey and studied French Carols (8.570331)."Old Christmas Music comprises Angela Morley was born Wally Stott in Leeds and composer wrote a Troika which lends itself, as so many of composition, violin and piano at the Royal College of arrangements of seasonal works from the sixteenth!to the started out playing saxophone in Geraldo"s band before its monthly companions do, to orchestration. SCROOGE Music. He has been a prolific composer of library and twentieth centuries, in particular featuring two carols by taking composition lessons with Matyas Seiber and Thomas Hewitt Jones won the BBC Young Composer concert music, and arranger of others" work, which he has Peter Warlock, scored for strings alone." Another Night embarking on a prolific career as composer/arranger with competition in 2003 since when he has composed music John Fox (b. 1926): Franz Liszt (1811-86): frequently conducted. During its heyday he was a Before" Christmas sets lines from the poem by Poet films like Watership Down and The Slipper and the Rose, for many genres including several ballets and varied 1 Carol Fantasia (1980s) 6:18 The Christmas Tree Suite (1874-76) frequent guest of the BBC Radio Orchestra to which he Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, updating the nineteenth- and music for two of the most famous comedy series of the instrumental music. He is composing the scores for the (orch. Gordon Jacob, 1936; edited Philip Lane) would often add his own singers. It was for these forces century original to the present day with the same basic 1950s, The Goons and Hancock!s Half-Hour. She worked 2012 Olympic Mascots films. Christmas Cracker is a pot- Bryan Kelly (b. 1934): ! Little Scherzo 2:13 that he wrote his Carol Fantasia for the orchestra"s premise. In this version the little girl in the story (Duffy"s extensively in the United States on television series such pourri of familiar seasonal tunes, Deck the hall, Hark ! the 2 Scrooge (2010) 19:47 @ Carillon 2:42 regular Tuesday night BBC Radio 2 showcase own daughter, Ella) is!represented by the piano.! as Dallas, and with John Williams, weaving magic into Herald-Angels sing, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Ding programme introduced by the late Steve Race. He later Matthew Curtis was born in Cumbria and read arrangements for leading cross-over artists. Snowride dong ! Merrily on high, and O come, all ye faithful. The Narrator: Simon Callow # Old Times 4:28 $ Polish 4:14 adapted the work for orchestra alone and it is this version Classics at Worcester College, Oxford before embarking began life on a recorded music library disc but deserves to whip at the very end confirms that the cracker has been Solo violin: Mia Cooper that is recorded here, featuring the carols and Christmas on a business career in London. He has recorded four stand alone as a staple seasonal item for orchestra. successfully pulled. hymns: God rest you, merry gentlemen, Away in a albums of his highly melodic and colourfully orchestrated Tchaikovsky"s set of twelve piano pieces, The Philip Lane (b. 1950): Adam Saunders (b. 1968): manger, The First Nowell, While shepherds watched, O music. The concert march, Christmas Rush, captures the Seasons, was originally designed to be included in Philip Lane Old Christmas Music (2011) % Fairytale Sleighride (2008) 4:37 come all ye faithful, The Holly and the Ivy, We three kings, spirit of anticipation unique to the season without 3 Gaudete (Anon. 16th century) 1:58 and Hark! the Herald-Angels sing. references to any carols, although the bridge linking the 4 The First Mercy (Peter Warlock) 2:37 Angela Morley (1923-2009): Bryan Kelly was born in Oxford and studied at the march! to the trio section has an air! of Deck ^ Royal College of Music and later with Nadia Boulanger in the"Halls about it.!! 5 Bring a torch (French trad.) 1:32 Snowride (1960s) 3:43 Paris. Spells of teaching in London, Italy and Cairo have Vladimir Rebikov wrote several major works but 6 Bethlehem Down (Peter Warlock) 4:02 accompanied a prolific composing career encompassing seemed happiest as a miniaturist. The six movement 7 Carol of the bells (Mykola Leontovych) 2:02 Pyotr Il!yich Tchaikovsky (1840-93): & November: Troika (from The Seasons) most genres. His Improvisations on Christmas Carols was Christmas Tree Suite is taken from incidental music to a (orchestrated by Philip Lane) (1876/2009) 3:07 featured on an earlier Naxos Christmas disc (8.557099). fairy play called Yalta. The opening Waltz was later 8 Another Night Before Christmas (2009) 6:00 Scrooge was given its première in 2010 and condenses extracted and published in this version for strings. Narrator: Simon Callow Dickens"s tale of A Christmas Carol into just twenty Liszt wrote his twelve-movement Weihnachtsbaum Thomas Hewitt Jones (b. 1984): minutes, scored for narrator and orchestra. At the for piano between 1874 and 1876. Four movements from * Christmas Cracker (2010) 3:11 visitation of the three ghosts, the composer employs the album along with other piano pieces were used for the Matthew Curtis (b. 1959): jaggling chains, which, although successfully passed by Vic-Wells" ballet Apparitions, in 1936. The various 9 Christmas Rush – Concert March (2009) 4:23 British customs, were seized by their Irish counterparts on movements were adapted and strung together by the return journey as dangerous weapons. Constant Lambert and!orchestrated by Gordon Jacob. For Vladimir Rebikov (1866-1920): Philip Lane was born in Cheltenham and read music this newly!created suite I have gone back to the original 0 Waltz (1903) 2:25 at Birmingham University with John Joubert and Peter piano pieces and filled in those bars omitted by Lambert (from The Christmas Tree Suite, Op. 21) Dickinson. As a composer he is virtually self-taught, and and orchestrated them myself in!similar mode to!Jacob. has contributed to most genres, both concert and Adam Saunders was born in Derby and studied at the commercial. Of the former he was commissioned in 2009 Royal Academy of Music and London University, winning to write the major seasonal work for the Boston Pops, and several prizes for composition. As well as concert works, of the latter several television animation!series including he has established a career writing primarily for the Captain Pugwash, and several tracks in the score for screen, with his music being used in American series such Ocean!s 12. Among his other Christmas compositions are as The Sopranos and Desperate Housewives. Fairytale Three Christmas Pictures (8.225185), Wassail Dances Sleighride paints a picture of a magical sleighride, (8.557099) and The Night Before Christmas/Overture on journeying through a fairy-tale wintry landscape. En route,

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Simon Callow Royal Ballet Sinfonia (Orchestra of the Birmingham Royal Ballet)

Simon Callow was born in 1949 in London. He lived in Africa for three years, Photo: Bill Cooper As the most regularly contracted ballet orchestra in Britain, the studied at the London Oratory School on his return and subsequently spent a Royal Ballet Sinfonia enjoys a full touring schedule, appearing year at Queen"s University Belfast, from which he ran away to become an actor. with Birmingham Royal Ballet in its home town, in London and After three years training at the Drama Centre, he made his début at the around the United Kingdom and frequently with the Royal Ballet ANOTHER NIGHT Edinburgh Festival in 1973, playing the front end of a horse in Büchner"s at the Royal Opera House and on tour. The Royal Ballet Woyzeck. In 1979, he created the part of Mozart in the first production of Peter Sinfonia has appeared with many of the world"s other leading Shaffer"s Amadeus. He has appeared extensively with the Royal Shakespeare ballet companies, including Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Company, the National Theatre, at the Royal Court, in the West End of London Ballet, Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the BEFORE CHRISTMAS and all over the country. Over the years he has done a number of one-man Kirov, Norwegian Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, San Francisco Ballet shows including The Importance of Being Oscar and The Mystery of Charles and La Scala Ballet. Opera performances include the Royal Dickens. His films include Amadeus, A Room with a View, Shakespeare in Love, Opera"s nationally acclaimed production of Turandot at and Four Weddings and a Funeral, Phantom of the Opera and Chemical Wedding. Wembley Arena. In addition to its commitment to ballet, the He has directed over thirty shows, including operas, written sixteen books and Royal Ballet Sinfonia appears on the concert platform, giving regular performances at the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, been closely involved in work with leading British orchestras. Birmingham"s Symphony Hall and other major British venues. SCROOGE Gavin Sutherland Photo: Kevin Davis Gavin Sutherland was born in County Durham and studied conducting, piano and with seasonal works by Liszt, orchestration at Huddersfield University, receiving the Kruczynski Prize for Piano RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Davidson Prize for Distinction brought to the Institution. He began his Tchaikovsky and others professional career as a pianist and conductor for Northern Ballet Theatre in 1992, The RTÉ Concert Orchestra has been cherished by Irish audiences for over sixty years. With an unrivalled repertoire, it leaving in 1998 to become a freelance conductor, composer, arranger and pianist. appears at leading national and international festivals, on RTÉ Radio and Television and in the opera house, while He regularly works with companies and orchestras including New Adventures, through its commercial releases its recordings are distributed worldwide. The orchestra"s education programme is English National Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, South African presented nationwide to tens of thousands of young people as the RTÉ/The Irish Times Music in the Classroom series. Ballet Theatre, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Narrated by In 2009 the orchestra performed Handel"s Messiah with Our Lady"s Choral Society in the Vatican in the presence of His and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. He also works closely with the Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. Film credits for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra include The Island by Brian Byrne, Irish Australian Pops Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Guest Conductor and Destiny by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and The League of Gentlemen!s Apocalypse by Joby Talbot. The orchestra has an arranger. As a composer, recent successes include the one-act ballet Revolting extensive discography on the Marco Polo, Naxos and RTÉ lyric fm labels. The Principal Conductor is David Brophy and Rhymes and the West End musical Little Women. His recording career includes Simon Callow Conductor Laureate Proinnsías Ó Duinn. www.rte.ie/concertorchestra over fifty CDs, mainly with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and he has appeared with the orchestra extensively both on the concert platform and for Birmingham Royal Ballet. He was appointed Music Director of English National Ballet in June 2008, and Chairman of the Light Music Society in 2009. RTÉ Concert Orchestra Royal Ballet Sinfonia! Gavin Sutherland 8.572744 5 6 8.572744