Charlotte Bray at the Speed of Stillness
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Charlotte Bray At the Speed of Stillness Aldeburgh World Orchestra • Sir Mark Elder conductor • Lucy Schaufer mezzo-soprano Alexandra Wood violin • Birmingham Contemporary Music Group • Oliver Knussen conductor Claire Booth soprano • Andrew Matthews-Owen piano • Huw Watkins piano 1 At the Speed of Stillness 11’14 Charlotte Bray: Sound and Image by Bayan Northcott Charlotte Bray Aldeburgh World Orchestra At the Speed Sir Mark Elder conductor On hearing almost any score by Charlotte concerto for violin and chamber Fire Burning in Snow 10’45 Bray, one is likely to be struck by three ensemble Caught in Treetops (2010). of Stillness 2 Moonshot 5’26 characteristics. The first is the clarity of Inspired by poems of D G Rossetti and 3 Loose Ends 2’54 her ear and of her textures – virtually every Lorca and comprising a pair of nocturnes 4 Occupations 2’25 note sounds. This, in turn, seems to – the one turbulent the other melancholic Lucy Schaufer mezzo-soprano depend upon the second characteristic: an – the score often sounds fuller, and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group innate sense of how much material, how sometimes fiercer in texture than it looks Birmingham Contemporary much elaboration – no more and no less – on the page, in the way the spaces 5 Oneiroi 9’33 between the notes seem to fill with Music Group is needed to make a piece; a quality that Huw Watkins piano the young Benjamin Britten referred to as resonances. At the Speed of Stillness REPLAY/ FIRE BURNING IN SNOW 6 Replay 10’29 structural ‘efficiency’. And the third (2012) was commissioned for the large Melinda Maxwell oboe / cor anglais Huw Watkins piano characteristic is the rather exceptional forces of the Aldeburgh World Orchestra, Katherine Lacy clarinet / bass clarinet Birmingham Contemporary Music Group independence of her style for a still-young and, in finding plenty for them all to do, Alexandra Wood violin composer from any obvious influence. She she resorted, rather exceptionally, to the Songs from Yellow Leaves 11’33 Christopher Yates viola speaks warmly of her teacher Mark- favourite Turnage procedure of varied Ulrich Heinen cello 7 Still Standing 2’00 Anthony Turnage, and of the guidance she ostinati in contrasting riffs. But no matter 8 Collusion 3’32 has received from Oliver Knussen, but her how hyperactive some of the textural CAUGHT IN TREETOPS 9 While the bell tolls… 2’26 airy lines and figurations are quite distinct layers, the contrasts in speed and Farewell 2’23 Marie-Christine Zupancic flute / alto 10 from the grainy harmonies and tight- character between them are always clear 11 Old Tales 1’12 flute / piccolo locked rhythms of the one, or the densely – as they are in the three successive Victoria Brawn oboe / cor anglais Claire Booth soprano iridescent fantasies of the other. Indeed, patches of invention and their varied Mark O’Brien clarinet / bass clarinet Andrew Matthews-Owen piano her idiom might be described as tending recapitulation comprising Replay (2011) Mark Phillips horn for piano quartet. Her more linear, lyrical Caught in Treetops 16’49 towards a certain austerity and Jonathan Holland trumpet gifts are exemplified in the song-settings: 12 Part 1 10’46 abstraction, were it not so responsive to Edward Jones trombone the Shakespearian haiku-sequence of 13 Part 2 6’03 the many poetic and extra-musical shades Julian Warburton percussion Yellow Leaves (2011), with its luminously Alexandra Wood violin of meaning and feeling she draws into her Malcolm Wilson piano imagistic piano accompaniments, and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group music. Robert Johnston harp sensitized word setting of Fire Burning in Oliver Knussen conductor Christopher Yates viola These qualities are already exemplified in Snow (2013) in its tracery of chill, Ulrich Heinen cello Total timing 71’03 the earliest piece in this collection, her sometimes stinging instrumental sounds. 2 3 restless shifts in perspective as one chases lament – the darkest part of the collection Notes by Charlotte Bray the power source across the countryside; – a deep emptiness is felt: disturbed, raw the constant duality of the power lines, an emotions that are never fully In the finely controlled nine-minute At the Speed of Stillness (2012) underlying energy – hidden and intimate comprehended, mysteries that persist, span of Oneiroi (2013) for solo for orchestra almost, yet zinging with immense power provide openings for other journeys. piano, she reverts to what is and force. At the Speed of Stillness was evidently an affinity for night imagery This takes part of its inspiration from a Delivered from a masculine perspective, commissioned for the 2012 BBC Proms and dreams, attributing this partly to surrealist poem by Dora Maar: Loose Ends is grounded and present. and premiered by the Aldeburgh World the influence of Henze, yet quite Emerging from an emotional landscape I rested in the arms of my arms Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder, and is transcending his tendency to turbid I no longer slept shaped by painful loss, newly found cloudiness. dedicated to Mark-Anthony Turnage. It was night in the summer, freedom, promise (a dream) of future happiness: the male character feels Although already a proficient cellist, winter in the day Fire Burning in Snow (2013) indestructible until he loses control, falls Charlotte Bray was 21 when she took An eternal shivering of thoughts for mezzo-soprano, oboe/ cor anglais, back to the dense earth with a thud and to composing in earnest. Yet in Fear love fear love clarinet/ bass clarinet, violin and cello the realisation that his attempts to bury the scarcely more than a decade, she Close the window open the window A BCMG Sound Investment commission memories of his lost love are superficial has built up a substantial catalogue You’ll see you’ll see supported by individual donors in memory and futile. of works in almost all the standard The hummingbird motionless as a star. genres; built up, too, a professional of Jack Phipps and dedicated to the poet A rich presence is felt throughout reputation of a composer who works The energy, sense of endless movement Nicki Jackowska and to the memory of Occupations: a love dovetailed into the hard and always delivers. Not least, and of exhaustion encapsulated in the Jonathan Harvey, Fire Burning in Snow narrator’s – internal, whilst still being free; she has refined a compositional style poem permeates the music. Important also sets three poems by Jackowska – constantly thrown back to recall what has and practice for herself, neither is the play with paradoxical ideas – the Moonshot, Loose Ends, and Occupations, been lost, until eventually, it escapes (once explicitly tonal nor atonal, but always contrary notion that something moving a sequence portraying lost love and a accepted, perhaps). Ultimately, some form cogent in its harmonic unfolding – quicker than the human eye is able to search for a way forward from this ‘place’. of resolution is found. token of an independent spirit from detect can appear to be motionless or still. Frozen, immersed in his absence, the Vivid diction threaded with sensory which much may be expected. Harnessed to this ‘energetic charge’ in the female protagonist in Moonshot craves references allow one to see, hear, smell, work are expressions of ideas that resulted closeness, reaching out for her lost love. and feel the poems – they are virtually from contemplation of Sizewell Power Peeling away the layers of personality that tangible, leaping off the page with a clear Station and the power lines stemming from gave her form, defined her, she dances and colourful voice. it, which I drew on as a source of alone in a light that she hopes will inspiration, mesmerised by the summon him, singing for comfort. In her © 2014 Bayan Northcott relentlessness of the structures, the solitude, in the quiet of this haunting 4 5 Oneiroi (2013) for solo piano Replay (2010) for piano quartet with each section recognisable in character the surface. Coming full circle, the beauty but distinctly different on its reappearance. of love is still blazing in Old Tales, ever In Greek mythology, dreams are As one of the winners of the Royal renewed. personified by dark-winged spirits called Philharmonic Society’s 2010 Composition Songs from Yellow Leaves (2012) Oneiroi. They emerge at night from their Prize, I was commissioned to write this for soprano and piano Caught in Treetops (2010) cavernous home in Erebos, the land of work for the 2011 Cheltenham Music for solo violin and ensemble This song-sequence, commissioned by the eternal darkness beyond the rising sun. Festival with prize money from the Susan Bradshaw Composers’ Fund. Richard Thomas Foundation, draws its This was commissioned by the Birmingham According to Homer, the Oneiroi passed texts from a collection of 154 haikus by the Contemporary Music Group, to whom it is through one of two gates: the deceitful As if engaged in an intimate conversation, poet Caroline Thomas based on dedicated, and by Sound and Music. The dreams through a polished ivory gate, agile cantabile lines are woven quietly Shakespeare’s 154 Sonnets. I selected 33 work is launched by an explosive cadenza: together to form the opening of Replay. while the prophetic, god-sent dreams issue of the haikus as the basis for nine themed inspired by Sonny Rollins’ Autumn Nocturne, This is the first of three contrasting musical from a transparent gate made of horn. songs, five of which are recorded here. The I wanted to capture the same kind of identities that the piece unfolds in Since dreams are essentially a private relentless energy. The concerto is continuous succession before returning to a variation cycle travels through a range of emotions but in two parts, responding to the poems inner space, a hidden dialogue of thoughts of each – the music flows constantly based on love, loss and deceit.