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Home , Lawrence Power, Le Grand Macabre, Piano Concerto (Ligeti), Violin Concerto (Ligeti)

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 4–6 BARRY The Conquest of Ireland Sinfonia Thomas Britten Adès

Britten Sinfonia

Thomas CD1 CD2 Adès Conductor Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 in F major, Laurence Op. 68 ‘Pastoral’ BEETHOVEN 1 I. Adagio – Allegro vivace 11.35 Power 2 II. Adagio 8.57 1 I. Allegro ma non troppo Awakening of happy feelings 10.56 viola 3 III. Allegro vivace 5.25 2 II. Andante molto moto 4 IV. Allegro ma non troppo 6.44 Joshua Scene by the Brook 11.38 Bloom 3 III. Allegro Peasants’ merrymaking 4.53 Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 BEETHOVEN 4 IV. Allegro The storm 3.38 5 I. Allegro con brio 7.21 5 V. Allegretto Shepherds’ song. 8.49 6 II. Andante con moto 9.18 Joyous thanksgiving after the storm 7 III. Scherzo: Allegro 4.38 8 IV. Allegro 10.47 6 The Conquest of Ireland BARRY 19.37 9 BARRY 15.06 Total timing 59.32 Total timing 79.53 www.signumrecords.com

I. Adagio – Allegro vivace not be a symphony of vehemence and Adagio that follows is not immune II. Adagio heroism, but a return to more modest, to the sense of unrest, the persistent III. Allegro vivace even classical, proportions. As Robert accompaniment always threatening IV. Allegro ma non troppo Schumann would later call it, the Fourth to throw the delicate lyricism of the is ‘a slender Greek maiden between two central theme off course – at the When Beethoven began work on his Fourth Symphony in the Norse Gods’. movement’s centre, as the key darkens summer of 1806, he might well have wondered, as the Viennese and the and re-enter, When it gets going, there is little doubt public did, what next? After the astonishing dynamism of the it almost does. A spirited Scherzo that the Fourth has more in common ‘Eroica’, with its unprecedented length and heroic ‘new manner’, he follows, its bucolic theme again almost with the effervescence of the Second appeared to have set in train a new era in the symphonic tradition. overshadowed by a lurking sense of than it does with the bombast of the Balance, poise and grace had all been superseded by grandeur, unease, but Beethoven’s real surprise Third, its lightness shared with the other surprise and defiance, the last vestiges of classicism apparently now here is to double the traditional tripartite works he completed that same summer buried along with any traces of the eighteenth century. His next design to bring the opening theme back – the Concerto and Fourth symphony, his Fourth, would surely continue this line of expansion not once but twice – and, at the last Concerto. But in symphonic terms the and development. moment, to shatter the recapitulation Fourth is still far from straightforward. with a surprise blast from the horns. Had Beethoven not decided to spend that summer in the company Most surprising of all is its mysterious, Beethoven, it seems, cannot resist the of Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, things might well have been different. almost torturous introduction, which element of surprise. Even in the light- Beethoven had already begun work on a new symphony – the opens in the ‘wrong key’ of B flat minor. hearted finale, one of the most joyful work which we now know as his Fifth – when he accepted the It takes almost three minutes before in his symphonic output, Beethoven Prince’s invitation but he broke off work on that score to compose Beethoven finds his feet and, emerging repeatedly wrong-foots the listener with a new symphony for Count Franz von Oppersdorff, a relative of from gloom with a start, announces the a stormy interjection that temporarily the Prince and a long-time admirer of Beethoven’s music. When opening of the Allegro proper with an stops this perpetuum mobile movement in Beethoven and Oppersdorff were treated to a performance of his earth-shattering roll and series its tracks, as though a theatrical villain

Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60 (1806) Second Symphony at the Prince’s country estate, Beethoven appears of sforzando chords. This is to be a work were waiting in the wings, ready at any to have taken his cue for Oppersdorff’s new commission: this would of dynamic extremes. Even the tender moment to sabotage the drama. VAN LUDWIG I. Allegro con brio again, this time to rapturous praise. Fifth became an icon – for the first II. Andante con moto Writing in the Allgemeine Musikalische time – of something ineffable. This III. Scherzo: Allegro Zeitung, E.T.A. Hoffmann, one of the was to be the beginning of ‘absolute IV. Allegro most revered critics of his generation, music’, of music that could glimpse, described the symphony’s extraordinary, in Hoffman’s words, ‘the realm of the To hear the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony afresh now, more intangible power: infinite’. The wonderful reality is that than 200 years after it was composed, takes some doing. The four ‘hammer Beethoven achieves this through the ‘It sets in motion the machinery of awe, blows’ that announce its arrival are among the most famous notes in all most small-scale of means, through of fear, of terror, of pain, and awakens that western music, so familiar to our ears that they have almost become a the manipulation of a tiny thematic infinite yearning which is the essence of caricature of themselves. But imagine, for a moment, you are transported fragment, executed here with such romanticism... Radiant beams shoot through back to 1808, to one of the most memorable concerts of Beethoven’s life. finesse and exactness that there is the deep night of this region, and we become Not only was it Beethoven’s last appearance as a soloist in public, the last nothing extraneous, nothing left in aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking time before his deafness eclipsed his performance, this epic, four-hour isolation. The glittering precision of back and forth, close in on us and destroy long concert also saw the premieres of his Fantasia in C minor for piano, the opening Allegro is just the start of all within us except the pain of endless orchestra and chorus, the aria Ah! Perfido, the Fantasia in G minor for solo this process, a movement in which longing – a longing in which every pleasure piano, two sections of the Mass in C minor, and – to finish – both his Fifth Beethoven shatters the theme into that rose up amid jubilant tones sinks and and Sixth Symphonies. Imagine the shock as he unleashed this torrent of tiny splinters and then gathers them,

Symphony No. 5 in C minor (1808) succumbs. Only through this pain, which, new music upon the public, and the sense of surprise they must have felt painstakingly, to form something that while consuming but not destroying love, at the bombardment of the Fifth Symphony, with its relentless repetition, appears greater even than the whole hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with sudden silences and urgent, fateful thematicism. itself. The elaborate double variations a full-voiced general cry from all the passions, that follow in the Andante offer detail Sadly, despite the promising programme, it was not a particularly happy do we live on and are captivated beholders of a different kind, its two contrasting occasion. The music was greatly under-rehearsed, the hall itself cold and of the spirits.’ themes breathed out in sumptuous uncomfortable, and Beethoven’s own performance was, according to While the Third had been celebrated counterpoint. After the respite of reports, close to a shambles. Beethoven’s symphonic masterpiece was not for its searing sense of grandeur, the the slow movement, fate returns to well received. But just over a year later the Fifth Symphony was performed knock on the door with full force I. Allegro ma non troppo the Sixth Symphony is difficult to Fifth is fuelled by transformation, the in the Scherzo, a movement aptly reconcile. It is, in so many ways, just as Sixth dares to stand still. To our twenty- (1808) Awakening of happy feelings characterised in Howard’s End as ‘first on arriving in the country radical as anything he composed either first century ears, well accustomed now of all the goblins, and then a trio II. Andante molto moto before or after, but its unmistakeably to the idea of programmatic music and of elephants dancing’. Beethoven’s gentle nature has seen it singled out even to musical impressionism, the idea ‘goblins’ are a manipulated form of Scene by the Brook in Beethoven’s oeuvre, an anomaly in of rendering the outside world onto a Mozart’s theme from the finale of III. Allegro a symphonic output that is thought symphonic canvas is hardly radical. But his Symphony in G minor, brought Peasants’ merrymaking to be characterised by its heroic, to early eighteenth-century audiences it screaming into the future here as it IV. Allegro The storm teleological drive. The long-fêted, was groundbreaking. While Beethoven meets Beethoven’s hammer blows V. Allegretto Shepherds’ song. catchy categorisation of his symphonies was far from the first to experiment in a clash of classical ideals. But this Joyous thanksgiving after – odd-numbered versus even, forward- with programmatic ideas in music – is all a precursor to one of the most the storm facing versus nostalgic – has done think of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or the sublime transitions in western music, the Sixth a disservice. Beethoven not Pastoral in Handel’s Messiah – he did a miraculous transformation of If Beethoven’s audiences were only presented the Fifth and Sixth to so in a way that had never before been darkness into light that climaxes as shocked by the vehemence of the public alongside one another, he explored in the symphony. The Sixth is the Scherzo topples head first into the his Fifth Symphony at its 1808 composed them together too. As a pair, not just a walk through the countryside finale. Beethoven’s fate motif has won premiere, then they must have they carried the symphony further into in musical form, it is – in Beethoven’s out over Mozart, just as major wins been confounded by the softness the future than anything other work own words – ‘more an expression of over minor and the hammer blows are of the Sixth Symphony, which in history, drilling down into the very feeling than painting’. recast in glorious C major to see out premiered alongside it in the essence of symphonic composition. What separates the Sixth from mere the symphony in an exultant finale. same four-hour concert. For While the Fifth is built upon musical storytelling is its reversal of those who herald Beethoven meticulous thematicism, examining in symphonic priorities. In an age where as the swarthy figure presented infinite detail the building blocks of thematic development and in so many of his portraits, all form, the Sixth explores the symphony transformation were understood as

Symphony No. 6 in F major, ‘Pastoral’, Op. 68 doom, gloom and pessimism, as a piece of narrative art. Where the the key tenets of symphonic structure, Beethoven composed a symphony that The dancing, however, is cut short by I partly discovered music through exercises. I didn’t distinguish thrives on repetition. In the opening a powerful storm. ‘It is no longer between these and regular music – they gave me as much pleasure Sonata Allegro, usually the site of the merely a wind and rainstorm’, Berlioz as Schubert. Exercises have always been pure things for me, clean, work’s drive and ambition, Beethoven wrote, ‘it is a frightful cataclysm, the unburdened by meaning. They’re liberating and I always feel spends some 50 bars idling away on universal deluge, the end of the world.’ better psychologically and physically after playing them. I like their the same harmony, repeating the same But this sudden deluge abates almost predictability, nothing unsettling, just flexing and stretching. Because motif we heard in the first two bars of as quickly as it began, the relief palpable I know their routine I can think about other things while playing the symphony over and over. Donald as the sun bursts through and illuminates as my fingers plough on mindlessly. Like when you’re driving and Tovey went so far as to call it ‘lazy’. the world anew. As the shepherds suddenly realise you’ve gone thirty miles and have no memory At any rate, it becomes almost hypnotic, yodel their thanks, and the Shepherds’ of the landscape. as though Beethoven were actively Song returns us to a state of carefree The music ends with a melody. I was walking along the road the willing us to slow down and take in the repetition, it is as though Beethoven other day whistling it and suddenly a builder stood up from behind symphonic world around us in all its were prefiguring the Elysium of his Viola Concerto (2018-19) a wall with a grin and said, “Great tune!” splendour, just as he does nature. Ninth Symphony – and what could ‘No one can love the country as much be more forward-facing than that? as I do’, he wrote to a friend in 1810. Notes © Jo Kirkbride Commissioned by and Raidió Teilifís Éireann. ‘For surely woods, trees, and rocks Britten Sinfonia was supported by Thea Markus and two anonymous produce the echo which man desires to GERALD BARRY donors to its Musically Gifted crowdfunding campaign. hear.’ This, then, is Beethoven’s echo, musicallygifted.org.uk a work that ricochets and resonates in a single, perfect sphere. From the Gerald Barry’s Viola Concerto was underwritten by The Viola babbling brook and birdsong of the Commissioning Circle, a new charity formed to broaden the viola second movement to the merry peasant repertoire for the public benefit by underwriting the commissioning dancing of the third, Beethoven offers of new works for the viola while co-commissioners are found. us the perfect idyll, if only we will tarry long enough to enjoy it. This commission was supported by the As much as listening to Barry’s performers even as he tries the patience in almost all other respects he was of a following Underwriting Members: music can sometimes feel an of the listeners, challenging us to tall build’, Cambrensis writes meagrely, onslaught, there is an irrepressible remain fixed to our seats, willing the while Barry keeps the music alert and Barbara and Michael Gwinnell • David thrill to it too. It is a thrill that performers to stay afloat. rhythmically charged. and Elizabeth Challen • Christopher Barry clearly feels himself, and Julia Hum • Alan Sainer • Vernon Formed around a text by the twelfth Typically, we are introduced to the bass injecting a sense of danger into Ellis Foundation • Nicholas and Judith century Welsh writer and cleric, soloist without ceremony. The voice every score, tinkering with Goodison • Christopher and Lorna Giraldus Cambrensis, The Conquest of enters, as though in a blast of rapid tradition and flirting with the Bown • Rosemary and Jeremy Cook Ireland is – as with so much of Barry’s gunfire, in strict unison with the bass very fringes of possibility. His • John and Gilly Baker • The Boltini music – a clash between the solemn , the words barely audible as the vocal settings in particular, as Trust • Graham Nicholson • Peter and and the ridiculous. Cambrensis was two jostle to ride the seemingly endless he has acknowledged himself, Jenny Smart • Erica Stary • Andrew part of the army that invaded Ireland succession of semiquavers. Eventually, are often enormously virtuosic. Collender • Anonymous in the twelfth century and his book this softens into a section of long, ‘There is a sense of the extreme recounts the events of the invasion chromatic lines for wind and , viola-cc.org.uk in the music’, he admitted in with a dry and surprisingly keen but any tenderness is not part of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation an interview in 2000, ‘there is focus on the soldiers themselves. For text: here the writer imagines the reader No. 1179223 a danger there... the possibility The Conquest of Ireland (1995) Barry, the text has a ‘strange detached ‘despising’ the book and ‘wrinkling his Trustees: Michael Gwinnell of collapse almost.’ So it is with quality’, something that he was keen nose in disgust’ at the page. (chairman), David Challen CBE, The Conquest of Ireland where, to counter in his setting, which blisters Sir Christopher Hum KCMG under the already rather absurd Having excerpted his text from a with passion and conviction even as tempo marking (quaver = 192), source that includes plenty of action, Notes © Gerald Barry it recounts the mundane. The score to which he adds the direction Barry deliberately targets the trivial. is riddled with directions to play ‘frenetic’, Barry writes in bold We are treated to an account that flits ‘exuberantly!’ while the text is anything capital letters, underlined: NOT between the banal details of the soldiers’ but. ‘Richard had reddish hair and SLOWER. Barry means to appearances and Cambrensis’ attempts freckles, grey eyes and a feminine face, test us: to test the limits of the to justify his own writing. Coupled a weak voice and a short neck, though with the visceral and at times shocking has been written for the benefit of laymen men usually are but shorter than those of a fleshy appearance. nature of Barry’s score, it presents a who are but little skilled in reading. It is medium height. He was a man whose body FitzAldelin was stout. His height and built rather compelling form of contrast. therefore written in a plain and easy style and spirit alike were of modest dimensions, for conformed to that of a man only a little larger ‘I like the tension, or almost and needs to be made simple, with the sole the one was not gross nor the other arrogant. than the average. To the enemy he was most contradiction between that matter- purpose of being understood. Raymond was a man of ample proportions, agreeable. He was full of guile, a flatterer and of-factness and the rather violent, For it will always be permissible to use words a little taller than average, with flaxen, a coward, addicted to wine and lust. passionate interpretation that I applied from the common idiom when the deeds of slightly curly hair, great round grey eyes, to it’, Barry has said. This is not a grand, When our people arrived there first, the Irish the people and of the leading men among a rather prominent nose a high complexion overblown depiction of a life lived were paralysed and panic-stricken by the the people are being set down in writing. and a cheerful and composed expression. and lost in glory on the battlefield, but sheer novelty of the event; and the sudden Besides, in every literary endeavour my Muse Although he was corpulent, because he instead a more human account of a wounds inflicted by our arrows greatly has deliberately chosen a popular style of carried too much weight, he made up for group of soldiers who are just people alarmed them. writing, and one which is readily clear to all, this natural weightiness by an innate after all, weak voiced and short of neck. but which is nevertheless decked out with vivacity, and alleviated this physical defect I have thought it not superfluous to say Notes © Jo Kirkbride ornaments that are peculiarly mine. by the rare quality of his spirit. In solicitude a few things about the nature of this people. for his army he used to pass sleepless nights, They are a barbarous people, literally Richard had reddish hair and freckles, grey restless calling out. barbarous. All their habits are the habits eyes, a feminine face, a weak voice and of barbarians. The Conquest of Ireland (1996) a short neck, though in almost all other Meiler on the other hand was swarthy for bass voice and orchestra respects he was of a tall build. In adversity with dark, fierce eyes and a very fierce If you wish to know what Hugh’s no feelings of despair caused him to waver, expression. In stature he was not much complexion and features were like: he was I seem to see how the reader, despising my while lack of self-restraint did not make more than tiny, but he possessed great dark with dark, sunken eyes and flattened book, wrinkles his nose to show his disgust, him run amok when successful. strength considering his size. He had a nostrils. His face was grossly disfigured down pouts and, viewing it with disdain, puts it broad chest and a small belly and his arms the right side as far as his chin by a burn, from him since he finds everything in it clear, Maurice was a man with a high complexion and other limbs were bony, presenting a the result of an accident. His neck was short, straightforward and easily understood by all. and distinguished features, in stature sinewy rather then his body hairy and sinewy. If you further But he must understand first of all that this moderately short, for he was taller than short enquire as to his height, he was a short man: Text from Expugnatio Hibernica by if you want a description of his build, Giraldus Cambrensis, dicitur Giraldus he was misshapen. de Barri (1146–1223). Translation by A Scott and F X Martin (1978) Hervey was tall and handsome with © Royal Irish Academy. Reproduced prominent grey eyes, an agreeable presence, by kind permission of the Academy. charming features, an elegant way of speaking. His neck was smooth, long and straight, forming a sturdy pillar on which his head rested. He was round-shouldered, his arms and hands were long and elegant, and his chest moderately broad. But his waist which in most people tends to swell out immoderately, was by nature of modest proportions, and lower down towards his abdomen attained a size in keeping with that of his chest. His hips, legs and feet were in all respects those of a soldier and in size corresponded quite gracefully with the upper part of his anatomy. He was of a stature not remarkably in excess of middle height. He was addicted to venery from his youth, and considered lawful any act which others wished to perform upon him or he wished to perform on others involving lust in all its forms. © Chris Christodoulou Britten Sinfonia

In 1992, Britten Sinfonia was established by their rich diversity of influences London’s Wigmore Hall and appears between minimalist composer Steve as a bold reimagining of the conventional and artistic collaborators; and always regularly at major UK festivals including Reich and visual artist Gerhard Richter image of an orchestra. A flexible underpinned by a commitment to the Aldeburgh, Brighton, Norfolk and in a new work that was premiered in ensemble comprising the UK’s leading uncompromising quality, whether the Norwich Festivals and the BBC Proms. October 2019. soloists and chamber musicians came orchestra is performing in New York’s The orchestra has performed a live Outside the concert hall, Britten together with a unique vision: to collapse Lincoln Center or in Lincolnshire’s broadcast to more than a million people Sinfonia musicians work on creative the boundaries between old and new Crowland Abbey. Britten Sinfonia worldwide from the Sistine Chapel, and therapeutic projects with pre- music; to collaborate with composers, musicians are deeply rooted in the regularly tours internationally including school children, teenagers, young conductors and guest artists across the communities with which they work, to the US, South America, Asia and carers, people suffering from dementia, arts, focussing on the musicians rather with an underlying philosophy of finding extensively in Europe. It is a BBC Radio 3 life-time prisoners and older people at than following the vision of a principal ways to reach even the most excluded Broadcast Partner and has award-winning risk of isolation. The orchestra’s OPUS conductor; and to create involving, individuals and groups. recordings on the Hyperion and competition offers unpublished composers intelligent music events that both Harmonia Mundi labels. Today Britten Sinfonia is heralded as the chance to receive a professional audiences and performers experience one of the world’s leading ensembles Recent and current collaborators commission and unearths new, original with an unusual intensity. and its philosophy of adventure include Keaton Henson, dancer/ and exciting UK compositional talent. The orchestra is named after Benjamin and reinvention has inspired a new choreographer Pam Tanowitz and theatre Members of Britten Sinfonia Academy, Britten, in part a homage to its chosen movement of emerging chamber groups. director Ivo van Hove, with commissions the orchestra’s youth chamber ensemble home of the East of England, where It is an Associate Ensemble at London’s from Thomas Adès, Gerald Barry, for talented young performers, have Britten’s roots were also strong. Barbican, Resident Orchestra at Saffron Shiva Freshareki, Emily Howard, Brad performed in museums, improvised with But Britten Sinfonia also embodies Hall in Essex and has residencies in Mehldau and Mark-Anthony Turnage. laptop artists, led family workshops and its namesake’s ethos. Its projects are Norwich and Cambridge. It performs The orchestra was a commissioning appeared at Latitude Festival. illuminating and distinctive, characterised an annual chamber music series at partner in a ground-breaking partnership Thomas Adès

Thomas Adès was born in London in Festival as artistic director. In 2016 he Adès has given solo piano recitals at 1971. He studied the piano with Paul became the Artistic Partner of the Boston Carnegie Hall, New York and the Berkowitz at the Guildhall School, Symphony Orchestra and has conducted Wigmore Hall and the Barbican in winning the Lutine Prize for piano, the orchestra in Boston, at Carnegie London, and appeared as a soloist before continuing his studies at King’s Hall in New York and at Tanglewood. with the New York Philharmonic. and St John’s Colleges, Cambridge. He coaches piano and chamber music He has performed Schubert’s Winterreise annually at the International Musicians extensively throughout Europe with His early compositions include Living © Chris Christodoulou Toy s (), Arcadiana Seminar, Prussia Cove. Ian Bostridge and in 2018 recorded it at (the Endellion Quartet) and his first As a conductor, Thomas appears the Wigmore Hall. In 2018, following a recital of Janácˇek's music at the Reduta recording (2014 Grammy Awards) opera Powder Her Face (1995), which has regularly with the Los Angeles, San and Music DVD Recording of the been performed many times around the Francisco and London Philharmonic Theatre in Brno, Janácˇek’s home town, he was awarded the Leoš Janácˇek prize. Year (2014 ECHO Klassik Awards); and world. Orchestral commissions include orchestras, the Boston, London and The Exterminating Angel won the World Asyla and America: A Prophecy, the tone City of Birmingham Symphony His many awards including the Premiere of the Year at the International poem Tevot and for violin and orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw, Grawemeyer Award for Asyla (1999); Opera Awards (2017). In 2015 he piano. His Opera The Tempest received Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Finnish Royal Philharmonic Society large-scale was awarded the prestigious Léonie its premiere at the Royal Opera House Radio Symphony Orchestra. In opera, composition awards for Asyla, The Tempest Sonning Music Prize in Copenhagen in 2004 and in 2016 The Exterminating in addition to The Exterminating Angel, and Tevot. His CD recording of The and in January 2021 will judge the Toru Angel premiered at the he has conducted The Rake’s Progress Tempest (EMI) won the Contemporary Takemitsu composition award at Tokyo followed by performances at the Royal at the Royal Opera House and the category of the 2010 Gramophone Opera City. Opera House and the Metropolitan Zürich Opera, and The Tempest at Awards; his DVD of the production from Opera in New York, all under the baton the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna the Metropolitan Opera was awarded the of the composer. In 1999 Adès started State Opera. Diapason d’Or de l’année (2013), Best a 10-year relationship with Aldeburgh Laurence Power

Over the past decade, Laurence USA Savannah Festival and a concert His recital credits include performances Power has become a regular guest series at London’s Kings Place. at Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, performer with orchestras of the Lincoln Centre NY. He has developed As a fervent champion of highest calibre, from the Chicago an acclaimed partnership with contemporary music, Lawrence has Symphony, Boston Symphony, pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, and developed a large repertoire of new Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer collaborates with musicians such as works. He gave the world premiere Rundfunk, Stockholm, Bergen and , Joshua Bell, Pavel of Gerald Barry’s Viola Concerto, Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras Kolesnikov, Anne-Sofie von Otter, UK premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s to the Philharmonia, BBC Scottish and Nicholas Alsteadt. A former concerto Remnants of Song at the Symphony and Royal Liverpool Artist in Residence with the Bergen 2012 BBC Proms, and the world Philharmonic orchestras. In addition, Philharmonic Orchestra, he has premieres of scores written for him, as a guest soloist with the Melbourne also enjoyed residencies with the including Salonen’s Pentatonic Étude, © Jack Liebeck and Adelaide Symphony orchestras, Aalborg Symphony, and Turner Sims Turnage’s Power Play, Anderson’s Prayer, he has established a strong presence in Southampton where he acted as a Goehr’s Hymn to Night, MacMillan’s Australia where he returns regularly to curator as well as a performer. He has Viola Concerto and Watkins’s Fantasy. ‘play direct’ at the Australian National also forged close relationships with He has recently started the Viola Academy of Music. Other highlights the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Commissioning Circle, a scheme include his debut with the Swedish Verbier Festival, and Aspen Festival. created to help commission new Radio Symphony Orchestra and the music from today’s leading composers. Staatsoper Kassel, his Salzburg Festival This has already led to new works by debut with Vilde Frang, concerts with Thomas Adès and Gerald Barry, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and many others in the coming seasons. Netherland Chamber Orchestra, as well as recitals in Dresden Music Festival, Joshua Bloom

Australian/American bass Joshua Bartok, Britten and Wagner, as well Joshua was born in Australia to musician Bloom has sung principal roles as contemporary composers such as parents and studied and double- with San Francisco Opera, Wiener Gerald Barry and Richard Ayres. He bass as well as being a chorister at St Staatsoper, LA Opera, Opera Australia, has premiered several works for both Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. He went New York’s Metropolitan Opera, composers, including Ayres’ No. 50 on to study History at the University Washington National Opera, the Royal (The Garden), which he performed in of Melbourne and graduated with Opera House, , multiple countries with the London a Bachelor of Arts. His professional Oper Köln, Garsington Opera, Santa Sinfonietta. debut in opera was in an OzOpera Fe Opera, Badisches Staatstheater, touring production of The Barber of He appears on NMC’s Grammy Irish National Opera and New Seville, after which he joined the Young nominated recording of Gerald Israeli Opera, among others. He has Artist Programme of Opera Australia in Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest, also appeared on the concert stage Sydney, and later the Merola and Adler conducted by Thomas Adès; the New with the , New Fellowship Programmes at the San York Philharmonic’s live recording © Kim Hardy York Philharmonic, all of the major Francisco Opera. of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, London orchestras, the Los Angeles conducted by Alan Gilbert; The Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Metropolitan Opera’s HD Broadcast of Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, conducted by the Auckland Philharmonia and the Fabio Luisi; the Berlin Philharmonic’s Birmingham Contemporary Music Digital Concert Hall broadcast of Group as well as the Melbourne, Ligeti’s , and the LSO Queensland, Adelaide and Western Live recording of Debussy’s Pelléas Australian Symphonies. Joshua’s diverse et Mélisande, both conducted by Sir repertoire encompasses Mozart, Berlioz, . Gerald Barry

“The world now has something rare: Orkest de Volharding. His orchestral London and the Berliner Festwochen a new genuinely comic opera and maybe work, No other people, was presented at conducted by Thomas Adés. A new the most inventive Oscar Wilde opera since the 2013 Proms with the BBC Scottish staging took place in 2013 at the Richard Strauss' Salome more than a century Symphony Orchestra and . Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. a g o.” The Los Angeles Times on The Canada (2017), a short work for voice The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (2001–4) © Betty Freeman Importance of Being Earnest (2012) and orchestra, was commissioned by was staged at English National Opera in London and given a US premiere Gerald Barry was born in Clarehill, BBC Radio 3 and premiered by the in 2005 and at Theater Basel in 2008 at Lincoln Center with the New York Clarecastle, County Clare, Ireland, CBSO, Allan Clayton under Mirga directed by Richard Jones. A recording Philharmonic and Ilan Volkov) and in 1952, and studied with Stockhausen Gražinyt-Tyla at the BBC Proms 2017. has been released on the discovery by Northern Ireland Opera. Earnest and Kagel. His early music from 1979 Barry's (2012), written label. La Plus Forte (2007), a one-act received a 2013 RPS Award for Large- included “ ” for ensemble, for Nicolas Hodges and co-commissioned opera, was commissioned by Radio Scale Composition and the recording, of which Kagel wrote: 'Gerald Barry by Musica Viva and City of Birmingham France for the 2007 Festival Présences. released on NMC, was nominated is always sober, but might as well always be Symphony Orchestra, was premiered It was premiered by in for a 2016 Grammy Award. A new drunk. His piece “ ” is, on the in Munich in 2013 under Peter Rundel Paris. Barry created an English version of production by the Nouvel Opéra contrary, not rectilineal, but ' '. with subsequent performances by the the work for the Royal Concertgebouw Fribourg opened in Fribourg and Paris Also from 1979 is Ø for two CBSO under Thomas Adès. Orchestra and Thomas Adès. in May 2019. Most recent among in which both pianos play identical His first opera The Intelligence Park, Barry’s fifth opera, The Importance of his is Alice’s Adventures Under music simultaneously. released as a recording on NMC, Being Earnest (2009–10), was jointly Ground (2014-15), premiered in concert Barry has received a number of was commissioned by the ICA and commissioned by the LA Philharmonic in November 2016 with Thomas commissions from the BBC including first performed at the 1990 Almeida and the Barbican in London and Adès conducting the LA Phil New Chevaux-de-frise, for the 1988 Proms, Festival. A new production opened received its world premiere staging Music Group and Barbara Hannigan The Conquest of Ireland (1996), Day at Covent Garden in September 2019. at Opéra national de Lorraine, Nancy in the title role. The world premiere (2005/14) for the BBC Symphony A second opera, The Triumph of Beauty in 2013. The opera has received a staging was given at Covent Garden Orchestra, The Eternal Recurrence (2000), and Deceit (1991), written for Channel 4 number of new productions notably in February 2020 in a production by a setting of Nietzsche for voice and Television, opened the 2002 Aldeburgh including at the Royal Opera House, Antony McDonald. orchestra, and Hard D (1995) for the Festival, followed by performances in Covent Garden in 2013 (since revived Orchestral Players

CD1 Beethoven Symphonies 4 & 5 CD1 Barry Viola Concerto Violin I Piccolo Alto Violin I Violas Trumpets Thomas Gould Nicholas Bootiman Lindsey Ellis Michael Buchanan Jacqueline Shave Clare Finnimore Peter Facer Paul Archibald Clare Thompson Luba Tunnicliffe Oboes Trombone Róisín Walters Lisanne Melchior Emma Feilding Shane Brennan Martin Gwilym- Bridget Carey Melanie Rothman Matthew Lewis Katherine Shave Bridget Carey Ruth Berresford Heidi Bennett Jones Rachel Byrt Ruth Berresford Bass Trombone Martin Gwilym-Jones Rachel Byrt Katherine Shave Lisanne Melchior Cecily Ward Clifton Harrison Clarinets Barry Clements Joy Farrall Andrew Connington Fiona McCapra Meghan Cassidy Michael Jones Francis Gallagher Joy Farrall Timpani Stephen Williams Andrew White Ruth Ehrlich Elizabeth Wexler Stephen Williams William Lockhart Cellos Emma Canavan Bass Trombone Beatrix Lovejoy Caroline Dearnley Florence Cooke Caroline Dearnley Bassoons David Eaglestone Michael Jones Juliet Welchman Eleanor Stanford Ben Chappell Elizabeth Wexler Sarah Burnett Sarah Burnett Julia Vohralik * Rachel Stroud Julia Vohralik Lawrence Principal for Connie Tanner Adrian Miotti Cecily Ward Reinoud Ford Violin II Chris Allan O’Donnell * Symphony 4 Andrew Watson Violin II Chris Allan Miranda Dale Alessandro Sanguineti Percussion Gordon Laing Ben Fullbrook Miranda Dale Double Basses Alexandra Caldon Double Basses Contrabassoon Andrew Watson William Lockhart Nicola Goldscheider Benjamin Scott- Judith Stowe Roger Linley Gordon Laing Horns Marcus Broome Russell Suzanne Loze Benjamin Judith Stowe Elena Hull Horns Jo Godden Scott-Russell Martin Owen Suzanne Loze Melissa Favell- Alex Wide Joanna Watts David Johnson Phillippa Slack Bridget Davey David McQueen Sally Fenton Andrew Littlemore Wright & Piccolos Kirsty Lovie Ellie Fagg Alexei Watkins Flutes Trumpets Emer McDonough Joanna Watts Harry Winstanley Paul Archibald Lindsey Ellis Sarah O’Flynn Shane Brennan CD2 Beethoven Symphony 6 / Barry Conquest of Ireland Violin I Violas Piccolos Contrabassoon Bass Trombone Jacqueline Shave Nicholas Bootiman Sarah O’Flynn Gordon Laing Barry Clements Clare Thompson Luba Tunnicliffe Lindsey Ellis Horns Tuba Martin Gwilym-Jones Bridget Carey Alto Alex Wide Sam Elliott Katherine Shave Rachel Byrt David McQueen Lindsey Ellis Timpani Fiona McCapra Lisanne Melchior Marcus Bates Oboes William Lockhart Ruth Ehrlich Meghan Cassidy Kirsty Howe Melanie Rothman Percussion Beatrix Lovejoy Cellos Trumpets Ruth Berresford Toby Kearney Michael Jones Caroline Dearnley Paul Archibald Sam Walton Elizabeth Wexler Juliet Welchman Shane Brennan Ilid Jones Tim Gunnell Cecily Ward Julia Vohralik Bruce Nockles Clarinets Piano Violin II Reinoud Ford Alto Trombone Joy Farrall Catherine Edwards Miranda Dale Chris Allan Michael Buchanan Nicola Goldscheider Stephen Williams Double Basses Trombones Marcus Broome Benjamin Scott-Russell Michael Buchanan Judith Stowe Oliver Pashley Elena Hull Matthew Lewis Jo Godden Melissa Favell-Wright Bassoons Bridget Davey Flutes Sarah Burnett Kirsty Lovie Harry Winstanley Lawrence O’Donnell Joanna Watts Sarah O’Flynn Gordon Laing Lindsey Ellis Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Adès are extremely grateful to Robin Boyle for his generous support of this Beethoven Symphony Cycle recording, in honour of his friendship and admiration for Thomas Adès.

Lawrence Power appears on this Signum recording by kind permission of Hyperion Records. All works recorded in Barbican Hall, London. Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 recorded on 22nd May 2018 Producer: James Mallinson | Engineer: Tony Faulkner (Green Room Productions) Beethoven Symphony No. 6 recorded on 24th May 2018 Producer: James Mallinson | Engineer: Tony Faulkner (Green Room Productions) Barry Viola Concerto recorded on 21st May 2019 Producer: Ian Watson | Engineer: Jonathan Stokes (Classic Sound) Barry The Conquest of Ireland recorded on 24th May 2018 Producer: James Mallinson | Engineer: Tony Faulkner (Green Room Productions) Remix Engineer: Jonathan Stokes | Post Production/Editing/Mastering: Ian Watson Executive Producer: David Butcher (Britten Sinfonia) All programme notes (except Viola Concerto) © Jo Kirkbride Gerald Barry’s Viola Concerto & The Conquest of Ireland are published by Schott Music Cover Image: Marco Borggreve | Design & Artwork: Marshall Light Studio

2020 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Britten Sinfonia, under licence to Signum Records. © 2020 The copyright in this CD booklet and design is owned by Signum Records. Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact 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 Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet 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. Signum Records, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middlesex UB6 7LQ, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 | [email protected] | www.signumrecords.com Audio Digipak 6pp 2 Trays horizontal Slot centered front back Code: ADP06012 Slot for Booklet up to 2mm (32pp on 150/90 gsm artpaper) Visit our template library 300 gsm cardboard b2bglobal.sonydadc.com

Scale 1:1 Bleed (min. 3mm) Design Area (Logos and text have to be placed at least 3mm inside of cutting line.) Cutting line Folding line

138mm 16,5mm 136,5mm 11mm 137mm 122mm

HEAD TRAYSIDE ADP06012 125,5mm 25mm

251mm

© Chris Christodoulou Chris ©

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The Conquest of Ireland Viola Concerto BARRY Symphonies Nos. 4–6 BEETHOVEN Records Signum 2020

SIGCD639

LC15723

Ⓟ 2020 Britten Sinfonia Sinfonia Britten 2020

7LQ, United Kingdom Kingdom United 7LQ,

SIGCD639

Perivale, Middlesex, UB6 UB6 Middlesex, Perivale,

Road, Wadsworth 21 14, Signum Records Ltd, Suite Suite Ltd, Records Signum BEETHOVEN / BARRY

59.32 timing Total

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19.37 BARRY Ireland of Conquest The 6

125,5mm Bloom

39.54 BEETHOVEN 6 No. Symphony 1-5 Joshua Joshua –SINFONIA / BRITTEN ADÈS

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Power

Laurence Laurence

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15.06 BARRY Concerto Viola 9

Adès

Sinfonia BARRY BEETHOVEN / 32.04 BEETHOVEN 5 No. Symphony 5-8 Thomas Thomas

Britten Britten

32.41 BEETHOVEN 4 No. Symphony 1-4

Sinfonia

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Britten Britten SIGCD639

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BACK FRONT

139,5mm 139,5mm 138,5mm 13,5mm 8mm

439mm

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