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Home , Facing Goya, Fretwork (music group), Hilliard Ensemble, Iestyn Davies, Marnie (opera), Michael Nyman

Sunday, November 3, 2019, 3pm Hertz Hall with Iestyn Davies,

Fretwork Asako Morikawa, Richard Boothby, Joanna Levine, Emily Ashton, Sam Stadlen,

If &

Michael NYMAN (b. 1944) No Time in Eternity (2016) Henry PURCELL (1659 –1695) Fantazy No. 7 in C minor, 19th June 1680 Fantazy No. 11 in G major, 19th August 1680 Music for a while (1679) NYMAN Music Aer a While (2018) PURCELL e Evening Hymn (1688) INTERMISSION NYMAN Balancing the Books (1999) If (1995) Why (1995) PURCELL Fantazy No. 6 in F major, 14th June 1680 Fantazy upon one note (1680) NYMAN e Self-Laudatory Hymn of Inanna and her Omnipotence (1992)

This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors the Hon. Marie Bertillion Collins and Mr. Leonard Collins. Major support provided by The Bernard Osher Foundation. Cal Performances’ 2019 –20 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

 PROGRAM NOTES

Michael Nyman at 75 Nyman has chosen to set. Herrick was highly Is there a contemporary composer whose music sensitive to music and a close friend of the Lawes is more immediately recognizable than Michael brothers, Henry and William. Nyman’s? I can’t think of one: the insistent osti - In 2017, Fretwork commissioned Nyman nanti; the bold, yet simply conceived harmony; (with funds generously donated by Mark Reed) the driving rhythms; the aggressive instrumen - to write a new instrumental work for the group, tation; the heavy -line—all have combined and he responded with Music Aer a While , to make Nyman’s music seem instantly famil - which is based on Purcell’s song, or more iar. He has been imitated endlessly, particularly particularly on its strikingly original bass-line, by composers for moving images—film, televi - with its insidious rising chromatics. It was sion, advertisements, and so on; yet these are premiered in Milton Court, in London’s Bar - pale imitations, not the real thing. bican Centre, in May 2018, just before Fretwork While Nyman might be known now more recorded it. for the music he wrote for ’s e Evening Hymn is a setting of the poem award-winning film from 1993, e Piano , he by Bishop William Fuller, friend of the diarists initially shot to fame a decade earlier with the Pepys and Evelyn. e arrangement for viols music for ’s e Draughtsman’s was made by Silas Wolston. e sound bass here Contract, set in 17th-century . is moves to accommodate modulations to differ - lurid tale was filmed with striking originality, ent keys, as does that of Music for a while, which which Nyman mirrored with his music, most is from the incidental music to Dryden and Lee’s of it derived from one of England’s greatest translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus , revived in 1692. composers, Henry Purcell. Purcell’s music was Alecto is one of the Greek furies, with snakes for well known to Nyman, as he had studied under hair, whose work is to castigate mortals for their the great musicologist urston Dart at King’s moral crimes. College in London in the 1960s, and had then Some time during the 2000s, I came across produced the first modern edition of Purcell’s Nyman’s If , scored for piano and strings, and Catches in 1967. thought it could work for viols; I made an So it was a natural choice to combine Nyman arrangement and sent it to the composer, who and Purcell on this program. Purcell never approved. e calm simplicity of the harmonic composed vocal music with an accompaniment pattern and melody makes for a compelling of viols, but his magnificent set of Fantazias work, which expresses the child-like naivete of and In Nomines for viols demonstrated his the text. It was written, together with Why , to interest in the instrument; so it was but a short texts by Roger Pulvers as part of an animated step to realizing Purcell’s original bass-line and film by Seiya Araki, e Diary of Anne Frank . completing the harmonies with parts for four And then, having seen my arrangement, Ny - or five viols. man suggested I look at a work he had written Nyman’s No Time in Eternity was commis - for the Swingle Singers, Balancing the Books , sioned in 2016 by the French countertenor a wordless vocal work in eight parts. I arranged Paulin Bündgen and Ensemble Celadon, and this, but we didn’t find an opportunity to per - first performed by them in Lyon in March of form it until we were invited to take part in the that year. It is a setting of several poems by Minimalism Unwrapped festival at Kings Place the great 17th-century poet Robert Herrick. in London in 2015. All are from his Hesperides , published in 1648. We had previously commissioned Nyman in Herrick’s most famous verse is “To the Virgins 1992 to write a work for James Bowman and our to make much of time,” espousing the advice to ensemble for the Spitalfields Festival. Nyman seize the day, or carpe diem ; and we see similar described the remarkable chance encounter that sentiments in these epigrammatical works that led to the choice of text:

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

e text of the Self-Laudatory Hymn came to Britannica edition of Jacobean consort light while I was browsing among the book - music) and the finest book ever written on shelves of an Armenian acquaintance in Feb - English music, E nglish by ruary 1992. Opening, for no apparent reason, E.H. Meyer. a fat anthology entitled Ancient Near-Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament , edited Michael Nyman was born in Stratford, in the by James B. Pritchard, I found S.N. Kramer’s East End of London on March 23, 1944. In ad - translation of this hymn. I was immediately dition to his current work as a composer, he is taken with its tone of unashamed self- also a filmmaker, conductor, pianist, musicolo - con gratulation (very suitable, I thought, for gist, writer, and photographer. Nyman studied James Bowman’s voice) and its repetitive at the and, following structure (very suitable for my music). his PhD studies with urston Dart, traveled to In conversation with another friend, I to collect folk music. learned that Inanna was not an obscure god - dess known only to me and a few experts on While working as music critic for e Spec - Sumerian civilisation, but a central focus of tator , Nyman coined the term “minimalism” in that civilisation and a figure highly esteemed 1968. He also wrote for e New States man , e by feminists. In Kramer’s works: ‘Female Listener, and Studio Interna tional . He seminal deities were worshipped and adored all work on new music— Experimental Music: Cage though Sumerian history…but the goddess and Beyond —was published in 1974 and re - who outweighed, overshadowed, and out - cently was reprinted. lasted them all was a deity know to the Nyman’s preferred musical form is , Sumerians by the name of Inanna, ‘Queen of Heaven,’ and to the Semites, who lived in and he has written several notable works in this Sumer, by the name of Ishtar. Inanna played form: e Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, a greater role in myth, epic, and hymn than , and Many and Boy: Dada. any other deity, male or female.’ More recently, he has focused on composing In the Self-Laudatory Hymn, I have made soundtracks for silent films from the late 1920 s: no attempt to evoke Sumerian music (or Jean Vigo ’s À Propos de Nice , Sergei Eisenstein ’s music of any other period). e opportunity , and new soundtracks for to work with the viols of Fretwork recalls my three films— Man with a Movie use of early instruments in the first , which uses rather than Camera, e Eleventh Year, and A Sixth Part of viols; and also my studies in the 1960s with the World . urston Dart (and his memorable Musica —Richard Boothby

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

For the past three decades (the ensemble cele - Bainbridge, Poul Ruders, John Joubert, Duncan brated its 30th anniversary in 2016), Fretwork Drucem, and . has explored the core repertory of great English e group now frequently presents programs consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and consisting entirely of contemporary music. made classic recordings against which others Fretwork made its Carnegie Hall debut in are judged. February of 2010, and now tours the United In addition, the ensemble has become States most years. Also in 2010, the group cu - known as a pioneer of contemporary music for rated a week-long concert series at Kings Place viols, having commissioned over 40 new works in London’s Kings Cross area, culminating in from composers including Michael Nyman, the world premiere of Orlando Gough’s e George Benjamin, Sir , Gavin World Encompassed , a 70-minute piece de - Bryars, Elvis Costello, Alexander Goehr, John scribing in musical terms Drake’s circumnavi - Woolrich, Orlando Gough, Fabrice Fitch, Peter gation of the globe in 1577 –80. Sculthorpe, Sally Beamish, , Barry In 2011, the National Centre for , Guy, Andrew Keeling, ea Musgrave, Simon in collaboration with the BBC, hosted a com -

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

petition for young composers to create a four- and the King opposite , minute piece for Fretwork. e group work- a Globe eatre production that had successful shopped the shortlisted pieces at the NCEM in runs on the West End and Broadway. York in October, and then the winning entries On the opera stage, Davies has appeared were premiered in Kings Place in December. at the (Covent Garden), e following year, Fretwork premiered Nico Glynde bourne Festival Opera, English National Muhly’s My Days with the Opera, La Scala (Milan), , in Wigmore Hall. And in 2013, the ensemble Chicago Lyric Opera, and in Munich, Vienna. played no fewer than 10 concerts in London’s and Zurich. Recent highlights include returns major chamber music halls: Wigmore Hall, to the Bayerische Staatsoper for Ottone/ Agrip - Kings Place, Cadogan Hall, and the Royal pina , Terry/ Marnie at the Metropolitan Opera, College of Music. and Polinesso/ Ariodante at the Lyric Opera of In 2014, Fretwork concentrated on the music Chicago. Later this season, he reprises the role of with a major tour of the UK of Ottone at the Royal Opera House and the with Ian Bostridge. e musicians also spent Metropolitan Opera. a week in the Britten Studio in Aldeburgh, Celebrated on the concert platform, Davies re-working Orlando Gough’s e World has performed at , La Scala Encompassed and incorporating spoken narra - (Milan), the Con certgebouw (Amsterdam), the tive drawn from contemporary accounts of Tonhalle (Zurich), éâtre des Champs-Élysées Drake’s voyage. (Paris), and the (London). Fretwork premiered Muhly’s Slow: An In Recent highlights include concerts with Nomine in 2015 at Kings Place, and collabo - William Chris tie and the Royal Concertgebouw rated with actor Simon Callow in the revised Orchestra; Ber nard Labadie, Les Violons du version of e World Encompassed , recording Roy, and the Han del & Haydn Society; Jona - the work for Signum Classics. than Cohen and Arcan gelo at the BBC Proms; In 2016, the ensemble celebrated its 30th and a tour with the . is season anniversary with a star-studded June concert he appears with and the at Kings Place; recorded four new ; and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in made its longest tour of the Americas, traveling Bucha rest for Orfeo ed Euri dice , and Harry through the United States, Canada, and Co - Bicket and the New York Philhar monic for lombia. Messiah. He also joins Emmanuel Haim and the Last year, Fretwork performed and recorded NDR Emphil har monie Orchestra for a series of a program celebrating the music of Michael concerts of the St. John Passion at the Elbphil - Nyman—who turned 75 earlier this year—with har monie in Hamburg. the Iestyn Davies; the group is currently touring A committed recitalist, with repertoire that North America with this program. Also this ranges from Dowland to Clapton, Davies is a year, Fretwork begins a series of concerts at regular guest at Carnegie Hall and enjoys a Wigmore Hall, presenting the greatest English successful relationship with both the Wigmore consort music from the Golden Age—six con - Hall and Saffron Hall, where he has curated certs including music ranging from Cornyshe multiple residencies. to Purcell. Davies has twice received the Gramophone Recital Award, and in 2017 won the Gram o - Aer graduating from St John’s College, Cam - phone Baroque Vocal Award for his Bach Can - bridge, Iestyn Davies (countertenor ) studied at tatas disc with and Jonathan Cohen. the Royal Academy of Music, London. In 2017, Iestyn Davies was awarded an MBE In 2017, Davies received an Olivier Award (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the nomination for singing the role of Farinelli in British Empire) for his services to music.

 PLAYBILL TEXTS

Michael Nyman Henry Purcell No Time in Eternity Music for a while [Robert Herrick] Music for a while Shall all your cares beguile. To Music Wond’ring how your pains were eas’d Begin to Charm, and as thou strok’st mine ears And disdaining to be pleas’d With thy enchantment, melt me into tears. Till Alecto free the dead From their eternal bands, en let thy active hand scud o’er thy lyre. Till the snakes drop from her head, And make my spirits frantic with fire. And the whip from out her hands. at done, sink down into a silvery strain, And make me smooth as balm and oil again. Purcell No Time in Eternity e Evening Hymn By hours we all live here; in Heaven is known [Bishop William Fuller] No spring of time or time’s succession. Now, now that the sun hath veil’d his light And bid the world good night To the so bed, my body I dispose, Fortune But where, where shall my soul repose? Fortune’s a blind profuse of her own, Dear God, even in y arms, Too much she gives to some, enough to none. And can there be any so sweet security! en-to-thy-rest, O my soul e Definition of Beauty And singing, praise the mercy that prolongs Beauty no other thing is than a beam thy days. Flashed out between the middle and extreme. Hallelujah!

ings mortal still mutable ings are uncertain and the more we get, Nyman e more on icy pavements we are set. If [Roger Pulvers] If at the sound of a wish, the summer sun e Watch would shine, Man is a watch wound up at first, but never And if just a smile would do to brush all the Wound up again: once down he’s down for ever. clouds from the sky. e watch once down, all motions then do cease; If at the blink of an eye the autumn leaves And man’s pulse stopp’d, all passions sleep would fall; in peace. And if you could sigh a deep sigh to scatter them over the earth, To Music (ii) I’d blink my eyes and wave my arm, Music, thou queen of heaven, care-charming I’d wish a wish to stop all harm. spell, at srik’st a stillness into hell: If at the wave of a hand the winter snows ou that tam’st tigers, and fierce storms would start that rise, And if you could just light a candle to change With thy soul-melting lullabies, people’s feelings and hearts, Fall down from those chiming spheres I’d whisper love in every land, To charm our souls as thou enchant’st our ears. To every child, woman and man; at’s what I’d do if my wishes come true.

 TEXTS

Nyman He has placed Heaven as a crown. Why He has tied the earth as a sandal. [Roger Pulvers] He has fastened the holy me garment We ask our father why, About my body. Why people cannot love, Why people hate all day and night, e Gods are my vassals: Spoiling children’s dreams. I, a Queen am I. e Anuna scurry about. We ask our mother why, I, a life-giving wild cow am I, Why people cannot live, e life-giving wild cow of father Enlil am I, Why they won’t let the children be, His life-giving wild cow that walks at the head. Crushing their belief. When I enter the Ekur, the house of Enlil, Tell us why, Papa, your children want to know: e gate-keeper puts not his hand against “Some day you’ll find out” my breast, Leave us lonely and cold. e vizier says not to me: stop! Tell us why, Mama, your children want to know: “You shouldn’t ask such things” Heaven is mine, earth is mine. Leaves us no room to grow. In Erech, the Eanna is mine, We ask our parents why, In Zabalom, the Giguna is mine. Why children cannot grow. Don’t look away from us, In Nippur, the Duranki is mine, Don’t lie, please don’t lie, In Ur, the Edilman is mine. Your children need to know. In Girsu the Eshdam is mine, Tell me why, somebody, In Adab, the Emdara is mine. We children need an answer Why adults fight over God, In Kish, the Hursag Kalama is mine, Why adults fight over color, In Dev, the Amashkuga is mine. Why adults go to war. In Akshak, the Anzaka is mine, In Agada, the Ulmash is mine. e Self-Laudatory Hymn of Inanna and her Omnipotence Is there one god who can vie with me? My father gave me Heaven, gave me earth. I the Queen of Heaven am I. • • • Is there one God who can vie with me? Enlil gave me Heaven, gave me earth, Management for Iestyn Davies I the Queen of Heaven am I. Askonas Holt Limited 15 Fetter Lane He has given me lordship, London EC4A 1BW He has given me queenship. He has given me battle, given me combat Tel: 44 (0)20 7400 1700 And he gave me flood and tempest. askonasholt.com [email protected]

 PLAYBILL