CHAN 9763 front.qxd 26/7/07 1:28 pm Page 1 CHANDOS FROST Bassoon Concerto Oboe Concerto The Lesson CHAN 9763 CHAN 9763 BOOK.qxd 26/7/07 1:29 pm Page 2 Stephen Frost (b. 1959) premiere recording 1 The Lesson* 13:31 premiere recording Bassoon Concerto† 28:55 2 I Movement One 5:52 3 II Movement Two 14:30 4 III Movement Three 8:22 Karina Paulen premiere recording Oboe Concerto‡ 20:27 5 I Movement One 3:21 6 II Movement Two 8:29 7 III Movement Three 8:33 TT 63:25 Arve Moen Bergset voice* Sigyn Birkeland bassoon† Simon Emes oboe ‡ Tony Harrison Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra*† David Nolan leader Ensemble 2000‡ Tom Bowes leader Tony Harrison 3 CHAN 9763 BOOK.qxd 26/7/07 1:29 pm Page 4 bassoon; and so, if nothing else, the loudest now that a Pulsar has nothing to do with life; but Frost: The Lesson etc. Bassoon Concerto ever written was born. The our deep-rooted conviction that pulse and life are first movement was written relatively quickly, inextricably linked once led us to believe that we and I jotted down sketches for the slow middle had found clear evidence of extra-terrestrial life. A Brief History addition to the one here, was pivotal in movement, all of which were received by Tony How sad, my friend, to discover that it was just a I leave it to others to analyse the three pieces guiding me through what was at the time a and Sigyn enthusiastically. I started work on a spinning star.) which are featured on this recording, should quagmire of orchestration and structure. He last movement which I felt needed to be large- One way or another, we all dance to this beat anyone really wish to do so. I make no claims never minced his words or let me off the scale, and, seven minutes in, I played a of life. In the concert hall and on the football or justification for them; they are what they hook: when something needed cutting or re- synthesised concoction of it to both soloist terracing, in the cathedral and on the car radio, are. Apart from Auden’s words there is no writing he would say so, and would assist in and conductor. It is the most painful on the dance floors in the clubs and pubs, from conscious extra-musical inspiration or outside the reconstruction with unbounded generosity. experience for a composer to endure – the India to Alaska, we are never more than an arm’s influence – though that is not to say that I am In fact, it is true to say that in the end most of nervous fidgeting and polite silence of failure. length from the drum. We take this beat, this left unmoved by the forces which act on us in the Oboe Concerto was orchestrated by him. After much heart-searching I turned to my mother and father of all music, and enjoin it with the world and in our own personal lives. In I am especially fond of this piece. It is in best critic, the waste-paper basket (for it is he our different rhythms. Sometimes we embrace it, that particular sense every note is infused with some ways an adolescent work, but it is with who loves almost everything I write), and or sometimes we fight it and tear at it with private joy and public tragedy. My seven-year- more than a pang of regret that I look back at began another last movement. tyrannosaurean fury, and sometimes like a old son and his special child-like humour is in its youthfulness and naivety, things which I try So, my friend, what is the difference between rebellious adolescent we think we can do without there somewhere, as is Rwanda, as is to cling on to even now but which by and success and failure? You should know better than it and leave home, and we cut the umbilical cord. Dunblane. But the listener should find his or large, the shaving-mirror reminds me, are gone most. I have sought enlightenment, but analysis I remember this: one Christmas, on being given her own story, if they are to find anything at forever. reveals nothing but itself. Dissect the patient and two drums and a cymbal (which for a 1964 all. It was through Tony Harrison that I met he dies. Profound insight is like looking into the five-year-old very clearly constituted a drum kit) The Oboe Concerto, played here by Simon Sigyn Birkeland, a bassoonist of extraordinary sun: one is blinded. The more one knows, the less I joined in with Ringo and the rest, and hit my Emes, was originally written in 1989 for my quality and with an instrumental sound of the one understands, and, in any case, to understand drums with such fierce pleasure that I was through wife, Susan, and the Hatcham Chamber most haunting melancholy. I leapt at her is to miss the point. Yet I have a vague idea, a the paper skins by lunch-time. My blood raced and Orchestra. She gave the first performance of suggestion that I might like to write her shadow in the corner of my eye, of a secret I jumped for joy because I think I understood, in the original version, which turned out to be something. After an aborted attempt at a whispered in a strange language. the simple unfettered way that only a five-year-old rather longer and more self-indulgent than I piece for bassoon and string quartet, and then From the soldier’s march to the mother’s can understand, what music was. had wished. I needed to re-write substantial for bassoon and piano, the three of us came rocking lullaby, from the ticking clock to the Now stop this idle chatter. I have a Concerto to sections – particularly in the last movement – round to the idea of a concerto. At a relatively beating heart, it comes from within us and speaks finish. and the surgeon’s scalpel was sharpened to early stage it became obvious that to make my out to us. Pulse is everywhere. From the Folk Whilst I was in the middle of writing the tighten the slow movement significantly. Tony (hopelessly optimistic!) orchestration work Song to the lighthouse-effect of the Pulsar comes Bassoon Concerto I was diverted from the Harrison, who conducted that early version in successfully we would have to amplify the an affirmation of life itself. (Of course, we know task by my good friend Rupert Jennings who 4 5 CHAN 9763 BOOK.qxd 26/7/07 1:29 pm Page 6 asked me to write him a setting for voice and unique voice of Arve Moen Bergset. I continue Haining, Kath Pollard, Doris Busby, of the “Vinterfestspill i Bergstaden” festival in piano. For longer than I can remember I had to be drawn to that aspect of the Harald Haugen, Abbey Road Studios, Røros in Norway. wanted to write an opera, or a musical, or Scandinavian character which I find in his Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The something in-between. However, I felt that I voice, although I cannot quite pin it down. I Winter Gardens Bournemouth, Chandos Sigyn Birkeland has been principal bassoon needed first to experiment with some kind of sometimes think of it as a fenced-in creature Records, The Hatcham Chamber in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra since 1992, word-setting just to see if I could do it, and of darkness wearing the clothes of innocence Orchestra, Impact Percussion. and has appeared as soloist with several when a newly borrowed copy of W.H. Auden’s and light, but whatever it is I suspect it is Norwegian orchestras. For many years she has selected poems fell open at The Lesson I took formed by those endless summer days and I am forever indebted to: worked closely with the American instrument this as my cue. I wrote the first few bars as long dark winter nights (though I much prefer Tony Harrison, Sigyn Birkeland, Arve maker Fox to create and develop a bassoon they are now, and I embarked on a new the Norwegian definition: one long party Moen Bergset, Simon Emes, Geoff Miles, with a distinctive tenor voice, and is especially journey full of unexpected twists and turns. I followed by one long washing-up!). I should Rupert Jennings; and for their love and interested in finding new areas and discovered that writing music to words with a also say that The Lesson owes much in terms patience, Sue and Jamie Frost. combinations of instruments for this sound to pre-determined meaning and a pre-formed of colour and courage to that master of tuned operate in – a search which has led her to structure contained a glorious paradox: that percussion, Percy Grainger, and his unique © 1999 Stephen Frost form a group for bassoon, accordion and their constraints and inviolate boundaries orchestration. percussion, and also to approach a number of pushed me into new areas of exploration, Much later, I was able to finish Sigyn’s new Arve Moen Bergset was born in 1972. Five composers to create new works for her, freed me from old habits and easy options, finale. The waste-paper basket seems rather years later his family settled in Vinje in including the Concerto on this disc. and showed me doorways where previously offended, and I am not his ‘friend’, but as Telemark, a county with a strong tradition of there had been only dead-ends.