NI 5828 George Benjamin George Benjamin Into the Little Hill was commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris, with a contribution from the Ernst Into the Little Hill von Siemens Music Foundation; Opéra National de Text by Martin Crimp Paris; and Ensemble Modern, with a contribution from the Forberg Schneider Foundation. Anu Komsi & Hilary Summers Ensemble Modern The fi rst performance was given by Anu Komsi and Hilary Summers, with Ensemble Modern, conducted conducted by Franck Ollu by Franck Ollu. Designed and directed by Daniel Jeanneteau, artistic collaboration and lighting design Marie-Christine Soma, costumes Olga Karpinsky, at the Opéra National de Paris, as part of the Festival d’Automne à Paris, on 22, 23, 24 November 2006. Co-produced by Festival d’Automne à Paris, Opéra national de Paris, Ensemble Modern, T&M, Oper Frankfurt, Lincoln Center Festival, Holland Festival, Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008, Wiener Festwochen. www.festival-automne.com BBC Symphony Orchestra Dance Figures conducted by Oliver Knussen Dietrich Henschel Sometime Voices Nimbus Records would like to thank Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin the Peter Moores Foundation for supporting the release of this CD Rundfunkchor Berlin Photo: Michael Falco/NYT/Redux/eyevine conducted by Kent Nagano NI 5828 Also available by George Benjamin on Nimbus NI 5713 Shadowlines Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) Viola, Viola Tabea Zimmermann & Antoine Tamestit (violas) Piano Sonata Three Studies for piano George Benjamin (piano) NI 5732 Palimpsests Ensemble Modern Orchestra At First Light Ensemble Modern Sudden Time Ensemble Modern Orchestra conducted by the composer Olicantus Ensemble Modern conducted by Oliver Knussen 2008 Wyastone Estate Limited © 2008 Wyastone Estate Limited http://www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/index.html 31 NI 5828 NI 5828 Also available by George Benjamin on Nimbus Into the Little Hill NI 5505 Upon Silence A lyric tale in two parts Susan Bickley (mezzo), Fretwork - version for 5 viols for soprano, contralto and ensemble of 15 players Three Inventions John Wallace (fl uegelhorn), London Sinfonietta Text by Martin Crimp Sudden Time London Philharmonic Orchestra Upon Silence Anu Komsi Susan Bickley, London Sinfonietta (The Crowd, The Stranger, Narrator, The Minister’s Child) conducted by the composer Hilary Summers NI 5643 (The Crowd, Narrator, The Minister, The Minister’s Wife) Ringed by the Flat Horizon Ross Pople (cello), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern conducted by Franck Ollu conducted by Mark Elder A Mind of Winter Penelope Walmsley-Clarke (soprano) Dietmar Wiesner, bass fl ute Jagdish Mistry, violin London Sinfonietta Nina Janßen, basset horn Patrizia Pacozzi, violin; mandoline At First Light John Corbett, basset horn Geneviève Strosser, viola Gareth Hulse (oboe), London Sinfonietta Udo Grimm, contrabass clarinet Garth Knox, viola; banjo Panorama Valentín Garvie, cornet Eva Böcker, cello Sava Stoianov, cornet Michael M. Kasper, cello Tape, realized at IRCAM Uwe Dierksen, trombone Martin Schöne, double bass Antara Rumi Ogawa, cimbalom /percussion Sebastian Bell & Richard Blake (fl utes) Pierre-Laurent Aimard & Ichiro Nodaïra (keyboards) Martin Crimp’s text is included by permission of Faber Music London Sinfonietta All works published by Faber Music www.fabermusic.co.uk conducted by the composer Cover photograph from the original production © Raphael Pierre 2006 30 3 NI 5828 NI 5828 Kent Nagano spent his early professional years in Boston as assistant conductor to Seiji Into the Little Hill (2006) 36.58 Ozawa at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He played a key role in the world premiere of Messiaen’s opera Saint François d’Assise at the request of the composer. Nagano’s PART ONE success in America led to European appointments: Music Director of the Opéra National 1 I The Crowd 0.50 de Lyon (1988-1998), Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (1991-2000) and Associate Kill them they bite / kill them they steal Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. World premieres from 2 II The Minister and the Crowd 2.49 these years include Bernstein’s A White House Cantata and operas by Peter Eötvös (Three The Minister greets the crowd Sisters), John Adams (The Death of Klinghoffer and El Niño) and Saariaho’s L’amour de loin 3 III The Crowd 1.42 at the Salzburg Festival. Kill them they bite / kill them they steal He was Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin 2000-6 where he performed Schönberg’s Moses und Aron, Zemlinsky’s Der König 4 IV The Minister and the Stranger 8.32 Kandaules and Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten, and recorded Bernstein’s Mass, Mahler’s Night comes but not sleep. Eighth Symphony and Schönberg’s Die Jakobsleiter. 5 V INTERLUDE 6.32 As a much sought-after guest conductor he has worked with most of the world’s Mother and Child fi nest orchestras. His recordings of Busoni’s Doktor Faustus and Prokofi ev’s Peter and the Why must the rats die, Mummy? Wolf were both awarded Grammys Kent Nagano was born in California and has been Music Director of the Berkeley PART TWO Symphony Orchestra there since 1978. He became the fi rst Music Director of Los Angeles 6 VI Inside the Minister’s Head 3.43 Under a clear sky / the Minister steps from the limousine Opera in 2003. In September 2006 he succeeded Zubin Mehta as Music Director of the Bayerische Staatsoper and also became Music Director of the Montreal Symphony 7 VII The Minister and the Stranger 5.52 Orchestra. www.kentnagano.com His head lies on his desk / between the family photograph 8 VIII INTERLUDE 6.58 Mother(s) and Child(ren) Each cradle rocks empty– Recorded on 9-11 November 2007 at the Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt Opera A co-production with the BBC and Hessian State Radio (Hessischer Rundfunk Frankfurt) Producer: Udo Wüstendörfer Balance Engineer: Thomas Eschler By permission of hrMedia Frankfurt 4 29 NI 5828 NI 5828 Franck Ollu is considered an expert in the fi eld of contemporary music. Artistic Director of the Swedish Ensemble for New Music “KammarensembleN”, he works in conjunction with Dance Figures (2004) 16.01 leading composers and appears regularly with prestigious ensembles such as Ensemble Nine Choreographic scenes for orchestra Modern, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Sinfonietta and the Philharmonia BBC Symphony Orchestra Orchestra in their Music of Today series. Franck Ollu has appeared as a symphonic conductor at festivals including the Berliner Festwochen, Lincoln Center Festival in New conducted by Oliver Knussen York, Theatre Colon in Buenos-Aires, Musica Viva in Munich and Musica Nova festival in Helsinki. He has championed works by many contemporary composers and conducted the 9 1 Spell 1.25 premieres of works by Hans Zender, Peter Eötvös, Emmanuel Nunes, Brian Ferneyhough 0 2 Recit 2.01 and Wolfgang Rihm. He conducted the premiere of George Benjamin’s opera Into the Little q 3 In the Mirror 1.00 Hill in performances at the Paris Bastille, and later in Amsterdam, Dresden, Liverpool, w 4 Interruptions 2.06 Frankfurt, Vienna and New York. He led performances of Pascal Dusapin’s opera Medea, e 5 Song 1.24 and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, and in summer 2008 conducted Dusapin’s opera r 6 Hammers 2.03 Passion commissioned for the Aix-en-Provence Festival. t 7 Alone 1.12 Franck Ollu was born in La Rochelle, France and studied music in Paris. He became y 8 Olicantus 3.28 principal horn player of the Ensemble Modern in 1990, and fi rst started conducting u 9 Whirling 1.22 in 1999 when he was 2nd conductor to John Adams for Ives’ Symphony No. 4. www.franckollu.com Oliver Knussen’s music occupies a respected and regularly revisited place in concert and Performance given in the Barbican, London on 29 March 2008. opera programmes worldwide. His Third Symphony, his opera Where the Wild Things Are By permission of the B.B.C. and Violin Concerto are among the most frequently performed British works of recent times. www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras As an acclaimed and much-invited conductor, the force of his presence and infl uence on contemporary music has been felt in many parts of the world. Dance Figures was commissioned by La Monnaie de Munt, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and He has enjoyed long and close collaborations with many distinguished composers, Strasbourg Musica. including Elliott Carter, Alexander Goehr, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, Toru The fi rst performance was given by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Takemitsu, Magnus Lindberg, George Benjamin and Mark Anthony-Turnage, as well in Orchestra Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, on 19 May 2005 The stage premiere, choreographed as encouraging many younger composer-collegues through his work at Tanglewood by Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker, was given on 17 May 2006, at La Monnaie/de Munt, Brussels, and the Contemporary Composition and Performance courses (which he co-founded conducted by Kazushi Ono with Colin Matthews) at the Britten-Pears school in Snape, Suffolk, where he now lives. www.harrisonparrott.com 28 5 NI 5828 NI 5828 Sometime Voices (1996) 10.09 Ensemble Modern. Founded in 1980 and situated in Frankfurt am Main since 1985, the Ensemble Modern (EM) is one of the leading ensembles of New Music. Currently, the EM Dietrich Henschel, baritone is comprised of 18 soloists from Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Poland, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Switzerland, all of whom provide the ensemble with its rich cultural background. Rundfunkchor Berlin The Ensemble Modern is famous for its unique working and organisational form. All the members are responsible for jointly selecting and dealing with projects, co-productions conducted by Kent Nagano and fi nancial matters. Its unique and distinctive programme consists of music theatre, dance and video projects, chamber music, ensemble and orchestral concerts.