TROUPE The Empty Chair Thursday 22 February 2018 11.00am – 12 noon BiographyMusic you will hear today Catherine Carter The Songs of ThisThat (2016) Barbican Piano Trio ForMeredith three decades Monk the (b.1942) Barbican Piano Trio has been regarded as one of the UK’s Catherine Carter’s ThisThat songs use the music of Meredith leading ensembles, with a reputation for presenting stimulating performances, for Monk as a starting point, echoing the shape of the tune in theTravel breadth Dream of its repertoire Song from and Atlas for its (1991) exceptional audience rapport. At home it ‘Travel Dream Song’. Catherine wanted to be playful with her appears in major festivals and concert series including Blackheath, City of London, voice and express how ThisThat is a kindly visitor – friend not Garsington,Meredith Guildford,Monk is a singing,Bridgenorth composing Haydn Festiadventurerval, Frinton who Festival,loves exploring Harrogate, what Rye, human voices can do. Listen as the voice travels across different vowel sounds foe. Look (and listen) out for the singing bowl that ThisThat Sheffield, Spitalfields, the St Jude’s Proms, Three Spires, Warwick, Bristol, Cardiff, plays. A singing bowl is a kind of upside-down bell. Notice how Cambridge,and hear Oxfordhow the and gently Leeds. looping It visits piano Scotland part rises frequently and falls and like has a hypnotist’sappeared at The pendulum. Catherine gently hits the bowl with a small stick and then uses Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh on several occasions. The Trio has given many performanc- this stick to circle the edge of the bowl. This circling helps the es at London’s Wigmore Hall, a special highlight being a performance of all Beetho- Anton Webern (1883–1945) bowl wobble quickly and delicately to create a magical hum- ven’s piano trios in the Master Concert Series. The Trio has given concerts in Germa- ming sound. See how many notes you can hear swimming up ny,Three Belgium, little Denmark, pieces France, for cello Holland, and piano Sweden, Op. Bulgaria, 11 (1914) Italy, Spain, Romania and from the bowl… Russia. Further afield it has toured the Far East, South America, Kazakhstan, KyrgystanAnton Webern and Uzbekistan. (vay-burn It) washas visitedan interesting the USA mixture five times, of being performed very wild in major and very Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) venuesorganised. including He lovedat New using York’s mathematical Weill Recital ideas Hall at in Carnegiehis pieces, Ha numberingll and in Boston, the notes Cello Suite No. 1 Op. 72 (1964) Chicago,of the Washingtonscale then using and Losthese Angeles. numbers The to Trio decide plays the all order the acclaimed of notes in masterpieces his music. for Thisthe genreis called but ‘ serialism’also enjoys but exploring has nothing less whatsoeverfamiliar works. to do Recent with Riceperformances Krispies. He Canto primo. Sostenuto e largamente havewrote included these music Three byLittle Jean Pieces Françaix, in 1914. Paul It Schoenfield can be hard and to hear Hugh where Wood. one The ends Trio and hasthe also next given begins premieres so here of are new two works clues. by The Peter second Lawson, piece James starts Francis with a Brown, loud crash In the 1960s, Britten promised the famous cellist Rostropovich Artiomof notes Kim, in Bill the Campbell piano (the and first David loud Matthews. thing to happen). Its discography The third on piece ASV, beginsGuild, Blackwith that he would write this piece, signing a pledge on the back of a Boxa andtrill (aDutton whizzing feature rumble works between by Mendelssohn, two notes) Lalo,in the Tchaikovsky, cello. Taneyev, restaurant napkin. It is beautifully sad and heavy music. This Rachmaninov , Schnittke, John Ireland and Alan Bush. As part of its commitment to heaviness comes partly from the cello almost constantly play- educationLuciano work, Berio the (1925 trio holds–2003) regular masterclasses and presents informative ing two notes at once (something called double-stopping). This technique of drawing the bow across two strings at the same concertsBallo forfrom students Quattro of all Canzoni ages. Popolari (1946–7, rev.1973) time lends a particular weight and effort to the sound. The Italian composer Luciano Berio was another musical adventurer. He said: ‘I am caught by the thrill of discovery.’ This song is from a set of folksong arrangements (although we think Berio and the singer Cathy Berberian may have mischievously written the original songs themselves too). ‘Ballo’ (‘Dance’) is all about the wild extremes of human emotion: listen out for the racing pulse of the piano and babbling ‘la-ri-la’ sounds in the voice. François Couperin (1668–1733) Moondog (1916–1999) Les Barricades Mystérieuses (1717) I’m This I’m That (1978) The Mysterious Barricades was written for the harpsichord – an instrument Moondog was born in 1916 and wrote many songs and that looks like a small piano but sounds quite different as the strings hidden poems, as well as inventing musical instruments. He was inside are plucked (a bit like a harp). The meaning of this piece’s title remains a once called Louis Thomas Hardin but when he was age MYSTERY. Some people think it could link to secret societies or masked balls 31 he decided he would prefer to be called Moondog. or a wild revolution or something that simply unsettled how music of that time Moondog became famous for wandering the streets of New usually sounded. No one knows for certain. See what you think. (And please York wearing a Viking helmet, sometimes singing his songs, send us a postcard if you think you know the answer.) sometimes standing in silence. This song is taken from Moondog’s 1978 album H’Art Songs. George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Words move words from Rodelinda (1719) © Kate Wakeling 2018 (arr. by TROUPE) This aria (or song) is taken from an opera by George Frederic Handel. The opera tells a story about love, power and a stolen throne, and this particular song is heard when a character (who is still alive) reads his own gravestone. We have recast this piece of music as a dreamlike song performed by ThisThat and with brand new words. Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Cello Sonata in D minor (1915) Prologue. Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto This is the beginning of a longer piece for cello and piano (a bit like the two persons’ conversation at this moment in the story). It was written in 1915. Debussy had been struggling with the misery of the First World War and with illness so had stopped composing. Then suddenly he found he could create music again. He wrote: ‘It was like a rediscovery and it seemed to me more beautiful than ever. The emotional satisfaction one gets from music can’t be equaled, can it, in any of the other arts?’ Catherine Carter voice Biographies Jessie Maryon Davies piano Sophie Rivlin cello Singer and performance maker Catherine Carter has created work including with Erratica, Langham Research Centre, Dowland Works, Created and devised by TROUPE Spitalfields Music, Miriam Sherwood, Aurora Orchestra, Birmingham Written by Kate Wakeling Opera Company, English National Opera, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Over the Moon and Lost Dog Dance Theatre. Catherine has Directed by Donnacadh O'Briain with the company also written new music for a Sonic Trail for Christina Mackie’s The Designed by Ruth Paton with Ana Maio Graça Filters at Tate Britain, Weld for Juice Vocal Ensemble at the Bascule Tour produced by Liz Muge Chamber Concerts and is currently working with multi-instrumentalist Serafina Steer on a new collaboration, ExText. Generously supported by Arts Council England, Aldeburgh Music, The Cooper Hall Foundation and by Spitalfields Music through their Work-in-Progress Jessie Maryon Davies is a pianist, story-teller, composer and scheme. workshop leader. She leads creative community projects for English National Opera, Britten Sinfonia, Southbank Centre and is workshop leader in residence at Aurora Orchestra. Internationally, she has led singing projects with children in Palestine, India and Australia. She co-leads the all-female pop choir, Lips, who have performed at the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and live on BBC Television. In 2015 she co-founded the charity Girls Rock London to support young women in developing self-esteem and confidence through music-making. Donnacadh O’Briain is an Olivier Award-winning theatre director specialising in new writing. His productions have been performed at The Royal Shakespeare Company, in the West End and internationally. He sometimes moonlights in the world of classical music, most notably with the NPG Portrait Choir and Latitude Festival. His acclaimed production of Rotterdam by Jon Brittain won the 2017 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, subsequently ran at The Arts Theatre (West End), and will tour the UK during the 2018/19 season. His next production, Rejoicing at Her Wondrous Vulva the Young Woman Applauded Herself, plays at the Oval House Theatre. Sophie Rivlin is a freelance cellist working in London. This year she has performed a concerto with the Culm Valley Orchestra, recorded for the Riot Ensemble’s forthcoming CD Chest of Toys and been musical director for MishMash Productions award-winning Smile. She has performed chamber music at major UK venues and festivals and performed with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. After gaining a BA in philosophy from Cambridge University, she graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. Kate Wakeling is a poet and musicologist. Her debut collection of children’s poetry, Moon Juice (The Emma Press) was critically acclaimed and won the prestigious 2017 CLiPPA and is nominated for the 2018 Carnegie Medal. Kate’s poetry for adults has been published widely, including a pamphlet The Rainbow Faults (The Rialto), and in The Guardian, The Forward Book of Poetry 2016 (Faber & Faber) and The Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt).