VIOLIN CONCERTO, CELLO CONCERTO Violin Concerto where moonlight catches wisps of smoke rising Cello Concerto from chimneys and behind their curtains restless & BIRDFLIGHT Birdflight people toss and turn. CHRISTOPHER GUNNING Although I have often thought of writing a The third movement is full of life, and would Violin Concerto, it was 2011 when I first felt be a moto perpetuo were it not for some more the time was right. Then in 2012 I climbed romantic music in the middle. Towards the very Violin Concerto the beautiful Sugarloaf Mountain near end the opening theme from the first movement 1 I. [13.02] Abergavenny, full of ideas for the piece; it would is recalled, albeit in a far more spirited mode. be predominantly lyrical and melodic but also The concerto is dedicated to Catherine Handley, 2 II. [9.24] quite florid, with the violin ducking and weaving, superb musician, great friend, and lover of all 3 III. [10.35] rather like the insects and birds of the Welsh hills things Welsh. and valleys. However while I wanted to express Cello Concerto my feelings of joy at being in this incredible The Cello Concerto is quite different. 4 I. Waltz Memories [9.06] place there would also be room for sadness and Although composed hard on the heels of the 5 II. Racing [6.39] melancholy, emotions never far from the surface Violin Concerto, it is generally darker though 6 III. Lament & Variations [13.44] of my music. So it was that the concerto now equally expressive. grew and grew, and before long it became 7 Birdflight [12.20] apparent that this was to be a major opus. The first movement, subtitled Waltz Memories, was inspired by a visit to a care home. The Total timings: [74.50] The first movement is about peace but also residents sat in a semicircle around the room, exhilaration; the violin part is expressive and mostly half asleep. Then some musicians arrived there is much interplay between soloist and and after a while the residents sprang to life and orchestra. The music returns frequently to a danced, just like they had done 40 years ago. chord derived from the opening phrase, a series It was astonishing to witness the power of music! HARRIET MACKENZIE VIOLIN of rising thirds; this chord, almost static, brings RICHARD HARWOOD CELLO ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA to mind the ancient and immovable mountains The second movement, Racing, is fast and CHRISTOPHER GUNNING CONDUCTOR of Wales The second, slow, movement is quiet energetic; whether it’s the same residents of the and nocturnal; you may imagine a town or village care home remembering how they raced their www.signumrecords.com - 3 - bicycles through the mountains or if it’s some Thanks also to Mike Hatch, our brilliant recording CHRISTOPHER GUNNING other kind of race, I will leave to you. engineer, Robin Hawkins for superb editing, and George Collins and Claire Baughan for helping Christopher Gunning has composed twelve The third movement Lament with Variations magnificently during the recording sessions. symphonies, as well as concertos for the piano, begins with a slow lament, and if the variations violin, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and are much faster and brighter in character, the Christopher Gunning, March 2020 guitar; many of these have now been recorded. lament is never far away. In fact it recurs after He has also composed many scores for films the cadenza and after some more variations, and television dramas, including Agatha Christie’s it finishes the movement. Poirot, La Vie en Rose, Middlemarch, Cold Lazarus, Rebecca, Under Suspicion, Firelight, The Big The third piece, Birdflight, is for the orchestra Battalions, Wild Africa, When the Whales Came alone; a kind of tone poem. At the opening and and Porterhouse Blue. With a career spanning close we have some quiet night music with 50 years, he has won 4 BAFTA and 3 Ivor spacious strings. Our birds take flight but Novello Awards, and BASCA’s prestigious Gold encounter a problem; a hawk is on their tail. Badge Award. Our birds manage to hide and there is a pause. Then, when danger has passed, they take off Christopher studied composition with Edmund and once again enjoy the sheer pleasure of flying. Rubbra and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a The music was all recorded over two days and hugely successful career writing for the big as is always the case, the fabulous players of and small screen he is now focussed on his the Royal Philharmonic acquitted themselves classical work and releases. brilliantly. Richard Harwood tackled the Cello Concerto with characteristic dedication, and Stephen Pritchard, reviewing a disc of his violin works for violin and cello. Harriet Mackenzie’s Harriet Mackenzie brought my Violin Concerto and cello concerti says “You could never accuse expressive playing makes Gunning’s sinuous to life in a way I could only have dreamed of. Christopher Gunning of low output: twelve solo line sing like a bird in his unashamedly symphonies, chamber music, award-winning lyrical celebration of the landscape in the film and TV scores and concerti for piano, flute, Brecon Beacons. It’s instantly accessible, oboe, clarinet and saxophone, now joined by warmly melodic yet never trite or cloying (the - 4 - - 5 - first movement is a gem, built around a single HARRIET MACKENZIE In addition to her solo work she is a lover of chord). The cello concerto is grittier, exploring chamber music and is a founder member of dark themes of ageing and loss. Richard Harriet Mackenzie is an internationally renowned Kosmos Ensemble, Karolos Ensemble and she Harwood brings a stately gravity to the sombre concerto soloist and has performed across five also regularly performs with pianists Christopher nature of the work”. Ivan March, reviewing continents. Recordings include concertos with Glynn, Danny Driver; guitarists Morgan Szymanski the Symphony No 5 disc for Gramophone made the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra and James Boyd. it his ‘Choice’ saying “If you want reassurance Nova and the English Symphony Orchestra and that the current post-atonal renaissance is in these have received international acclaim, Harriet graduated from the Royal Academy full swing, this is just the CD to convince you,’ including Five Star review in The Times (Richard of Music with First Class honours, MMus and and Robert Matthew-Walker at International Morrison), Editor’s Choice in Gramophone DipRAM. In 2015 she was awarded the Richard Record Review said Gunning is “a genuine Magazine (Richard Whitehouse) and a Carne Fellowship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire composer” and continues, “Gunning’s serious nomination for ‘Recording of The Year’ in Music of Music and in the same year, she was also works are written in a musical language that Web International: “There is a completeness, made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music is not immediately ‘populist’ in the manner a confidence, an honesty and a consistent (ARAM) recognising her contribution to music. of Malcolm Arnold or Rod McKuen but which lyrical beauty that has moved me again and naturally inhabits a mode of expression that again. These qualities all emerge in Harriet harrietmackenzie.com one would expect from a pupil of Edmund Mackenzie’s utterly magisterial performance,..” - twitter.com/harrietviolin Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett – we Richard Hanlon. facebook.com/harriet.mackenzie.9 are talking ‘serious music’. Gunning’s serious music deserves study – of that I am She has performed concertos and recitals in convinced – and I strongly urge those to the world’s most prestigious halls such as the whom fashion in art means little when Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Budapest Marble compared to what is being conveyed by the Hall, Purcell Room, Auditorio Nationale Madrid, creator, to investigate this disc”. Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Shanghai Oriental christopher-gunning.co.uk. Arts Centre, Seoul International Concert Hall, and Kyiv Hall of Marble Columns. A multi-faceted virtuoso, she is also fascinated by world music styles and composes and improvises in many different styles. - 6 - - 7 - RICHARD HARWOOD In Search of Beethoven and is regularly featured ROYAL PHILHARMONIC as a soloist on movie soundtracks, most recently ORCHESTRA Since his concerto debut at the age of ten, the in Patrick Doyle’s score to Kenneth Branagh’s award-winning English cellist Richard Harwood Murder On The Orient Express. For more than seven decades the Royal has performed concerti and chamber music in Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has been at the major venues including London’s Royal Albert Hall, Contemporary music is important to Richard and forefront of music-making in the UK. Its home Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Musikverein he has premiered solo works written for him by base since 2004 at London’s Cadogan Hall (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Alte Dominic Muldowney, Martin Butler, Christopher serves as a springboard for seven principal Oper (Frankfurt), Thomaskirche (Leipzig), Gunning, Alex Heffes, Fernando Velázquez, residencies as well as more than forty-five Auditorium du Louvre (Paris) and Alice Tully Benjamin Wallfisch and given the European concerts per year in long-term partnership Hall / Lincoln Center (New York). premiere of David Horne’s Zip with the composer venues across the country, often in areas at the piano. In recent years, he has developed a where access to live orchestral music is very As concerto soloist, Richard has worked with close association with Judith Weir and regularly limited. With a wider reach than any other conductors such as Mark Wigglesworth, Case performs her Unlocked for solo cello. UK large ensemble, the RPO has truly become Scaglione, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Michele Richard was appointed principal cellist of the Britain’s national orchestra. Mariotti, John Wilson, Okko Kamu, Marko Letonja, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the beginning Douglas Bostock, En Shao, Shuntaro Sato and of 2018.