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The November 2013 issue of Classical Music Magazine includes a two-page feature article on the rejuvenation of the ESO. Features writer Toby Deller interviews Principal Conductor Kenneth Woods about the future of the ESO as an “orchestra of national significance.”
[Click on each picture to view at full size]
The Story of Noah We have been posting individual “flashes” from Lindsay Stansberry-Flynn’s lovely build-up to our performances of Noyes Fludde in Gloucester (19, 20 October) and Worcester (26 October), Here is the full story… The Story of Noah
These have been passed to the children involved as animals in the hope that we can close this story with a description of events from their own point of view …
If you have enjoyed Lindsay’s stories you may be interested in her latest novel, The Piano Player’s Son – here is the press release link http://www.crucialpr.co.uk/crucial-archive/8-releases/58-piano-players-son
The Birmingham Post ran an extended interview with Kenneth Woods by senior music critic Christopher Morley in their September 26 issue.
You can read the published version on the Post website here.
As the item was cut slightly for space, we’ve been given permission by the author to reproduce here the complete and uncut original version of the article.
Tomorrow (Friday) evening the English Symphony Orchestra launches a major subscription series at ChristChurch, in its home base of Malvern.
And conducting on the podium will be the orchestra’s new artistic director, American-born Kenneth Woods, now based in Cardiff, who tells me how this collaboration came about.
“I think it originated with a few little threads of people who knew me and knew the orchestra, doing a little bit of matchmaking. They knew my work from SOMM-recordings, the Orchestra of the Swan, and Cardiff, so I did a little bit of research.
“And it seemed a good moment for the orchestra to do something new. Everything clicked, and here we are. It’s very exciting.”
But we go back in time, investigating Ken’s involvement with Stratford’s Orchestra of the Swan.
“Well, it’s a bit of a labyrinthine process, actually,” he admits. “I was briefly conducting an amateur orchestra in Hereford, and the horn player in that group was also the horn player in David Curtis’ Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra. He introduced us, and I did a couple of rehearsals with Cheltenham.
“He started hearing good things, and again it was a little bit of matchmaking and word-of-mouth. We met. we hit it off, we had similar ideas about how orchestras might evolve. Then I did a guest slot at the Stratford Summer Proms, including Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, which went fantastically well.”
Kenneth himself is an accomplished cellist, playing in the renowned Ensemble Epomeo string trio (named after the huge extinct volcano which dominates the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples). Does that help in conducting?
“Yes, not just as a a string-player, but also as a chamber-musician. Both David (ex-viola with the Coull Quartet) and I have a lot of experience playing string quartets and trios, and this is so special with the Orchestra of the Swan doing so much, playing in small ensembles, just on a practical nuts and bolts level I think I have a very intimate understanding of how string players breathe together, how they match bow-strokes, the time-pressure, so the more adept you can be, the better.
“I also think my outlook as a conductor is very shaped by my experience as a chamber-musician. I think I probably learned as much about conducting from members of quartets I’ve studied with than from any particular conducting teacher. Ensemble-playing, how you tune chords, how you balance things, and how you get people listening to each other, that all comes from chamber-music, whether it’s a string quartet or a Mahler symphony.
“It’s very much a collaboration, and the last thing you want in an orchestra is any kind of passivity. So for me as a conductor, yes, I have very strong ideas about what I want to happen musically, but what I want most of all is for the players to really engage, both with their guts and with their ears.”
Kenneth Woods has been fascinated by conducting since his childhood, and took up cello almost as a second option.
“When I was old enough to start taking string lessons through the school music programme I wanted to play double-bass, and they said I was too short, so I could start with the cello and when I was tall enough I could switch.
“By the time I got to High School I was checking out all the books I could find in the library about conducting. I taught myself all the beat-patterns, and was gradually building up scores and stuff. By my last couple of years, if the music teacher was off sick, I would conduct the orchestra rehearsals.
“I used to get to conduct some great pieces, such as Sibelius Two. It was an absolute blast for a sixteen year-old.”
Ken moved to this country only as recently as 2003. “It was a bit of a gradual transition, with a lot of back and forth to Oregon, where I was conducting the Symphony Orchestra, until 2009.”
And he has a healthily realistic view of young conductors trying to get their feet on the bottom rungs of the ladder to success.
“Paavo Jarvi said something in an interview a few years ago, and he was uniquely well-placed to say it, because he had a lot of early success in his career. He said there’s no such thing as a great young conductor, and I think it’s true.
“However gifted you are, you can’t have a deep enough understanding of the complexities of working with an orchestra as a young man, to do, for example, what Walter Weller does with an orchestra, it’s not possible.”
So now Ken moves to the English Symphony Orchestra, founded by William Boughton, conducted by such greats as Michael Tippett and Yehudi Menuhin, and, most recently, by the much-revered, late Vernon Handley. What plans does he have for the orchestra?
“I think the plan is to make the ESO everything that it can and should be. In the short term this means making this series in Malvern, the first subscription series the orchestra has done in a long time, a financial and artistic success.
“Starting with a narrow focus from there we can really broaden. There’s a real hunger in the orchestra to do the repertoire; there’s a great core of musicians who at one time were doing 100 gigs a year with the orchestra: very, very fine brass-players, percussion team, and a lot of them have been waiting to do more.
“It’s a real hunger to do the Elgar symphonies, the Shostakovich, Mahler, all that kind of stuff.”
*Kenneth Woods conducts the ESO at Christ Church, Malvern, on September 27 (7.30pm). Details on 01386 791044.
Hans Gal (1890-1987)
Concertino for Cello and Strings, opus 87
Hans Gál was born in the small village of Brunn am Gebirge, just outside Vienna. He studied with some of the foremost teachers in Vienna, including Richard Robert for piano (teacher of Rudolf Serkin , Clara Haskil and George Szell) and Eusebius Mandyczewski for composition, who had been a close friend of Brahms. In 1915 he won the K. und K. (Royal and Imperial) State Prize for composition for a symphony (which he subsequently discarded). In 1928 His Sinfonietta (which was to become his ‘First Symphony) won the Columbia Schubert Centenary Prize. The next year, with the support of such important musicians as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Richard Strauss and others, he obtained the directorship of the Mainz Conservatory. Gál composed in nearly every genre and his operas, which include Der Artz der Sobeide, Die Heilige Ente and Das Lied der Nacht, were particularly popular during the 1920s. When Hitler rose to power, Gál was forced to leave Germany and eventually emigrated to Britain, teaching at the Edinburgh University for many years.
Gál’s music enjoyed a brief resurgence in popularity in the years immediately after World War II, and was featured regularly in broadcasts on BBC radio. However, by the 1960s, BBC director William Glock’s programming philosophy, sharply slanted in favour of strictly modernist music, meant that Gál and other tonal composers of the time found themselves unable to get their music on the airwaves of the “Third Programme.” Gradually, performances also became more and more scarce, and Gál was deeply affected by the death in 1964 of his friend and foremost champion, conductor Otto Schmitgen. There were personal tragedies as well- Gál’s younger son Franz died by his own hand during this period. Circumstances for new work in a tonal idiom were similarly bleak on the continent, and commissions for new works in standard genres or for traditional instruments were almost non-existent. Indeed, the main champions and patrons of Gál’s music at this time were recorder player Carl Dolmetsch and Vinzenz Hladky, Professor of Mandolin at the Vienna academy of Music and publisher of mandolin music, who had instigated Gáls’s writing for mandolin in the period back in Vienna between 1933 and the Anschluss in 1938. Now in the 60s, Hladky published and regularly performed Gál’s music with his mandolin ensembles, to which Gál responded with two Sinfoniettas for Mandolin Orchestra, amongst other works. The Concertino for Cello and Strings, the last of Gál’s five concertinos, was written in 1965, inspired purely by Gál’s inner impulse, rather than a commission. It was premiered in 1968 by the Sudwest Rundfunk Orchestra.
What exactly does Gál mean by a “Concertino” rather than a “Concerto”? For some composers, the word “concertino” implies a certain frivolity or lightness of tone, while for others, it implies a work of very modest scale. Neither is true for Gál- the sole unifying factor of his five concertini is that they are all scored for solo instrument and strings, rather than full orchestra. Certainly, there is nothing frivolous about the Cello Concertino, and it is substantial work by any measure- at 27 minutes, it is roughly the same length as his Violin Concerto from 1933. There, however, is plenty of quirky humour in the Finale, which bears the curious tempo marking of “Allegretto ritenuto assai” or “slightly fast, but very held back.” The first movement, which is far more serious in tone, is built from the six note cell which opens the entire piece. Typical of Gál is the persistent ambiguity of major and minor which makes for an atmosphere both questioning and uncertain. At the work’s heart is a touching and lyrical Adagio, absolutely echt-Gál in its bittersweet tenderness. Had he so wished, Gál could certainly have made a killing in the lullaby-writing business.
Kenneth Woods
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Performance: September 27, 2013 (details here)
Overture- “The Hebrides” (“Fingal’s Cave”), opus 26
Symphony no. 3 in A minor, “Scottish”, opus 56
In 1829, the twenty year-old Felix Mendelssohn was already a major international figure. As a teenager his precocity had far exceeded even that of Mozart. He had already completed a collection of works that were staggering in their originality and maturity, including the First Symphony, written when he was just 15, the Octet for Strings, completed at age 16 and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, finished a year later. Early in 1829, his twentieth year, he famously revived the music of J. S. Bach, organizing and conducting a history-changing performance of the St Matthew Passion in Berlin- the first time the complete work had been heard since Bach’s death over sixty years earlier.
That summer, Mendelssohn made the first of many trips to the United Kingdom, conducting a performance of his First Symphony with the London Philharmonic Society, and performing extensively as a solo pianist (his performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto was the first time London audiences had seen a pianist perform it by memory). After such a busy and successful year, Mendelssohn stayed on in the UK for some sightseeing and relaxation. He made his way to Edinburgh, a city he quickly came to love:
“Everything here looks so stern and robust, half enveloped in a haze of smoke or fog. Many Highlanders came in costume from church victoriously leading their sweethearts in their Sunday attire and casting magnificent and important looks over the world; with long, red beards, tartan plaids, bonnets and feathers and naked knees and their bagpipes in their hands, they passed along by the half-ruined gray castle on the meadow where Mary Stuart lived in splendour.”
After another day of sightseeing at Holyrood Chapel on the 30th of July, 1829, we wrote this famous letter:
“In the evening twilight we went today to the palace where Mary lived and loved. A little room is shown there with a winding staircase leading up to the door. This is the staircase the murderers ascended, and, finding Rizzio [Mary‟s Italian advisor and, probably, lover, whom the Scots mistrusted] .. drew him out; about three chambers away is a small corner where they killed him. The chapel close to it is now roofless, grass and ivy grow there, and at the broken altar Mary was crowned Queen of England. Everything around is broken and moldering and the bright sky shines in. I believe I have found today in that old chapel the beginning of my Scottish symphony.”
Later that day, he sketched out sixteen measures of music that were to become the introductory melody of the Third Symphony. The work he began that evening would take a further thirteen years to reach its final form.
Meanwhile, just a week later Mendelssohn made his way north to Fingal’s Cave, where there followed another short sketch. Soon after, work began in earnest on what now known as the “Hebrides” Overture. Mendelssohn originally called the piece “The Lonely Island,” adopting the title we know now when he revised the work in 1832. The “Hebrides” is more of a tone-poem than an “overture” in the traditional sense. Rather than preparing the listener for a performance of an opera or play, it paints a vivid musical portrait of the remote cave, the stormy seas that surround it and the tone poet’s sense of loneliness and solitude.
Mendelssohn’s Scottish overture was complete, but what of the symphony he had begun a week earlier? By 1831, it seemed as if inspiration was fading, Mendelssohn reporting to a friend that he could not “find his way back into the Scottish fog mood,” and the idea receded farther and farther from the forefront of his mind. A decade passed before he returned to work on his A minor symphony, a decade in which he completed his three other symphonies, two piano concertos and four string quartets.
Finally, in 1841, he began work in earnest on the A minor “Scottish Symphony,” returning to that sketch made in 1829. By September he had completed the first two movements and was hard at work on the Adagio. Mendelssohn completed the work on the 20th of January, 1842, and conducted the first performance at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on the 3rd of March. The work was rapturously received, but Mendelssohn had concerns about the piece, and made major and radical revisions before the second performance just two weeks later, on 17 March in Berlin. In June, he conducted the work in London. The success of this performance emboldened Mendelssohn to ask Queen Victoria’s permission to dedicate the work to her. Permission was duly granted, and Mendelssohn became her favourite composer for life.
Although the work had been a success in each of these early performances, Mendelssohn made one final round of major cuts and revisions before the work was published by Breitkopf in the fall of 1842.
The final version of this work was published as his “Third Symphony,” but it was actually the last of his five symphonies, and many consider it his greatest. It is in many ways the most serious in tone, and his most sophisticated in construction, with the whole symphony evolving organically from the possibilities of that sixteen bar sketch written in 1829. Critics and musicians have argued at length about just how “Scottish” the work is: although Mendelssohn regularly referred to the A minor Symphony as his “Scottish,” he conspicuously omitted any reference to Scotland from the publish score. Some have found numerous references to Scottish folk themes in the score (there is a famous instance of the so-called “Scottish snap” rhythm in the Scherzo), but Mendelssohn himself was no fan of folk music. “No national music for me!” he proclaimed. “Infamous, vulgar, out-of-tune trash…. It is distracting and has given me a toothache already,” he wrote. Even before his visit in 1829, Mendelssohn had hoped that the trip would inspire a Scottish piece or two “since I greatly love the sea from the mainland and even want to use it in a symphony with Scottish bagpipes.” After his visit, however, his enthusiasm for the pipes had decidedly waned, writing that “Scottish bagpipes, Swiss cow-horns, Welsh harps, all playing the Huntsmen’s Chorus with hideously improvised variations then their beautiful singing in the hall, altogether their music is beyond conception.”
What did make its way into the score was a deeply felt impression of the mystery and darkness of that visit to Holyrood; “”It is in pictures, ruins and natural surroundings that I find the most music.”
Mendelssohn specified in the first edition of the score that the four movements of the piece, all of which are thematically interconnected, must be played without pause. The prevailing mood of the first movement is dark indeed, from the slow opening in which the divided violas state the “Holyrood” theme into the main Allegro, which begins broodingly and then becomes decidedly stormy and violent. Mendelssohn placed the Scherzo second in this symphony, rather than in the traditional spot before the Finale. It is in this movement that one is most likely to find hints of folk music. Unlike most scherzos and minuets, it’s in duple rather than triple meter, and is in sonata-allegro form rather than structured as a dance. This helps make the movement feel more like a hopeful answer to the tragedies of the first movement, rather than a mere diversion. The Adagio which follows it is one of Mendelssohn’s greatest creations, and certainly one of the great symphonic slow movements. Although written in A major, the overall mood is deeply serious and often tragic, with a climactic central funeral march perhaps harkening back to the example of the Marcia funebre of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. Mendelssohn had originally labelled the final Allegro vicacissimo as Allegro guerriero and it is decidedly warlike in character.
November 22, 2013
Christ Church, Malvern
Violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen
Kenneth Woods– conductor
Tchaikovsky- Andante Cantabile (arr. 1st Quartet)
Shostakovich- Chamber Symphony opus 83a (arr. 4th Quartet)
-interval-
Tchaikovsky- Violin Concerto
Tamsin Waley-Cohen– violin
Our 2013 Christ Church Season comes to a thrilling conclusion with an evening of Russian masterworks and a guest appearance from on of Britain’s most talented and charismatic violinists. Tchaikovsky’s widely-loved Violin Concerto is a work full of optimism, passion and high spirits, from the epic first movement, to the humorous and staggeringly virtuosic finale. With its endless abundance of melody and thrilling violin writing, it’s hard to imagine how much trouble it gave its creator. The Concerto was conceived and composed in a period of profound personal crisis, just after Tchaikovsky’s disastrously failed marriage in 1878, and after it was completed, Tchaikovsky suffered seemingly endless setbacks in trying to get the work performed, with its dedicatee calling it “unplayable” and later making myriad unwarranted cuts and changes. Such a difficult birth is hard to fathom for those of us who know it as one of the most beloved works in the repertoire. Like Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich excelled in an usual breadth of musical genres, and always seemed able to tap into the spirit of folk music. In fact, his Fourth String Quartet was composed “for the drawer” with no possibility of immediate performance during the Stalinist repression of the post-WW II Soviet Union. A generation later, Shostakovich’s friend and student Rudolf Barshai orchestrated the work as the Chamber Symphony opus 83a- it’s a communicative and moving masterpiece that ranges from spooky stasis to tragic grandeur.
Reblogged from Musical America (subscriber access only)
American-born conductor KENNETH WOODS is to be the new principal conductor of the English Symphony/English String Orchestra, a Worcestershire-based ensemble founded as a string orchestra in 1978 by William Boughton. He succeeds Vernon “Tod” Handley, in the post until his death in 2008.
The orchestra has about a 15-concert season in its home base of Malvern, but tours regularly and is active in community outreach and education, providing music classes and playing in hospitals. Its motto is “Music for Everyone.”
“My colleagues in the ESO do the work they do in schools, care homes, hospices, and on youth orchestra courses because they believe in it,” said Woods. “What could be more exciting for a conductor than to work with colleagues who want to be there?”
Woods arrived in 2012 as artistic director. His new post represents a promotion.
His background includes the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Program, in which he was as cellist in the Taliesin Trio in Mississippi County, Arkansas, one of the nation’s poorest. He was also music director of the Oregon East Symphony in Pendleton, Oregon. He has described the group as “the most remotely situated full symphony orchestra on the planet.” The orchestra was particularly notable for its “Redneck” Mahler cycle.
Woods has also guest conducted frequently.
A lovely article from critic, broadcaster and essayist Jon Jacob has been published on his popular blog, Thoroughly Good.
Jon shares some recollections of his own time as and ESO managerial assistant in the 1990’s then moves on to an extended interview with Ken.
A short sample follows. Read the whole thing here.
In a geographically small country like the UK, “regional” orchestras have to be good enough to compete directly with national orchestras. You forget that at your peril. These days, orchestras from the major metropolitan centres are queuing up to play in small and medium sized venues. This means that any professional orchestra has to play like a national orchestra in order to survive, but that’s one of the reasons that this orchestra is called the English Symphony Orchestra and not the Worcestershire Philharmonic. Artistically, we believe the orchestra has been and must again become an institution of national significance.
However, there are also compelling reasons for orchestras not to forget where we come from. When it comes to doing educational and outreach work that has a meaningful and lasting impact on people in our communities, being a regional orchestra is a strength. The recordings we make and the works we commission should have lasting international impact, but our work with children, the elderly and other under-served groups enriches the communities where we work in a way that a concert from an orchestra bussed in from London, however great the concert, never can.
We have a once-in-a-generation chance to put the orchestra back on the national stage as an important artistic force, and we’ve got to deliver on that. That means giving powerful performances of well-rehearsed, thoughtful programmes that show we can engage audiences with unfamiliar repertoire and present core repertoire in thought-provoking contexts. On our next concert, we’re playing two works by Mendelssohn alongside one of Hans Gál. All three works are tuneful and fun to listen to, but there are interesting underlying connections- Mendelssohn was the first Jewish composer to breakthrough into the German mainstream, Gál was one of the last generation of Jews to rise to the top of the musical world in Austria and Germany who were then pushed out or worse by the Nazi’s. There are other, less intense connections, too- both Mendelssohn pieces were inspired by his travels to Scotland, where Gál lived for the last 45 years of his life.
So, first up is doing distinctive programmes really well, but we also have to make sure that the ESO is not just the tree that falls in the forest. You can expect the ESO to start performing again in London and other metropolitan centres. We’re looking to have a media presence that includes traditional radio, audio and video streaming and podcasting. We’ve named a composer-in-association for 2014 and we’ve commissioned a new symphony. We’re also anxious to get a first CD or two under our belts.
Strategically, this means finding new friends, developing partnerships and engaging with a whole new generation of ESO listeners, funders and supporters. We can’t do this alone, and that means we’ve got to make the orchestra a cause that lots of people believe in.
KENNETH WOODS UPS TO PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR OF
ENGLISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
UPDATED- Please see additional coverage of the announcement from
Kenneth Woods, who was appointed Artistic Director of the English Symphony Orchestra‘s new Malvern-based subscription series in December 2012, has been promoted by the Worcestershire-based orchestra to the post of Principal Conductor. The American-born, Cardiff-based Woods becomes the orchestra’s first principal conductor since the passing of Vernon Handley in 2008.
“We started exploring possibilities with Ken towards the end of last year, asking him to curate the Malvern concert series during 2013, at the end of which we planned to take stock,” comments the ESO’s CEO Peter Sheeran. “In the event, his involvement with the different elements that make up the ESO has been a shot in the arm for us and we see every reason to bring forward his appointment. We are announcing our new season next month and want to have Ken at the forefront of it.”
Woods comes to the ESO following a highly successful tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra of the Swan, with whom he has made an acclaimed series of recordings of the symphonies of Hans Gál and Robert Schumann, earning the orchestra its first “Gramophone Editor’s Choice.” Numerous other plaudits have brought OOTS to the attention of a new global audience, with coverage from The New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio in the United States and BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 in the UK, among others.
Ken’s passion for taking music to all kinds of listeners and venues is very much in line with the ESO’s motto of “Music for Everyone.” He embraces the future of both the ESO’s concert and community projects with equal enthusiasm. “My colleagues in the ESO do the work they do in schools, care homes, hospices and on youth orchestra courses because they believe in it. The musicians have stayed loyal to the orchestra through the years because, as many of them have told me, it’s the orchestra they want to play in” said Woods. “What could be more exciting for a conductor than to work with colleagues who want to be there, who believe in everything the orchestra is doing?”
Ken’s admirable work in bringing classical music to rural and under-served communities began in his native America through the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Program, where as cellist of the Taliesin Trio he set up a dynamic chamber music program in Mississippi County, Arkansas, part of the poorest congressional district in the United States. He previously served as Music Director of the Oregon East Symphony in the small rodeo town of Pendleton, Oregon, an orchestra once described as “the most remotely situated full symphony orchestra on the planet.” With the OES, Ken not only developed the orchestra’s concert activities through a highly-praised “Redneck” Mahler cycle, numerous premieres, commissions, regional tours and composer residencies, but also co-founded a multifaceted educational program called “Playing for Keeps,” comprising two training orchestras, a children’s chorus, a summer music camp, regular youth concerts and support for private instrumental lessons and instrument rental.
Ken’s resume includes guest conducting with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, State of Mexico Symphony and National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.), and appearances at the Aspen, Scotia and Round Top music festivals. He has recorded with Northern Sinfonia and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and in August makes his first recording with the English Chamber Orchestra. An eloquent communicator, Ken has been heard frequently on the BBC, most recently taking part in the BBC Proms Literary Festival discussing A Mahler Anthology, a selection of readings about the composer, including letters, reviews and biographies. His widely read and respected blog A View from the Podium, is one of the 25 most read classical music blogs.
Details of the English Symphony Orchestra’s 2013-14 season will be announced in early September, and will include a number of exciting initiatives, including debut performances in new venues and the appointment of a composer-in-association. The English Symphony Orchestra’s autumn season opens on September 27th at Christ Church in Malvern, with Woods conducting a programme featuring the music of Mendelssohn and the Concerto for Cello and Strings by Hans Gál.
* * * * *
All media enquiries, interview and image requests: Melanne Mueller,melanne@musiccointernational.com, +44 (0) 20 8698 6933 or +1 917 907 2785
To learn more about Kenneth Woods visit http://kennethwoods.net.
To learn more about the English Symphony Orchestra visit www.eso.co.uk
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
September 27, 2013
Mendelssohn “Hebrides” Overture
Gal Concertino for Cello and Strings
Matthew Sharp cello
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3, “Scottish”
Tchaikovsky Andante Cantabile (arr. from String Quartet No. 1)
Shostakovich Chamber Symphony, Op. 83a (arr. from String Quartet No. 4)
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin
A rare non-Nimbus ESO recording (made in 1997), a wonderful disc of the music of John Joubert
Temps Perdu, Sinfonietta, The Instant Moment
English Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Boughton, with Henry Herford (baritone)
BMS 419CD (1997)
“Music of real distinction … a memorable creation indeed”
Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone, October 1997
“This disc was issued to celebrate John Joubert’s seventieth birthday in 1997, and features première recordings of Temps Perdu — Variations for String Orchestra, the Sinfonietta, and The Instant Moment. These are taut, well-constructed works, full of a very English melancholy and wistfulness … The song-cycle The Instant Moment, which concludes the disc, is a powerful work sung well by Henry Herford. This is strong and heady stuff, in committed and sincere performances by the English String Orchestra and William Boughton.”
Albion Magazine Online, Spring 2010
“The string work and the Sinfonietta immediately leap to the very front order of such works in 20th-century Great Britain — a highly competitive field with the likes of pieces by Holst, Finzi, Vaughan Williams, Bridge, Britten, Tippett, and more. They are simply exquisite. As one might imagine from the Proustian title, Temps Perdu: Variations for String Orchestra is drenched in a marvellous sense of expectancy, yearning, and nostalgia. It is written with great refinement, and I have fallen in love with it. The Sinfonietta is another gem, with echoes of Sibelius floating through the first of its three movements. Having heard the Toccata disk, the superlative quality of Joubert’s settings of five D.H. Lawrence poems in The Instant Moment was no surprise. Committed performances by the English String Orchestra and baritone Henry Herford, under conductor William Boughton, make this disk indispensable to any collection of British music.”
R.R. Reilly (www.insidecatholic.com) April 2010
MusicWeb International reviews: October 2003