Medea - Chamber Orchestra

SKU: HL.49003264

ISBN 9790220118159. UPC: 884088061487. 8.25x11.75x0.39 inches.

I have a great fondness for the lower string instruments: I am a bass player, my mother is a cellist, as are both my daughters; my own ensemble includes two violas, a cello and a bass, and for the instrumentation of my opera Medea I omit the entire violin section from the orchestra. As I have written a number of works for solo instrument or voice with orchestra I welcomed the opportunity to write a concerto for cello and orchestra and especially one which focuses particularly on the instrument's lyrical qualities. Although the piece is in one continuous movement, and the soloist is playing almost without a break, it nevertheless falls into distinct sections which are recognisable by a shift of tempo as well as by a change in the music's character.One of the early ideas Julian Lloyd Webber and I discussed was that it might form a companion piece to one of the Haydn concertos. Given my friendship with some members of the English Chamber Orchestra and my awareness of their repertoire, this suggested a number of particular musical references. The subtitle to the work, for example, combines the subtitles of two idiosyncratic Haydn symphonies and I allude to them in different ways but chiefly through orchestration: for The Philosopher by including a section in the concerto where the orchestration resembles that of the symphony's first movement (pairs of English and French horns, muted violins and unmuted lower strings); for The Farewell, by the progressive reduction in the orchestration towards the end. Indeed, apart from the orchestral tutti in the last few bars, the last pages of the score are virtually for string quartet. The subtitle also refers to my own background as a philosophy graduate...The piece was commissioned by Philips Classics for Julian Lloyd Webber and is dedicated to him.The first performance was given by Julian Lloyd Webber and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by James Judd, 21 November 1995, Barbican Hall, London.Gavin Bryars.

SKU: HL.49046988

ISBN 9781705174333. UPC: 842819115281. 8.25x11.75x0.695 inches.

SYNOPSIS Aribert Reimann's 'Trilogie lyrique' is based on three plays by Maurice Maeterlinck: In L'Intruse, a family is sitting at the table with their blind grandfather. They are waiting for the doctor to arrive and tend to his daughter who is lying ill in bed after having given birth: her new-born son has not yet made a single sound. The old man senses that something is wrong due to the uneasy atmosphere in the room. Who is sitting in our midst? he asks. He is the only one who cansee the presence of death. Interieur: Once again a family is gathered round the table in the evening, but this time we observe the action from outside, looking through the window with the grandfather and a stranger: no sound can be heard. Outside the house, the stranger reports that the eldest daughter has drowned and that he has pulled her out of the river. Although the corpse is already being carried through the village to the family, the grandfather cannot bring himself to destroy this idyll. La Mort de Tintagiles: The young Tintagiles is told a story about a mysterious castle and the aged queen who has all potential heirsto the throne murdered. His siblings sense that Tintagiles has been summoned to the castle to be murdered, but nobody openly expresses this fact. It is the sinister messengers of death from the interludes, now visible as the queens servants, who ful?l her demand and snatch the sleeping boy from his sisters'arms. Commentary 'In comparison with his Medea for example with its stormy outbreaks of emotion and violence, Reimann's score is worked in an impressive refinement of sound. It begins with rumbling, hesitating and expressive music in the first section, demanding highly ingenious sound effects from the lower strings including tapping and faltering glissandos in its noisy expression of mortal fear. Inthe second part, the woodwind formation plays at times almost in chamber music fashion and is then suddenly painfully shrill. The third part luxuriates and rages in its rich, full orchestration. The manner in which Reimann displays his mastery in textural shading, the invention of sounds welling up and fading away, the rhythmic and melodic capacity of suffering and the music's inner violence are all utterly compelling.'(Wolfgang Schreiber, Opernwelt, November 2017).