Nash Ensemble; Martyn Brabbins; Amelia Freedman
Release Date: 25 October 2019
Label: NMC Recordings
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5023363025621
Genres: Classical Contemporary Country
Description
Christopher Dingle writes: 'Julian Anderson's music is hard to pin down. It belongs to no school, aesthetic construct or neat-ism. Anderson's music overflows with arichness and plurality of technique, expression and sheer sound, from abstract noise to throbbing euphony, dissonance to consonance, diatonic modes to twelve-tone harmony, and many shades in between. Yet there is also remarkable precision amidst the exuberant abundance of material, not just in the passages of deceptive simplicity, but also in the most whirligig hubbub of textures with natural or microtonal tunings, for Anderson's exceptional compositional craft and formidable ear enable his personality full expression.'
This album focuses on Anderson's chamber music. The earliest piece, Ring Dance, written in 1987 and the most recent, Van Gogh Blue, in 2015. Three of the works on the album, Poetry Nearing Silence, Prayer and Van Gogh Blue, were originally composed for the players of the Nash Ensemble, one of the leading chamber ensembles and champions of British new music.
Anderson is a master of evocative titles. Van Gogh Blue is inspired by numerous letters from the artist to his brother Theo. The colour blue was a particular and now famous obsession of his. The Bearded Lady reflects of the story of Baba the Turk, Ring Dance is influenced by the timbre of the Hardanger, a resonant Norwegian folk fiddle. The album title track Poetry Nearing Silence – a suite in eight movements – is inspired by an unusual book of drawings and poems by the artist Tom Phillips entitled The Heart of a Humument.
Also on the album are two related solo works, Prayer for viola (Lawrence Power) and Another Prayer for violin (Benjamin Nabarro).
Tracklisting
Martyn Brabbins, Daniel Pioro, Anna Dennis, Andrew Gourlay, Elena Schwarz
Freya Waley-Cohen, Manchester Collective, Heloise Werner, Katie Bray, Fleur Barron, Tamsin Waley-Co
Slide Action
Siwan Rhys
BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Singers, Alice Farnham
Lisa Illean, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, GBSR Duo, Juliet Fraser, Explore Ensemble
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, Andrew Davis
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, London Sinfonietta, Ryan Wigglesworth, Huw Wa
Bone Idle Bros
Ags Connolly
Red Hot Organization
Sara Evans
Hannah Ellis
Jimmy Rankin
Hank Wangford & Noel Dashwood
Patty Loveless
