Release Date: 13 March 2020
Three influential and varied British composers across three generations have been paired with three leading British ensembles on this album of new chamber works, commissioned as part of The Radcliffe Trust's Tercentenary and recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London.
Composer Anna Meredith is a composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music. Her sound is frequently described as ‘uncategorisable’ and ‘genre-defying’ and her music has been performed everywhere from the BBC Last Night of the Proms to rock and pop festivals. Tripotage Miniatures is, as the title suggests, about messing about with things (Anna says ‘jiggery pokery’ is her favourite translation of the French term). Sounds change and stutter and tonal colours drain and become murky. Instruments interrupt and sound like they are trying to trip one another up.
Postludes by Colin Matthews is dedicated to his good friend, the composer Oliver Knussen, who died whilst the piece was being written in 2018. Matthews’ says he had Knussen’s Cantata for oboe quartet in his mind from the start, and this piece – written for oboe quartet plus string quartet - has a poignant, elegiac feel and the atmosphere of after-event with which the title accords.
Alexander Goehr’s after 'The Waking' is named after a poem by Theodore Roethke, which the composer has previously set to music for two voices. This quintet, performed by the Nash Ensemble, is a fantasia in five movements on material that Goehr explains ‘wouldn’t let me go’ from the earlier work.
Aurora Orchestra
Nicholas Daniel oboe
Britten Sinfonia
Nash Ensemble
Martyn Brabbins conductor
AUDIO
REVIEWS
THE TIMES 'BEST ALBUMS OF 2020' - CONTEMPORARY
'Anna Meredith's Tripotage Miniatures are wittily vivacious' The Sunday Times
'[Colin Matthews’ Postludes] has an expressively elegiac nature. There is some virtuoso writing here, especially a dazzling part for oboist Nicholas Daniel, and members of the Britten Sinfonia shine.' Financial Times ★★★★
'an ultimate chamber music event … [Alexander Goehr’s after ‘The Waking’] is beautifully realised by the Nash Ensemble' BBC Music Magazine ★★★★★
'Nicholas Daniel gives his all in [Postludes] and there can be no doubting the commitment or insight of each group, heard to advantage in the fabled Wigmore acoustic.' Gramophone
FUNDERS
NMC is grateful to The Radcliffe Trust for making this album possible.
NMC would like to thank John Gilhooly and all at Wigmore Hall for their assistance in the making of this recording.
Tripotage Miniatures was co-commissioned by The Radcliffe Trust, NMC Recordings and Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffman, president of the Fondation Hoffman, a Swiss grant-making foundation.
after 'The Waking' was commissioned by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffman, the Radcliffe Trust and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
Postludes was commissioned by the Radcliffe Trust and Wigmore Hall for the Britten Sinfonia.
(P) 2020 NMC Recordings Ltd
© 2020 NMC Recordings Ltd
Catalogue number: NMC D239
Release Date: 13 March 2020
RECORDING CREDITS
Tripotage Miniatures was recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London on 24 September 2016. after 'The Waking' was recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London on 20 September 2017. Postludes was recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London on 6 February 2019.
Steve Portnoi Recording Producer & Engineer