Serra-Sierra première
I was very privileged to hear an extraordinarily acute and sensitive performance of Serra-Sierra on the 26 March at the Wigmore Hall. Adrian Brendel and Alasdair Beatson played out of their skin and I was very moved by their commitment to the piece. An unforgettable event all told for which I’m extremely grateful to both the players and, of course, to Amelia Freedman for taking it on as part of the Nash’s Harrison Birtwistle memorial day, which was altogether remarkable.
Serra-Sierra
On 26 March 2024, Adrian Brendel and Alasdair Beatson will première my cello and piano piece, Serra-Sierra, which is commissioned by the Nash Ensemble with the financial support of the Vaughan Williams Foundation, at the Wigmore Hall, London, as part of a Nash programme. I wrote the piece in 2018 and it’s dedicated ‘for Harry’. There will be a second performance with the same superb players at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, on 2 May 2024.
Remembering Rosemary
On the 30th December last year I received the desperately sad news of my beloved friend, Rosemary Gent’s death the previous afternoon from our mutual friend, Sarah Holmes. I had known Elle, as I called her (I was known as El), for just over 40 years from when she worked at the London Sinfonietta and through her 6 year stint at the LA Phil and then the several years at BBC Proms. She then spent 9 years looking after her ageing, infirm mother. After her mum died, I suggested to her that she might become my manager. One could always trust Rosemary as her personal integrity was second to none. She’d obviously worked out how tiny the music world is and how damaging a loose tongue can be. Things told to Rosemary, stayed with Rosemary. Rosemary had known pretty well every one of her friends for 40 years or so. Her loyalty was rewarded with their loyalty to her. She wrote an excellent letter and could always be relied upon to give sensible, practical advice especially when she felt she should temper my impulsive and often not wholly sensible thoughts on a way forward. Never in any kind of headmistressy way, but usually with a gently coruscating, dry wit that took no prisoners. I always took her advice. Difficult to imagine how I will go on without her as she was one of my dwindling number of rocks. I do and will miss her dreadfully. Requiescat in pace, Rosemary, now safely ensconced with saved wild cats, beavers and whales in an environmentally secure, vegan heaven.
SH
13 January 2024
Remembering Tony
It was a sad day when I heard that Tony Gilbert had died and so very close to his 89th birthday in July of last year (2023). I had known Tony for 47 years and he’d become a great friend from the moment I first met him as a schoolboy seeking out composition lessons. I last saw him during a concert at the RNCM when his final orchestral piece, Liaison, was played. I shall miss him as I could always rely on his considered advice. Whatever questions I had as regards the direction I should take either compositionally, professionally or personally, I knew that I could trust him implicitly thanks to his considerable personal integrity. He was always extremely supportive. His humour and wordplay, when not completely groan inducing, were often a delight and the more convoluted and left field the better. Like his music I never knew which way he was going to jump next. He could be inordinately prickly (sometimes scarily so), but there was always this tenderness beneath the prickle and much evidence of a profoundly emotional core that I think he often had difficulty in containing. He meant every note he wrote. It came from a deeply intense inner struggle that never became any easier for him. He wouldn’t have trusted it if it had. The work in hand meant everything to him. It drove him on and, I suspect, sometimes to distraction, but there is joy to be found laced through many of the pieces. And wit. I was always intrigued to hear what the next piece might bring. Sadly now, no more.
SH
13 January 2024
austerity measures
It was a complete joy to hear Geneva Lewis and Julia Hamos première my violin and piano piece, austerity measures (from 2017) in a lunchtime concert in the Elgar Concert Hall at University of Birmingham on 13 October. I was very moved by their performance and dedicated the piece to them on the spot! I’ve been told it will be broadcast on 26 March on BBC Radio 3. The whole concert was superb with pieces by Handel, Bartok and Schumann on either side of mine, also beautifully played. The concert was extremely well attended and what a superb hall it is! The BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme is such a phenomenal success. What truly amazing musicians have been through its auspices! Geneva Lewis is up there with the best of them. Julia Hamos is also a real find! Superbly sensitive pianist.
Amistad 3
On the 15 November, Amistad 3 for viola and bass will be premièred in Berlin at the Klangwerkstatt festival. It will be played by Ensemble JungeMusik members, Mike Flemming, Viola and Caleb Salgado, Bass, in the Kunstquartier Bethanien, Studio 1 . Helmut Zapf is the director. Amistad 3 is simply an arrangement for viola and double bass of a flute duet that I wrote in 2013 called Amistad; the Spanish word for friendship. The original duet is in fact a brief set of three pieces (which play continuously) for two flutes written in May 2013. It takes its form from the three syllables of the word a-mi-stad. The first piece begins on the note A and the second piece on E (-mi-) and the final movement has four sections of equal length which take the individual letters as their respective starting points; S (Eb/D#), T (B), the return of A and then D. The piece as a whole is about 6' long. Apart from this one for viola and bass, there are two other arrangements; one for basset clarinet and bassoon and one for horn and tuba.
austerity measures
austerity measures for violin and piano, which I wrote in 2017, is to finally get its première played by the excellent BBC New Generation Artist member, violinist Geneva Lewis, accompanied by the pianist, Julia Hamos on the 13 October (2023) at 13.00 in a Barber Lunchtime Concert at the Elgar Concert Hall, Bramall Music Building in Birmingham.
Please click on the link here for more details:
Kaija Saariaho Organ Composition Competition
Happy, and not a little surprised, to find myself one of the 11 winners of the Kaija Saariaho Organ Composition Competition 2023. I entered eternity’s sunrise, which is now the third piece in my Organ Book (there will be more books in the future. In fact, the first two pieces for Organ Book 2 are already completed). Amelie Held will play eternity’s sunrise on 21 September 2024 on the marvellous new organ at the Musiikkitalo in Helsinki. News of the outcome of the Kaija Saariaho competition was also mentioned in The Diapason organ magazine.
Mantis CD Release
Interesting eclectic mix of pieces and composers on this solo saxophone CD release from the excellent, Carl Raven. The performance of my Mantis, originally for solo viola, is terrific. Salutary for me to hear that the piece can also work for saxophone. The CD can be purchased from https://www.turquoisecoconut.com/carl-raven-music-for-saxophones
The Sower on YouTube
After the world première of The Sower in Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge on the 17 February 2022, followed by a really excellent second performance on the 29 April at Upper Chapel, Sheffield as part of Music in the Round’s Sounds of Now series, here is a YouTube link to Psappha Ensemble’s third performance this time in Manchester at Hallé St. Peter’s on 12 May.
Banshee
I was happy to hear a performance by two members of the Esbjerg Ensemble of Denmark of my piece from 1994, Banshee for oboe and percussion. Eva Vrtacnik on the oboe and Christian Martinez on percussion. The performance took place on the 13 October 2022 in the Syddansk Musikkonservatorium in Esbjerg, and broadcast later on Danish Radio. Sounded terrific to me!
Marsyas-Apollo
Marsyas-Apollo was premièred at Cardiff University Music Department on 1 November 2022 and then received its second performance at Kettle’s Yard on the 3rd. Stephen Upshaw was extremely helpful in making many useful suggestions as regards the fiendishly difficult viola part. He and Richard Uttley were embroiled in quite the mythological battle between the hubristic satyr, Marsyas and the god, Apollo over about 22 minutes. The piece is dedicated to my old friend, David Charlton, who edited the book of essays on my music and also wrote a chapter for it. I wrote it 3 years ago and it was thrilling to finally hear both of the excellent and very moving performances.
Remembering Harry and Sheila Birtwistle
I knew Harry for about 42 years all told and there are many tales to tell, but some stand out more than others.
I remember visiting Harry and Sheila in about 1980 (I can only ever see Harry and Sheila as a unit/double act often with much comedy attached) when they were staying in Félix Faure (15th arrondissement) in Paris. Barry Anderson and Harry were working on the electronic sounds for ‘The Mask of Orpheus’ in that weird underground car park with computers that is IRCAM. I’d gone over to see them on their invitation (can’t remember why). Harry suggested one breakfast that we go and visit Barry who played us auras of bees and whatever else he needed Harry to hear. It was all very exciting for this tyro of 22, who had at this point seen only an early score of the piece back at their flat. How would it all fit together? At the same breakfast, Sheila had been fretting over an insurance claim that would with luck pay for the back window of their wondrous green SAAB that had smashed for some reason. Harry (quite a lot less concerned) said, “I want goat”. Yes, okay, I was bemused, but that evening we had goat meat with seaweed for dinner. I don’t know how it got bought or where it came from, but I suppose it was the Birtwistle’s idea of surf and turf. I remember a magical walk beneath the Eiffel Tower later that night. It was also the first time I tried an excellent white wine called Rully; what Harry called a “horse piss Burgundy”, which became a favourite for a while.
I also remember staying with them in Lunegarde for about 6 weeks at the beginning of 1984. Harry was writing the second act of “Yan Tan Tethera” and one night they made me almost sick with laughter when they got going on some loop or other about Fred, Harry’s dad, who was, shall we say, a little tight fisted. Sheila told us about him buying the cheapest, lowest wattage bulbs known to man and how you could barely see to get round the room. If Harry felt he’d made a good fire or whatever else had worked well about the house, he’d often quote Fred and say, “That’s not going anywhere.” When he started clearing out the garden (the house was pretty new at this stage), I found him lifting really big stones into a wheelbarrow, saying, “Can you imagine Messiaen or Carter doing this?” During my time there, I somehow managed to write the bulk of a chamber piece for the Nash, “Era madrugada”. When Harry saw me at the end of the bedroom corridor writing on the smallest desk imaginable in my room, he said, “Christ, what a depressing sight!” and trundled off. I brought the whole of the second act of the opera back with me on the train. The only copy in existence! I still blench when I think about it!
They both enriched my life beyond words and it always felt like home being with them, but I instinctively felt that I should keep some distance as, to quote Brancusi (who’d been Rodin’s assistant for a while), ‘Nothing grows well in the shade of a big tree’. Harry was our biggest musical tree for six decades and what an immense gap he’s left!
SH
11-07-2022
The Sower
The world première of The Sower for alto flute, cello, cimbalom and piano was on 17 February 2022 at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. The piece was commissioned by Psappha for their 30th Anniversary season. There was a repeat performance at Music in the Round in Sheffield on 29 April, which was followed by a performance on 12 May at Hallé St. Peter’s in Manchester. The piece is dedicated to Colin Currie’s mother, Elizabeth Currie, who died in February last year, a person I was particularly fond of and who made one of my favourite comments after the première of my percussion concerto, a table of noises, that I wrote for her son: “I love the ghosts!”, beaming from ear to ear. One of the most emotionally intelligent and charming people I have ever met.
Voice of the Fool
Amy Harman’s première recording of Voice of the Fool broadcast on 23 September 2021 on BBC Radio 3, reminded me of what a truly excellent performance it was. She really got under the skin of the piece and inhabited it completely.
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Happy to find myself a recipient of this year’s Awards for Artists 2021 under the auspices of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It’s an excellent scheme that helps artists and composers and is especially welcome during this very difficult time. All power to them.
Cloud Shadow première
The Nash Ensemble premièred Cloud Shadow for three reeds (oboe doubling cor anglais, clarinet in Eb doubling bass clarinet and bassoon doubling contrabassoon), horn and piano on 27 April 2021 at the Wigmore Hall.
Fool is hurt
It was such a shot in the arm to receive a newly produced recording of the November 2016 première of Fool is hurt from Michael Carnes the other day. Caitlyn Valovick-Moore was the passionately committed soloist (for whom it was written, with the Nova Ensemble, Utah (affiliated to the Utah Symphony Orchestra) vividly conducted by my old friend, Thierry Fischer. It takes all kinds of vertiginous risks; the players throwing themselves at the music. One of the best premières I’ve ever had. The piece was co-commissioned by the London Sinfonietta for Michael Cox to première in London the following month with Geoffrey Paterson conducting with great aplomb! I’ve made it available in the ‘Listen’ section of this website.
Two movements for string quartet
The Dutch Matangi string quartet played my Two movements for string quartet on the 7th March 2021 at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam in a concert that had the poetry of Emily Dickinson as a theme. I hadn’t heard the piece for ages (I tend not to listen to my pieces between performances and so often have to wait a considerable while until the next live performance) and was moved to hear their intense, powerful interpretation.
feet of clay
Tim Gill gave yet another superb performance of my cello solo, feet of clay, a piece he’s fast making his own, as part of a private London Sinfonietta online event. You can listen to an earlier performance of Gill’s here.
Cloud Shadow
2020: This summer I finished my tenth piece for the Nash Ensemble, Cloud Shadow for three reeds (oboe doubling cor anglais, clarinet in Eb doubling bass clarinet and bassoon doubling contrabassoon), horn and piano. It was premièred at a concert on 27 April 2021 at the Wigmore Hall. It should work out at about 11’.
Quadriga
Quadriga for percussion and string quartet, written in 2017 for Colin Currie and the JACK Quartet, premièred at the 2018 BBC Proms in Cadogan Hall, was re-broadcast on 7 September as part of the 2020 Digital BBC Proms. The concert, with a programme that I curated, included two pieces by Xenakis, namely Rebonds B and Tetras. It was great to hear this again as the première performance was stunning as was the repeat performance at the South Bank Centre London on 1 February 2020.
New pieces for Adrian Brendel and Stephen Upshaw
I am hoping that 2021 will see the premières of a piece written in 2018 for cello and piano, Serra-Sierra, for cellist Adrian Brendel and of Marsyas-Apollo, for viola and piano, which I wrote in 2019 for violist Stephen Upshaw. They’re two substantial pieces that I’m very keen to hear. They complete a series of pieces for string instruments with piano; the first of these was austerity measures (2017) for violin and piano, which still also awaits its first performance.
Bassoon Solo
Having also thought that I could never write a bassoon solo, I found myself writing one, Voice of the Fool, in the summer of 2019 in a quiet moment. I think it was probably inspired by hearing Amy Harman play the bassoon part in my wind quintet, bagatelarañas, in Aldeburgh in June 2018, where I had a residency during my 60th birthday year. Easily some of the finest playing of any wind instrument I have ever heard. I wrote it with the thought at the back of my mind that she might be one day interested in playing it. Positive noises so far . . . (Update: This has happily now become reality).
Oboe solo for Melinda Maxwell
The dedicatee of raw air, Melinda Maxwell, gave the online première as part of a London Sinfonietta “Lockdown Live” streaming event (starts at 21:20). The piece has a relatively straightforward optional piano part, which I would one day like to accompany her with.