Members of the Alauna
Ensemble: (left to right) Graham Mayger (flute), Jean Marsden (oboe), Mark
Kane (horn),
Peter Morgan (bassoon), Simon Stewart (saxophone), Verity Fielding (clarinet)
and Antonia Bakewell (bass)
rehearsing What the angel said… with Christopher Weeks
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Joseph Jongen (1873–1953) Joseph Jongen was born in Liège on December 14, 1873, and died in Sart-lez-Spa on July 12, 1953. All his musical studies – theory, fugue piano and organ –were done at the Royal Liège Conservatoire. In 1894 he won a prize from the Royal Belgian Conservatoire for the composition of a string quartet and, in 1897, won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Comala and spent four years travelling through Europe. These travels proved very fruitful and marked a clear evolution in his style. He returned from them having written several major works – a symphony, two concertos and a piano quartet. He went back to Belgium in 1902 and, in 1903, took up the post of professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Liège Conservatoire. During the First World War he emigrated with his family to England, where he founded a piano quartet. After the war he returned to his post in Liège, was named professor of fugue at the Brussels Conservatoire in 1920 and, in 1925, was made director of that establishment, a position he held until 1939. From 1919 to 1926 Jongen conducted the Concerts Spirituels de Bruxelles. He was a prolific composer and perhaps the most gifted of his generation. His works may be divided into three periods: early, which was clearly influenced by the music of César Franck; middle (circa 1910), where the influence of the French ‘impressionists’ (particularly Debussy) was to the fore; and a late period (post 1912) when he developed an individual voice of his own.
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827) 1. Adagio-Allegro 2. Adagio 3. Menuetto: quasi Allegretto 4. Rondo: Allegro Beethoven finished the Sextet Opus 71 (scored for two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons) in Vienna in 1796, though the first two movements may have been written earlier. Beethoven sent the manuscript to his publisher Breitkopf in1809 and wrote:
The piece starts with a slow introduction, leading to a playful Allegro. The second movement starts with a beautiful melody on the first bassoon and is passed from instrument to instrument. The third movement, a typical Beethoven scherzo, opens with hunting horn calls and includes a trio which has a canon between the clarinets and bassoons. The final movement rondo is a playful march full of repeated march rhythms, with a brilliant noisy conclusion.
Edgard Varèse (1883–1965) Edgard Varèse was born in Paris in 1883 and studied composition there with d’Indy, Roussel, and Widor. In 1915 he moved to the United States, where, between 1920 and 1930, he wrote Amériques (1921), Offrandes (1922), Hyperprism (1923), Octandre (1924), Intégrales (1925) and Ionisation (1930). In these works he sought to strip composition of its conventional ‘musical’ theories and replace them with ‘scientific’ principles; to consider music as blocks of sound in space. At this time he also became more and more interested in composition using electronic instruments. This interest became so consuming that failure to secure financial support for a proposed electronic studio precipitated a period of depression and near silence that lasted from 1934 to 1951 (the gift of an Ampex tape recorder in 1951 at last allowed him to realise his ideas for electronic sound and led, eventually, to the composition of Déserts and Poème Electronique). Dating from 1936 (revised in 1946), Density 21.5 is one of the few works of this fallow period. It was commissioned by the French virtuoso George Barrère for the inaugural concert of his new platinum flute (21.5 is the density of platinum). In the work, with its extremes of dynamic and pitch, Varèse creates a metallic world of precise articulations and varied and novel colouristic effects. Despite its having vastly different content, Density 21.5 shares many formal features (the repeated opening motif, for instance) with a work for solo flute by a composer Varèse much admired – Debussy’s Syrinx.
Interval
Christopher Weeks
b.1948 This septet is in the form of continuous double variations. While the second theme (the first saxophone entry), which forms a ritornello or chorus throughout, it treated conventionally, the first theme, works ‘backwards’ and does not appear in its full form until the climactic moment near the end of the piece. The music journeys through songs, marches, pastorales, scherzos, chorale melodies, bells and fanfares before saxophone and horn finally announce the theme’s completion. The work ends with the return of the song-like music of the opening. The genesis of this piece is a little complicated. I recently had cause to think hard about angels – not for any particularly mystic reason, but because an opera libretto was suggested to me based on the life of Dr. John Dee, philosopher to Elizabeth I, founder of the Rosicrucians, cartographer, and, most importantly, angel conjurer. Accordingly I started, in a haphazard sort of way, to collect material about angelic visitations and wonder what sort of music angels sang or, indeed, whether perhaps they ‘spoke’ music as a language (Dee never talked directly with angels but only through his mediumistic sidekick, Kelley). With this as background, during the Summer of last year, I started to plan this septet. Almost inevitably, angels from several extra-musical sources got irretrievably muddled up in the piece. Firstly I decided to use material from my setting of Blake’s The Lamb as the basis of the work. Then, on a visit to Chartres, whilst admiring the juxtapositions of colours and stories in the those masterpieces of mediaeval art, the windows (and wondering about variation form) I collected an entire host of angels. And lastly, still in Chartres, the 12th century window, the Arbre de Jessé – a genealogy of Jesus which shows Mary at the top of a tree which stretches back through the kings of Israel – reminded me of Rilke’s poem Verkündigung (Annunciation). So, inviting both sacred and profane wrath (or ridicule) for celestial and musical hubris, I decided that angels did speak music and this one was going to do it through the (perhaps) unlikely medium of wind sextet plus double bass. Composer’s note
Antonín Dvorák 1. Moderato, quasi
Marcia 2. Tempo di Menuetto Dvorák wrote his Serenade in D minor Op.44 in 1878 at a time when he was beginning to gain an international reputation. Following works include the Slavonic Rhapsodies Op.45, the Slavonic Dances Op.46 and the String Sextet in A op.48. The scoring is unusual - 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 3 horns, ’cello and double bass - with the contrabassoon, ’cello and double bass giving depth to the sound. Leaving out the higher strings wasn’t a new idea and he had probably studied the score of Brahms’ Second Serenade Op.16 which also omits violins, violas and flutes. The Serenade, in four movements and full of high spirits and fine melodies, demonstrates Dvorák’s great facility in writing for woodwind. Like many of Mozart’s serenades Dvorák starts his serenade with a brisk march movement in ABAB form. This is followed by a minuet and trio, which includes a Presto. The beautiful third movement is marked Andante con moto while the energetic Allegro molto finale ends with the return of the march from first movement and a brilliant coda with trumpet-like horns. |
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The
Alauna
Ensemble was originally formed to
give a performance in Chichester Cathedral of a piano quintet by the
late Robert Stewart, composer, pianist, |
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Graham
Mayger (flute) won a
Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music, then a French
Government Scholarship to study in Paris with Jean Pierre Rampal.
Returning to London, he then played with most of the major London
orchestras, and for 27 years enjoyed a special relationship with the
Northern Sinfonia. He now holds principal flute positions with many
freelance orchestras and is a member of the London Harpsichord Ensemble. |
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Jean Marsden (oboe) was born in Blackburn. She studied with Evelyn Rothwell and on winning an Open Scholarship to the Northern School of Music (now the Royal Northern College of Music) with Leon Goossens and Philip Hill. She worked as a soloist and freelanced with the Hallé, the Liverpool Philharmonic and the Manchester Camerata Orchestra. She joined the Orchestra of London Festival Ballet before becoming principal cor anglais of the BBC Concert Orchestra, a post she held until moving to Wales to bring up her family. Jean is much involved in chamber music and is oboe tutor at Bristol University and teaches at the Royal Welsh College where she also coaches wind ensembles. Married to Robert Codd she has two children, Rhodri, a Doctor of Medicine and Rosalind, a biologist at present working for the National Trust. |
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Graham Dyer (oboe) was educated at University College Cardiff, the Welsh College of Music & Drama and Queens’ College Cambridge. Since 1980 he has combined a successful teaching career with work as a freelance musician. He has been involved in performances on radio, television and for commercial recordings with various ensembles, including the Orchestra and Chorus of Welsh National Opera. He is also a tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Junior Department. |
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Verity Fielding (clarinet) is a busy freelance clarinettist playing with many orchestras and ensembles, including Welsh National Opera. She is a member of the contemporary music group PM Music Ensemble with whom she has toured extensively, often in a solo clarinet programme. |
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Simon Stewart (saxophone/clarinet) studied saxophone and clarinet at the Royal College of Music, London and was awarded an Exhibitioners Scholarship to study saxophone with Steve Trier and Kyle Horch and clarinet with Colin Bradbury. In 1993 whilst still at college, Simon formed the saxophone quartet, Saxploitation (now Paragon Saxophone Quartet). The quartet rapidly attracted critical acclaim for their virtuoso performances and ‘effortless resources of sound’ (Paul Driver, Sunday Times). As a freelance performer Simon has worked with Lady Suzanna Walton performing William Walton’s Façade throughout Britain and Europe, with various contemporary music ensembles touring extensively, London Musici and Rambert Dance Company, The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Bournemouth Symphony orchestra. As a teacher Simon enjoys a busy schedule teaching at the Purcell School and Highgate School where he teaches saxophone and coaches the Big Band and saxophone ensembles. |
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Mark Kane (horn) studied at the Royal College of Music with Tim Brown and Julian Baker. He follows a busy career as a freelance musician with many orchestras and ensembles, including the Bounemouth Symphony Orchestra. Mark takes a keen interest in chamber music and also composes. |
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Richard Lewis (horn) comes from Swansea and gained his B.Mus. at Cardiff University. He went on to study at Trinity College of Music with Stephen Stirling and Roger Montgomery. Richard works with many orchestras and ensembles including the RPO Pops. |
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Simon Morgan (horn) was educated in Bridgend and went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music, London. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and the European Community Youth Orchestra. Simon has freelanced with most of the country's leading orchestras and ensembles. He became a member of the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera in 1993. Still a member of the WNO Brass Consort and Cambrian Brass, he returned to freelancing, from London, in 1998. |
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Roger Birnstingl (bassoon) took up the instrument at the age of fourteen in order to form a family trio and went on to study with Archie Camden at the Royal College of Music and later with Enzo Mucetti of La Scala, Milan. He was a member of the Philharmonia during their tour of the United States with Herbert von Karajan and has been principal bassoon with the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic and for thirteen years with the London Symphony Orchestra before joining the Suisse Romande Orchestra. During this period he played under all the great conductors of the time including Klemperer, Monteux, Munch, Stravinski, Bernstein, Solti, Abbado, Barbirolli and Sir Colin Davis. Roger has recorded the complete wind repertoire of Mozart and Beethoven and all of Schönberg’s chamber music with groups such as the London Sinfonietta, the London Wind Soloists and the London Wind Trio. In June 2000 he recorded, with pianist Sam Haywood, a CD of English music for bassoon (An English Serenade) for Sanctus. He is professor of bassoon at the Geneva Conservatoire. |
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Penny Birnstingl (bassoon) studied at the Guildhall School of Music, specialising in Early Music and then worked as a freelance bassoonist. She gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Music Therapy at Bristol University. Married to Roger Birnstingl, Penny now lives in Geneva and devotes much time to teaching, and enjoys painting and pottery. |
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| Peter Morgan (bassoon/contra bassoon) studied with Roger Birnstingl and Martin Gatt at the Guildhall School of Music and with Mordechai Rechtmann in Tel Aviv. Peter has worked with many of the country's leading orchestras and ensembles and for twelve years, until 1996, was principal bassoon with the Orchestra of English National Ballet. |
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Martin
Thomas (‘cello) studied at the
Royal Academy in London where he became a founder member of the Coull
Quartet. After eleven years playing with the quartet he left to pursue a
freelance career playing with orchestras in London. Martin now enjoys a busy life playing in orchestras, teaching and performing chamber music. He is currently a member of the Archaus Quartet. |
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Antonia Bakewell (double bass) read history at University College, London, then studied as a post-graduate at the Royal College of Music. As a freelance musician based in London she works with a wide range of orchestras including the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, London Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. |
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Review
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ANGEL HEARD
IN THE BRUNSWICK METHODIST CHURCH Swansea is alive with music. Last Saturday Crwth brought the Alauna Ensemble with dancing Beethoven, Dvorák, Varèse and Christopher Weeks’s What the angel said... to hear this calibre of live chamber music for wind is a rare treat; to be present at the premiere of the recently-completed Weeks septet was a privilege. Such innovative programming is unusual outside London, but Crwth puts on concerts of excellence month after month. The Brunswick Methodist Church is a bright, intimate venue with a mellow sound, every note clear and warm. Joseph Jongen’s Concerto for Wind Quintet showed off the immaculate ensemble playing. Then Graham Mayger’s solo flute made the Varèse Density 21.5 sing. The sextet in E-flat major by Beethoven provided lovely duet moments. In What the angel said..., Christopher Weeks exploited the singing tone of the soprano saxophone and double bass resonance in addition to the traditional wind quintet. His angel danced, sang, laughed and declaimed through ensemble playing that was lyrical or sparkling, fiery or full of pathos. The final work was the joyously bucolic Serenade in D minor by Dvorák, which brought together the full complement of twelve musicians, playing without a conductor and showing sensitivity to each other and to this masterpiece. MK |