Northern Sinfonia

This re-release of the Suite de Ballet, A Song of the Night, and The Wandering Scholar by Gustav Holst forms part of the new Hickox Legacy commemorative series on Chandos Records, leading up to (and continuing beyond) the fifth anniversary, in Nov 2013, of the conductor's untimely death. The recording is released on the Classic Chandos label at Mid Price.

Both the Suite de Ballet (1899) and A Song of the Night (1903) are early works. The Suite de Ballet is light music, expertly written and colourfully scored. It brings to mind the works of Edward German and Sir Arthur Sullivan, but also glances in the direction of French composers, at Chabrier in ‘Danse rustique’ and Saint-Saëns in ‘Scène de nuit’. In A Song of the Night Holst demonstrates confident and imaginative writing for solo violin. He left no clues as to the specific meaning of the song, but at the time of writing he was deeply immersed in learning Sanskrit, and his enthusiasm for Indian mythology may well have inspired the work.

Through her collection Mediaeval Latin Lyrics and her book The Wandering Scholars, Helen Waddell (1889 – 1965) exercised considerable influence on British music in the 1930s, and her translations have been set to music by many composers, Holst being one of them. The Wandering Scholar (1929 – 30) is a one-act comic chamber opera featuring just four characters, and no chorus. Holst uses modest orchestral forces; there are no big numbers, no set-pieces, and no overture. It is a simple rural tale, told simply, with original music that suggests (but is not actual) folk music. The premiere performance took place in 1934, but Holst was too ill to attend, and died soon after, before he had the chance to review any of the details over which he had felt uncertain as he was composing the work. In 1968, his daughter Imogen Holst and her friend Benjamin Britten edited the score in order to address some of Holst's earlier concerns.

BBC Music Magazine wrote of the disc: ‘Holst’s Chaucer-like farce [The Wandering Scholar] comes up freshly minted in this lively recording… the couplings reveal Holst in light-music and Romantic modes, respectively, and throughout Hickox inspires some full-blooded music-making.’

The best-loved and most popular works by Frederick Delius, performed by the world’s leading artists, in an accessible format at budget price as part of the ESSENTIAL CLASSICS series.

After The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky took an eclectic approach in his ballet scores: reinventing Baroque pieces by Pergolesi for the commedia dell’arte antics of Pulcinella; concocting Le Baiser de la fée, based on Hans Christian Andersen, from piano and vocal music by Tchaikovsky, and adopting a rigorous, neo-Classical voice for Perséphone. The Symphony in Three movements was choreographed by George Balanchine in 1972m the year after the composer’s death.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) caused a sensation early on in the 20th century with the first performance in 1913 of his ballet Le sacre du printemps (The rite of Spring). This event marked the composer as a musician of the new century and throughout his life Stravinsky remained at the forefront of the musical avant-garde, keeping abreast of musical developments right up to he time of his death. All of the works in this set of orchestral pieces were written during Stravinsky's neo-classical period, which lasted from around 1920 until about 1953, after which he adopted the serial technique first developed by Arnold Schoenberg.

The symphonies Mozart wrote in his youth bear witness to the remarkable assurance of a composer whose genius was already in full flower. In 1773, on returning to Salzburg after spending several months in Italy, the seventeen-year-old Mozart resumed his position as Konzertmeister at the court of the archbishop. He had brought back from his stay in Italy a profound grasp of the art of instrumental writing, and it is from this period that his four-movement Symphony No.29 in A major (K201) dates. By turns energetic, nostalgic and witty, this work is imbued with a new spirit.

The celebrated Symphony No.40 in G minor (K550) dates from 1788 and is one of the most dramatic of all Mozart’s works. This symphony dispenses with any kind of slow introduction, plunging the listener straight into a dark-toned and restless Molto allegro that is full of contrasts, sparely orchestrated and shot through with bold modulations. This is followed by a meditative, almost desolate Andante. The down-to-earth humour of the robust Menuetto was remarked on by Berlioz, and the symphony ends with an Allegro assai that is permeated by an anguish and a profundity that look forward to German romanticism.

Completed on 10 August 1787, Eine kleine Nachtmusik (K525) is one of Mozart’s most frequently played serenades. Its four movements are models of balance, elegance and poetry.

This CD features eight premiere recordings:

• Three additional songs of Les Illuminations

• In memoriam Dennis Brain

• Rondo Concertante

• Elegy for Strings

• Variations for Solo Piano

• and the completion of Movements for a Clarinet Concerto.

The stunning performance of Les Illuminations by world-renowned soprano Sandrine Piau has been made possible thanks to the French label Naïve kindly releasing Sandrine from her exclusive recording contract for this CD. The ‘Clarinet Concerto’ was written for jazz star Benny Goodman, but Britten never completed it as the sketches were impounded by US Customs in 1941. It was Britten’s intention to resume work on the piece in 1943 but he never got round to it and so it remained a fragment, not performed until edited by Colin Matthews in 1990.

Britten intended the additional three songs recorded here—also setting Rimbaud—to be part of Les Illuminations. Sandrine Piau’s love affair with the music of Benjamin Britten blossomed when she was chosen to sing the role of Flora in Britten’s Turn of the Screw at Radio France.

In memoriam Dennis Brain for 4 horns, strings and tubular bells commemorates the great horn player for whom Britten wrote his Serenade for tenor, horn and strings. He died in a car crash in 1957.

Thomas Zehetmair, Music Director of Northern Sinfonia returns as both soloist and conductor with a new recording of Symphonies 3 & 6 by Jean Sibelius and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto. All three works were recorded at the home of Northern Sinfonia, The Sage Gateshead and follow critically acclaimed Mozart recordings with Imogen Cooper and a Brahms/Schumann CD which was CD of the month in BBC Music Magazine (July 2007).

Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3 in C major was premiered in 1907 and many argue that it is here that Sibelius’ powers first display themselves in full regalia while Symphony No. 6 (1923) is the purest, most inward, almost hypnotic of his works and in many ways the most fascinating of his symphonies. The Violin Concerto in D, very representative of Stravinsky’s neo-Classical period, received its first performance in Berlin in October 1931 with the composer himself conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Northern Sinfonia with its Music Director Thomas Zehetmair command a unique position in Europe, with repertoire spanning three centuries and regularly commissioned new works. Autumn 2008 marked the start of the Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Season and its fourth year in its own spectacular Norman Foster designed home for music, The Sage Gateshead, wthere it is central to the extensive classical programme.

"With its breathtaking Foster architecture, revolutionary intermingling of educational, community and professional music-making, and passionate support from Gateshead Council, The Sage Gateshead has quickly become the most exciting music venue in Britain — and Northern Sinfonia has raised its game to match its new home." The Times