Signum: SIGCD124

Alec Roth - Songs in Time of War

words by Vikram Seth after the Chinese poet Du Fu [712-770]

Born in England, of German/Irish descent,Alec Roth has been Founder and Artistic Director of the Royal Festival Hall Gamelan Programme; Music Director of the Baylis Programme, English National Opera; Composer in Association, Opera North; and Lecturer in Music, University of Edinburgh. His collaborations with the Indian writer Vikram Seth include the song cycles Romantic Residues (Bury St Edmunds Festival commission 2003) and Earth and Sky for children's chorus, a BBC commission for the Proms 2000 season. Songs in Time of War is the first in a series of four major works commissioned jointly by the Salisbury, Chelsea and Lichfield Festivals, 2006- 2009. The two pieces for solo guitar are part of an ongoing series of works by Alec Roth dedicated to the Mexican guitarist Morgan Szymanski: Canción de la Luna (Song of the Moon) was first performed at a Wigmore Hall recital in 2005; its companion piece, Danza de la Luna was completed in 2006 and is heard for the first time on this recording. Chinese Gardens is a setting of poems, again by Vikram Seth, which were inspired by visits to four of the famous Ming Dynasty gardens in the Chinese city of Suzhou.