New works commissioned by the New London Chamber Ensemble
Ailis Ni Riain featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie
The group’s 20th anniversary coincided with the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, therefore to celebrate both events they looked at what Beethoven’s deafness meant to him in his life and work, and explored the experiences of current artists and composers working with hearing loss. This culminated in a commission with composer Ailis Ni Riain featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie, both of whom have experience of hearing loss. (This work will be recorded by NMC in 2022).
Here is the programme they’re offering which features this commission:
Martin Butler – Down Hollow Winds (quintet) – 15′
Work TBC (Evelyn Glennie solo)
Chelsea Becker – Work TBC
Clarinet and percussion duo – TBC – 3-8′
Ailis Ni Riain – Revelling and Reckoning – 14′
Encore – Paquito d’Rivera Aires Tropicales (2 movements) – 3′
Philip Cashian – Settala’s Machine
Settala’s Machine is scored for wind dectet; it is a musical depiction of the actions of an extraordinary 17th century automaton, ‘Settala’s Machine’, designed by Manfredo Settala and pictured here. The piece was commissioned with the express purpose of providing an opportunity for young wind players to study and perform side-by-side with the NLCE. The premiere was given by the NLCE in October 2012 at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, alongside five of the College’s postgraduate wind players, directed by Meyrick Alexander. It has since been performed with players from the Purcell School of Music, the National Youth Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Academy of Music (Cheltenham International Festival 2014) and the Junior Academy, and is due to be performed in May 2015 with players from Trinity College Laban.
Martin Butler – Rondes d’Automne
Rondes d’Automne is a nonet for wind quintet, string trio and double bass, commissioned by the New London Chamber Ensemble in 2011. The NLCE were joined by the Dante Quartet to give its premiere performance at the Cheltenham International Festival in 2011, and have since recorded it with members of the Navarra Quartet and Leon Bosch for NMC. The CD is due to be released early in 2016.
John Woolrich – Book of Studies Set 3
This set of pieces was commissioned by the New London Chamber Ensemble in celebration of John Woolrich’s 50th birthday and subsequently recorded as part of their album of his wind music: ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ for the Meridian label.
Edward Longstaff
Public Private (UK premier: Corsham Festival)
Doublings and Couplings (international premiere: Banff International Performing Arts Centre, Canada;
UK premier: Swaledale Festival)
Alison Beckett – Queue (UK premier: Princes Theatre, Clacton-on-Sea)
Basil Athanasiadis – Faded Sho-norities (UK premier, Deal Festival)
Wind Quintets
Arnold – Three Shanties Op 4 (1943)
Barber – Summer Music Op 31 (1956)
Alison Beckett – Queue (2006)
Berio – Opus Number Zoo (1951)
Birtwistle – Refrains and Choruses
Bizet – Jeux d’enfants
Martin Butler – Down-Hollow Winds (1991)
Byrd – Pavan & Galliard
Debussy – Petite suite arr G Davies (1889)
– Suite No 2 arr G Davies
Paquito D’Rivera – Aires tropicales (1994)
Malcolm Forsyth – Quintette for wind – Everythinge ye ever wanted to knowe about Essex
Ibert – Trois pieces brèves (1930)
Ligeti – Six Bagatelles (1953)
Edward Longstaff – Public/Private for wind quintet (2000)
– Doublings and Couplings for flute, oboe, clarinet (2002)
Júlio Medaglia – Suite Popular Brasileira
Stephen Montague – Thule Ultima for mouthpieces
Mozart – Adagio and Rondo in C minor/major K 617
– Andante in F Major for mechanical clock K 616
– Fantasy in F Minor for flute clock K 608
Nielsen – Wind Quintet Op 43
Jim Parker – Mississippi Five
Prokofiev – Peter and The Wolf (plus narration)
Ravel – Mother Goose Suite
Rimsky-Korsakov – Flight of the Bumble Bee
Saint-Saëns – Carnival of the Animals (arr Bussick)(with orig poems)
Lalo Schifrin – La Nouvelle Orléans
Benjamin Wallfisch – Quintet
John Woolrich – Book of Studies 1, 2 & 3
With piano
Beethoven – Quintet in E Flat major for piano and winds Op 16
Mozart – Quintet in E Flat Major for piano and winds K 452
Julian Philips – Sextet for Piano and Winds
Poulenc – Sextet for wind quintet and piano (1932)
– Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano (1926)
Shostakovich – Waltzes for flute, clarinet and piano
Ludwig Thuille – Sextet in B Flat Major Op 6
John Woolrich – A Cabinet of Curiosities
Repertoire with orchestra
Mozart – Sinfonia Concertante K 297b, for ob, clart, bsn, hn
Richard Strauss – Duett-Concertino in F AV 147, for clarinet and bassoon
Programmes with additional musicians
Nielsen – Serenata in Vano clarinet, bassoon, horn, cello, bass
Janáček – Mládi, suite for wind quintet plus bass clarinet
Schubert – Octet for string quartet, clarinet, horn, bassoon
Martinů – Nonet
Spohr – Nonet
Graham Waterhouse – Nonet
Programmes with Narrator
Martin Butler – Dirty Beasts (for wind quintet, piano and narrator, based on Roald Dahl’s poems)
Prokofiev – Peter and The Wolf
Ravel – Mother Goose Suite
Walton – Façade: An Entertainment for wind quintet and narrator(s)