Messiaen Centenary Celebration

7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary
Celebration
Jessica Chaney & Vincent Knapp©
Diego Masson conductor
Joanna MacGregor piano
Cynthia Millar ondes Martenot
Dhafer Youssef voice and oud
Bath Camerata
Wells Cathedral School Chamber
Choir
Britten Sinfonia
Bach Keyboard Concerto in D minor
BWV 1052
Dhafer Youssef
Les Ondes Orientales World premiere
(BBC Radio 3 Commission)
Interval
Messiaen Trois Petites Liturgies de
la Présence Divine
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) is one
of contemporary music’s most original, passionate and exciting voices.
Honing his modal, rhythmic and highly colourful style early on in his career,
his music explores the burnished timbres of Eastern percussion, the brilliance of birdsong and the mysteries
of faith, while coming out of the lyrical French tradition of Debussy and
Poulenc. And it’s fun to listen to, full
of warmth and love, humour and lifeenhancing energy.
Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence
Divine, which makes up the second
half of this concert, has hugely demanding and joyful roles for choir, piano and string orchestra, percussion
section and the instrument he loved
to write for, the ondes Martenot. The
music in the first half connects Messiaen’s complex, driving, exuberant
style with two composers who use
same the building blocks. First Bach’s
powerfully urgent D minor Keyboard
Concerto, with its amazing string patterns and tough welding-together of
many voices, echoes Messiaen’s own
linearity and confident technique; the
ability to conceive of fiercely independent lines that operate seemingly
individually, yet are able to produce
a satisfying, harmonious whole. And
the textural colours, modality and
sheer brilliance of singer and oud
player Dhafer Youssef’s art, drawing
on Eastern and Sufi heritage, mirror
the depth and richness of Messiaen’s
influences. We are thrilled to be presenting Dhafer’s new work Les Ondes
Orientales for himself, piano and
string orchestra tonight, a BBC Radio
3 commission, and hope you find this
concert celebrating Messiaen’s 100th
birthday an inspirational experience.
Joanna MacGregor
Artistic Director
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)
Keyboard Concerto in D minor (BWV
1052)
1
2
3
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto
(1721), with its extended and florid
written-out harpsichord cadenza in
the first movement, is generally regarded as the earliest known example of a keyboard concerto, though
in addition to the harpsichord there
are parts for solo violin and flute. But
Bach exerted far greater influence on
the development of the genre with his
keyboard concertos for one or more
harpsichords that he composed during his period in Leipzig. Between
1734 and 1739 he completed fourteen harpsichord concertos, only one
of which – in C major (BWV 1061) for
two harpsichords – would appear to
be an entirely original composition.
All of the others, including the D minor (BWV 1052) concerto, were conceived originally for other solo instruments, mainly the violin. Throughout
the Baroque era this was a common
practice; for example, two of Bach’s
most celebrated choral masterpieces,
the Christmas Oratorio and the B minor Mass, are largely derived from
With the generous support of :
Page 1
Evelyn Strasburger
Recorded for future broadcast on
BBC Radio 3 at 7pm on 30 May
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
material composed for different circumstances and with different words.
In addition to a previous life as a nowlost violin concerto, two movements
from the D minor keyboard concerto
were used in Cantata No. 146, with
organ as the solo instrument.
Bach composed the D minor concerto
for himself to play with the members
of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, a
group of students supplemented by
professional musicians and probably
Bach’s elder sons. The Collegium
Musicum had been founded by Telemann in 1702 and Bach was appointed its director in 1729, five years after
arriving in Leipzig as Cantor at the
town’s Thomaskirche. The ensemble
met regularly on Friday evenings in a
Leipzig coffee house; these ordinary
meetings were evidently social as
well as musical occasions, but these
were supplemented by invitations to
play at civic or academic events for
which Bach might compose a special
cantata or organize some al fresco
musical entertainment.
The D minor Concerto is divided
into the usual three movements of
the Baroque concerto, whose shape
was to influence the concertos of
Mozart, Beethoven and beyond into
the nineteenth century. Spirited outer
movements in the home key frame a
central slow movement in G minor in
which the soloist spins an expressive
cantelina.
Although Bach would have intended
the solo keyboard part for harpsichord, by the time of the rediscovery
of Bach’s music in the first half of the
Page 2
nineteenth century, his non-organ
keyboard pieces were played on the
piano, a practice that survived well
into the twentieth century. The rediscovery of keyboard instruments of
Bach’s period, particularly the harpsichord, gradually began to supplant
the piano from its position in Baroque
repertoire, though of course every
amateur pianist, then as now, played
Bach on the piano. In recent years,
however, there has been a revival of
interest in playing Bach on the piano
from artists such as Murray Perahia,
Angela Hewitt and Joanna MacGregor. Placing any historical arguments
to one side, if the music sounds convincing when played on the piano,
then why not? – and who’s to say
Bach, if he could hear it for himself,
might not rather like it?
Philip Reed
Dhafer Youssef (b.1967)
Les Ondes Orientales is Dhafer’s
first work for string orchestra. He was
invited by Joanna MacGregor with
support from BBC Radio 3, to write
a piece which gave both Joanna and
Dhafer space for improvisation, within
a composition written for string ensemble.
The inspiration for the piece grew
out of Dhafer’s response to Joanna
MacGregor’s music; the enormous
range of colours and moods that she
brings to her performances from powerfully rhythmic to beautifully soulful.
This twenty minute long piece opens
with solo and duo improvisations
from Dhafer and Joanna before the
orchestra join in with a dark, mysterious melody. Although it is written in
17, the heartbeat of the music falls
into a lilting 4 beat dance-like rhythm,
propelled along by the pizzicato of the
strings and oud. The melody gradually builds, sweeping more and more of
the players up into the driving rhythmic theme before its passion expires,
and it’s gone, left hanging in the air
above the Abbey.
Polly Eldridge
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Olivier Messiaen
(1908–1992)
Trois petites liturgies de la Présence
Divine
1. Antienne de la conversation
intérieure
2. Séquence du Verbe,
cantique divin
3. Psalmondie de l’ubiquité
par amour
Composed throughout the winter of
1943–44, Trois petites liturgies de la
Presence Divine was the first largescale piece Messiaen attempted since
L’Ascension from more than a decade earlier. The work, which lasts for
around thirty-five minutes, received
its first performance in newly liberated Paris in April 1945, with Yvonne
Loriod playing the important part for
piano, and Roger Désormière conducting. Of the Trois petites liturgies,
Messiaen declared that he wanted
to ‘achieve a liturgical act: that is, to
transport a sort of office, a sort of organized praise into the concert hall.’
Messiaen wrote the text himself – he
regarded them as ‘modern psalms’ –
in which he moves close to the surrealist territory of figures such as André Breton and Max Ernst, especially
when the composer urges us to view
the world with new eyes and discover,
as the final liturgy suggests, the presence of God in all his creation. The
text owes much to the Bible and other
religious texts by St Thomas Aquinas
and St Thomas a Kempis, as well as
containing passages more relevant to
Messiaen’s own faith.
The Trois petites liturgies display
many of the hallmarks of Messiaen’s
very individual style, already by the
mid-1940s well-established, notably the repetition of material (though
here a direct result of the liturgical
verse-refrain forms) and, despite the
religious nature of the work, the extraordinary sensuality of the harmonic language. Throughout the piece,
Messiaen centres his harmony on a
pentatonic-inflected A major which,
with the profusion of tuned percussion, suggests Far Eastern gamelan
influences. The work remains, over
sixty years after its first performance,
one of Messiaen’s early masterpieces
and one of his most accessible.
Philip Reed
Page 3
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
I Antienne de La Conversation Intérieure
I Antienne de La Conversation Intérieure
Mon Jésus mon silence,
Restez en moi.
Mon Jésus, mon royaume de silence,
Parlez en moi.
Mon Jésus, nuit d’arc-en-ciel et de silence,
Priez en moi.
Soleil de sang, d’oiseaux,
Mon arc-en-ciel d’amour,
Désert d’amour.
Chantez, lancez l’auréole d’amour,
Mon Amour,
Mon Dieu
My Jesus, my silence
Remain in me.
My Jesus, my kingdom of silence,
Ce oui qui chante comme un écho de
lumière,
Mélodie rouge et mauve en louange
de Père,
This “yes” that sings like an echo of
light,
A red and mauve melody in praise of
the Father,
D’un baiser votre main dépasse le
tableau,
By a kiss’s breadth your hand overreaches the painting.
Paysage divin, renverse-toi dans
l’eau.
Louange de la Gloire à mes ailes de
terre,
Mon Dimanche, ma Paix, mon Toujours de lumière,
Que le ciel parle en moi, rire, ange
nouveau,
Ne me réveillez pas: c’est le temps de
l’oiseau!
(Mon Jésus, mon silence,
Restez en moi…)
Heavenly landscape, spill over into
the water.
Praise of Glory to my wings of earth,
II Séquence du verbe, cantique divin
Il est parti le Bien-Aimé,
C’est pour nous!
Il est monté le Bien-Aimé,
II Séquence du verbe, cantique divin
The Beloved has gone,
It is for us!
The Beloved has ascended,
Page 4
Speak in me.
My Jesus, night of rainbow and silence
Pray in me.
Sun of blood, of birds
My rainbow of love,
Wilderness of love,
Sing, cast love’s aureole,
My Love,
My God.
My Sunday, my Peace, my Always of
light.
May heaven speak within me, smile,
new angel,
Do not wake me: it’s the time of the
bird!
(My Jesus, my silence,
Remain in me…)
C’est pour nous!
Il a prié le Bien-Aimé,
C’est pour nous! Il a parlé, il a chanté
Le Verbe était en Dieu!
Il a parlé, ila chanté
Et le Verbe était en Dieu!
Louange du Père,
Substance du Père,
Empreinte et rejaillissement toujours,
Dans l’Amour, Verbe d’Amour!
Par lui le Père dit: c’est moi,
Le Verbe est dans mon sein!
Le Verbe est la louange,
Modèle en bleu pour anges,
Trompette bleue qui prolonge le jour,
Par Amour,
Chant de L’Amour!
Il était riche et bienheureux,
Il a donné son ciel!
Il était riche et bienheureux,
Pour completer son ciel!
Le Fils, c’est la presence,
L’Espirit, c’est la présence!
Les adoptés dans la grâce toujours,
Pour l’Amour!
Enfants d’Amour!
Il est vivant, il est présent,
Et Lui se dit en Lui!
Il est vivant, il est présent,
Et Lui se voit en Lui!
Présent au sang de l’âme,
Étoile aspirant l’âme,
Présent partout, miroir ailé des jours,
Par Amour,
Le Dieu d’Amour!
(Il est parti le Bien-Aimé,
C’est pour nous!...)
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
It is for us!
The Beloved has prayed,
It is for us! He has spoken, he has
sung,
The Word was in God!
He has spoken, he has sung,
And the Word was God!
Praise of the Father,
Substance of the Father,
Imprint and reflection always,
In Love, Word of Love!
Through the Word, the Father said:
it is I,
The Word is in my breast!
The Word is praise,
A model in blue for angels,
A blue trumpet that prolongs the day,
Through Love,
Song of Love!
He was rich and happy,
He gave his heaven!
He was rich and happy,
To complete his heaven!
The Son is the presence,
The Spirit is the presence!
Those who have received grace always,
For Love,
Children of Love!
He lives, He is present,
And He speaks to Himself in Himself!
He lives, He is present,
And He sees Himself in Himself!
Present in the blood of the soul,
Soul-breathing star,
Everywhere present, winged mirror of
days,
Through Love,
The God of Love!
(The Beloved has gone,
It is for us!...)
III Psalmodie de l’ubiquité par
amour
III Psalmodie de l’ubiquité par
amour
Tout en entire en tous lieux,
Tout entire en chaque lieu,
Donnant l’être à chaque lieu,
A tout ce qui occupe un lieu,
Le successif vous est simultané,
Dans ces espaces et ces temps que
vous avez créés,
Satellites de votre Douceur.
Posez-vous comme un sceau sur
mon cœr.
Temps de l’homme et de la planète,
Temps de l’homme et de l’insecte,
Whole in all places,
Whole in each place,
Bestowing being upon each place,
On all that occupies a place,
The successive you is omnipresent,
In these spaces and times that you
created,
These satellites of your Gentleness.
Place yourself, like a seal, on my
heart.
Time of man and of the planet,
Time of the mountain and of the insect,
Garland of laughter for the blackbird
and lark,
Wedge of moon to the fuchsia,
Balsam and begonia;
From the depths a ripple rises,
The mountain leaps like a ewe
Bouquet de rire pour le merle et
l’alouette,
Éventail de lune au fuchsia,
A la balsamine, au bégonia;
De la profondeur une ride surgit,
La montagne saute comme une brebis
Et deviant un grand océan.
Présent, vous êtes présent,
Imprimez votre nom dans mon sang.
Dans le mouvement d’Arcturus,
present,
Dans l’arc-en-ciel d’une aile après
l’autre,
(Écharpe aveugle autour de Saturne),
Dans la race catchée de mes cellules,
présent,
Dans le sang qui répare ses rives,
Dans vos Saints par la grâce,
présent
(Interprétations de votre Verbe,
Pierres précieuses au mur de la
Fraîcheur.)
Posez-vous comme un sceau sur
mon cœur.
Un cœur pur est votre repos,
And becomes a great ocean,
Present, you to be present.
Imprint your name in my blood.
Present in the movement of Arcturus
In the rainbow, with one wing after the
other,
(Blind sash around Saturn),
Present in the hidden race of my
cells,
In the blood that repairs its banks,
Present , through Grace, in your
Saints.
(Interpretations of your Word,
Precious stones in the in the wall of
Freshness)
Place yourself, like a seal, on my
heart.
A pure heart is your repose,
Page 5
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Lis en arc-en-ciel du troupeau,
Vous vous cachez sous votre Hostie,
Frère silencieux dans la Fleur-Eucharistie,
Pour que je demeure en vous comme
une aile dans le soleil,
Vers la résurrection du dernier jour.
Il est plus fort que la mort, votre
Amour.
Mettez votre caresse tout autour.
Violet-jaune, vision,
Voile-blanc, subtilité,
Orangé-bleu, force et joie,
Flèche-azur, agilité,
Donnez-moi le rouge le vert de votre
amour,
Feuille-flamme-or, clarté,
Plus de langage, plus de mots,
Plus de Prophètes ni de science
(C’est l’Amen de l’espérance,
Silence mélodieux de l’Éternité.)
Mais la robe lavée dans le sang de
l’Agneau,
Mais le Pierre de neige avec un nom
nouveau,
Les éventails, la cloche et l’ordre des
clartés,
Et l’échelle en arcs-en-ciel de la
Vérité.
Mais la porte qui parle et le soleil qui
s’ouvre,
L’auréole tête e rechange qui délivre,
Et l’encre d’or ineffaceable sur le
livre;
Mais le face-à-face et l’Amour.
Vous y parlez en nous,
Vous qui vous taisez en nous,
Et gardez le silence dans votre
Amour,
Vous êtes près,
Vous êtes loin,
Page 6
Rainbow-coloured lily of the flock,
You hide beneath your Host,
Silent brother in the Eucharist of flowers,
So I may dwell within you like a wing
within the sun,
Awaiting the resurrection of the final
day.
Your Love is stronger than death.
Enfold us all within your embrace.
Violet-yellow, vision,
White-out, subtlety,
Orange-blue, strength and joy,
Azure spire, agility,
Give me the red and green of your
love,
Leaf-flame-gold, clarity,
No more language, no more words,
No Prophets or science,
(It is hope’s Amen,
The melodious silence of Eternity),
But the raiment washed in the blood
of the Lamb,
But the stone of snow with another
name,
The fans, the clock and the order of
light,
And the rainbow ladder of Truth,
But the gate that speaks and the sun
that opens,
The halo a change of head that redeems us,
And the indelible gold ink on the
book;
But to see you face-to-face, and
Love,
You speak in us,
You who keep silent in us,
And maintain your silence in your
Love.
You are close,
You are distant,
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Vous êtes la lumière et les ténèbres,
Vous êtes si compliqué et si simple,
Vous êtes infiniment simple,
L’arc-en-ciel de l’Amour, c’est vous,
L’unique oiseau de l’Éternité, c’est
vous!
Elles s’alignent lentement, les cloches de la profondeur.
Posez-vous comme un sceau sur
mon cœur.
(Tout entier en tous lieux,
Tout entire en chaque lieu…)
Vous qui parlez en nous,
Vous qui vous taisez en nous,
Et gardez le silence dans votre
Amour,
Enfoncez votre image dans la durée
de mes jours.
You are the light and the darkness,
You are so complex and so simple,
You are infinitely simple,
The rainbow of Love, that is you,
The only bird of Eternity, that is you!
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Slowly they fall into line, the bells of
profundity.
Place yourself, like a seal, on my
heart.
(Whole in all places,
Whole in each place…)
You who speak in us,
You who say nothing in us
And maintain your silence in your
Love,
Implant your image throughout the
length of my days
Page 7
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Diego Masson
The French conductor Diego Masson
studied at the Paris Conservatoire
and on completing his studies became percussionist in Domaine Musicale. In 1966, following a period of
study with Pierre Boulez, he formed
Musique Vivante which he still directs
in regular concerts presenting important contemporary works.
After considerable success as Music
Director of the Marseille Opera in the
1970s Diego Masson went on to pursue an international conducting career which has taken him to the major
musical centres of Europe, Scandinavia and the Antipodes.
A regular visitor to the UK, Masson
has appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic
Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Hallé
Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English Northern Philharmonic,
Nash Ensemble, Opera Factory and
Opera North with whom he gave the
première of Robert Saxton’s opera
Caritas. He enjoyed a great success
with Scottish Opera conducting Monster, the first opera by Sally Beamish.
He has appeared with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the South Bank Centre and Huddersfield Festival.
Diego Masson’s engagements in Europe have included appearances with
the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre
de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Stavanger Symphony
Orchestra, Avanti Chamber OrchesPage 8
tra in Helsinki, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Helsinki
Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie
Orchestra and the BIT20 Ensemble
Norway. In 2006 he worked with the
Barcelona Ensemble 216 who immediately invited him to return for concerts in 2007.
He works regularly with contemporary
ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Musik Fabrik, Ensemble Alternance, London Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, Composers Ensemble and
Birmingham Contemporary Music
Group. Recent seasons have included a concert at the Musik-Biennale in
Berlin with Ensemble Modern, concert performances of Mark Anthony
Turnage’s Greek at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and a tour of the
UK with the London Sinfonietta. He
has toured the UK with Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group including
a performance at the Aldeburgh Festival. Concerts with the Nash Ensemble have included a tour of Spain, a
concert as part of the Poulenc Anniversary celebrations at London’s Wigmore Hall as well as performances of
Berio’s Folksongs with Dawn Upshaw
at the Barbican Centre and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.
Other recent highlights have included
appearances at the Wien Modern
Festival, WDR Cologne, Luzerner
Sinfonieorchester, a performance of
Schoenberg Gurrelieder at the Festival Hall and concerts in Scandinavia
with the Birmingham Contemporary
Music Group. He has toured Japan
with the Xenakis Ensemble and has
also given concerts in Gothenberg,
Argentina and at the BBC Proms with
the London Sinfonietta.
Diego Masson works regularly in Asia
and Australasia; and has conducted
the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. In 1998 he made
an acclaimed appearance at the New
Zealand Festival and returned to New
Zealand in 1999 to conduct a very
successful series of concerts with the
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
He returned to Australia at the beginning of 2003 to conduct Gurrelieder at
the Perth International Arts Festival.
Most recently he had a great success
conducting the Australian Youth Orchestra at the 2006 Adelaide Festival
in performances of Mahler’s Das Lied
von der Erde.
In May 2008 he conducted the UK
premiere of Prometeo, the climax of
the Southbank Centre’s Luigi Nono
‘Fragments of Venice’ Festival.
Diego Masson has many strong relationships with youth orchestras including the Australian Youth Orchestra, the orchestras of Trinity College
of Music, Royal Northern College of
Music, Juilliard School and the Royal
Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Diego Masson has for many years
held regular conducting classes at
the Dartington International Summer
School.
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Joanna MacGregor
Joanna MacGregor is thought of as
one of the world’s most wide-ranging
and innovative musicians and has
pursued a life connecting many genres of music defying categorizations.
She has performed in over sixty countries often appearing as a solo artist
with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, London and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, Netherlands Radio
and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras
and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
She has premiered many landmark
compositions ranging from Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Django Bates to
John Adams and James MacMillan.
Joanna MacGregor made her conducting debut in 2002 and regularly
directs her own orchestral projects;
she has had a very close artistic partnership as conductor and performer
with the Britten Sinfonia for the past
ten years. The most recent was the
Moondog/Art of Fugue tour, involving her radical re-working of Bach’s
late great work (for orchestra and
jazz musicians) alongside the music
of Moondog, the famous 1950’s New
York street musician who excelled in
counterpoint and swing beats.
Her collaborations are numerous: she
has toured South Africa with jazz artist
Moses Molelekwa, recorded with pop
artist and tabla player Talvin Singh
and toured China with Jin Xing’s Contemporary Dance Theatre of Shanghai (for which she wrote a new score
combining Chinese traditional music
with computer technology and film).
This year she is collaborating with
the Tunisian singer and oud player
Dhafer Youssef.
As a recording artist Joanna MacGregor has made 30 solo recordings ranging from Bach, Scarlatti, Ravel and
Debussy, to jazz and contemporary
music. Her own record label SoundCircus was founded in 1998 and has
released many highly successful recordings, including the Mercury prizenominated Play and Neural Circuits,
with music by Nitin Sawhney. Current
releases include Deep River, music
inspired by the Deep South, with saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and Bach’s
Goldberg Variations, recorded at the
Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Joanna MacGregor has received
honorary Fellowships from the Royal
Academy of Music, Trinity College of
Music and New Hall, Cambridge, and
an Honorary Doctorate from the Open
University. From 1997-2000 she was
Professor of Music at Gresham College, London where she gave a series of public lectures. Her interest in
education is reflected in her music
books for young children, PianoWorld,
hailed as ‘a new series for the Millenium’. She was the subject of a South
Bank Show profile, and is a Professor
at Liverpool Hope University.
In 2006 Joanna MacGregor became
Artistic Director of Bath International
Music Festival.
Page 9
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Dhafer Youssef
Growing up in a small seaside town in
Tunisia in the 1970s, Dhafer initiated
his own musical life; making his own
oud - the traditional middle-Eastern
lute - using whatever he could find.
The young Dhafer also fulfilled traditional expectations, and sang, having
learnt in the traditional Koran school.
At the same time he was listening to
music on the radio - the only source
of entertainment in this small town –
whether that was jazz, classical or
rock.
Vienna lured him with the promise of
the opportunity to study music. Here
he became hungry for live music;
listening to everything he could find,
hanging out at jazz clubs, going to
classical concerts. His reputation as
an exciting new creative force grew
and one day the call from the Porgy
and Bess jazz club came, for one
night month he had carte blanche to
programme a night of collaborations
with whoever he wished. Those first,
influential collaborators included Iva
Bittova, Peter Herbert, Renaud Garcia Fons and Christian Muthspiel.
Out of the success of these artistic
meetings, Dhafer’s first album Malak,
emerged.
His curiosity about the European and
American scene unabated he continued to seek new partners, eventually
travelling to New York to record Electric Sufi with a group which included
Dieter Ilg and Markus Stockhausen.
The world was beginning to take notice of Dhafer’s captivating high vocals and intensity of playing and he
Page 10
considered settling in New York but
September 11th dissuaded him and
he returned to Paris.
He began to have more and more
contact with Norway and the exploding nu-jazz scene there. He was invited to perform with Nils Petter Molvær
and the meeting of two adventurous
musical minds brought about Dhafer’s
third album, Digital Prophecy. Here,
Dhafer’s profoundly spiritual singing
and playing become embedded in
the Scandinavian, existentialist world
of Norwegian music, embodied in
the playing of Eivind Aarset on guitar, drummer Rune Arnesen, Bugge
Wesseltoft on keyboards and Dieter
Ilg on bass, along with the sampling
of Jan Bang.
Following a BBC Radio 3 commission
for a UK tour in 2004, Dhafer created
music for a line up of his regular quartet plus special guest Arve Henriksen. Developing the music followng
the sell-out tour, Dhafer introduced
strings into the mix and created his
best-selling album to date, Divine
Shadows.
Major international tours of Canada,
Australia, USA and Asia have continued to widen his circle of followers. This year, as well as writing a
full orchestral score for TonkünstlerOrchester, and Les Ondes Orientales
for Bath International Music Festival
he will be artist in residence at the
Royal Opera House festival, Voices
Around the World in July and appears
with Britten Sinfonia and Joanna MacGregor at the London Jazz Festival in
November.
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Cynthia Millar
Cynthia Millar studied the Ondes Martenot first with John Morton in England
and later with Jeanne Loriod, who with
her brother in law, Olivier Messiaen,
has done so much to bring the instrument to a wider public. Since Cynthia
Millar first performed the TurangalilaSymphonie at the BBC Promenade
Concerts in London with Mark Elder
and the National Youth Orchestra of
Great Britain, she has performed all
over the world with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, André Previn, Esa Pekka Salonen,
Leonard Slatkin, Yan Pascal Tortelier,
David Roberston, Kent Nagano, Franz
Welser-Möst, Mark Wigglesworth,
Mattias Bammert, Donald Runnicles
and Ilan Volkov. Other performances
have included appearances at the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the
Edinburgh Festival as well as regular
appearances at the BBC Promenade
Concerts, and with orchestra including
the San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, the
Sydney and New Zealand Symphony
Orchestras, the London Symphony
Orchestra, London Philharmonic,
BBC Scottish, BBC Phlharmonic and
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
and the Orchestre National de Lyon.
Cynthia has been featured on more
than one hundred film and television
scores, for composers including Elmer
Bernstein, Richard Rodney Bennett,
Maurice Jarre, Henry Mancini and
Miklos Rozsa. She gave the world
premiere of Elmer Benstein’s Ondine
at the Cinema in a special concert to
celebrate the composers’ 80th birthday with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, London. She has also written a number
of film scores herself, including Arthur
Penn’s ‘The Portrait’ starring Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall; Martha
Coolidge’s ‘Three Wishes’ and Peter
Yates’s ‘The Run of the Country’, ‘A
Storm in Summer’ directed by Robert
Wise, and ‘Confessions of an Ugly
Step Sister’ directed by Gavin Millar
and staring Jonathan Pryce. For television she composed the music for
a major documentary series ‘Stephen
Hawking’s Universe’ for BBC/WNET.
The current season includes Turangalila with the Sydney and Saint Louis
Symphony Orchestras, Philharmonia,
CBSO, and Netherlands Philharmonic, and a European tour with the Concertegbouw Orchestra.
Britten Sinfonia
One of the UK’s most celebrated and
innovative groups, Britten Sinfonia
features some of the country’s finest
chamber musicians. The orchestra
is widely praised for the quality of its
performance and intelligent approach
to concert programming which is centred around the development of its
players. Uniquely it does not have a
principal conductor or Artistic Director
but chooses to work with a range of
the finest international guest artists
from across the musical spectrum as
suited to each particular project.
Recent seasons have included
projects with Thomas Adès, Angela
Hewitt, Imogen Cooper, Nitin Sawhney, James MacMillan, Ian Bostridge
and Joanna MacGregor. In 2007/08
guest artists include Pierre LaurentAimard, Masaaki Suzuki, Alina Ibragimova, Gil Goldstein and the Michael
Clark Dance company.
Britten Sinfonia performs in many of
Europe’s finest concert halls and has
residencies in Cambridge, Norwich,
Birmingham and Krakow with a concert series at London’s Southbank
Centre. The ensemble enjoys a blossoming international profile, a recent
highlight being an acclaimed tour
of South America, and is frequently
heard on disc, BBC Radio 3 and
commercial radio. Earlier this year
Britten Sinfonia won the prestigious
Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award in recognition for its work
in 2006.
Page 11
7.30pm
Wednesday 28 May
Bath Abbey
Messiaen Centenary Celebration
Ladies Bath Camerata and Girls
from Wells Cathedral School
Chamber Choir
Bath Camerata was formed in 1986
by former King’s Singer Nigel Perrin and achieved immediate success
by reaching the Finals of the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year Competition.
Under Nigel’s continuing direction,
Bath Camerata has become the foremost chamber choir in the south-west
of England and has continued to
achieve great success and critical acclaim both at home and abroad.
The choir has won prizes in France,
Italy and Ireland and, in 2002, won
the Sainsbury’s/BBC TV Adult Choir
of the Year at the Royal Albert Hall, in
London. A concert tour in northern Italy the same year included a memorable concert to a capacity audience in
the Basilica San Francesco in Assisi;
this was followed the next year with
two concerts in the Normandy Pollifollia Festival. In the summer of 2003
the choir were invited to perform with
Messrs. Pavarotti, Domingo & Carerras in the Royal Crescent, Bath.
the other the music of Antonin Tucapsky on Somm.
Joining the ladies of Bath Camerata, are girls from Wells Cathedral
School’s Chamber Choir which
Nigel Perrin also conducts. Wells
Cathedral School – Music School is
one of four in the UK designated and
grant-aided by the DCFS Music and
Dance Scheme to provide special
education for gifted young musicians,
who are given substantial financial assistance. These talents are widely acknowledged by audiences at concerts
given by pupils from Wells throughout
the world. There are also regular concerts by the many ensembles in the
School.
Bath Camerata have appeared in
the Bath International Music Festival
every year for the last sixteen years,
performing repertoire ranging from
mediaeval to contemporary.
The
choir has sung with The Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonietta
in works by Handel, Mozart, Britten
and MacMillan. Bath Camerata’s discography ranges from two specialist
CDs; one featuring the music of Robert Pearsall on the Meridian label and
Orchestra List, Bitten Sinfonia
Violins
Jacqeline Shave (Leader)
Clara Biss
Marcus Broome
Thomas Gould
Tom Hankey
Magnus Johnston
Suzanne Loze
Eluned Pritchard
Viola
Joel Hunter
Bridget Carey
Rachel Byrt
Cello
Ben Chappell
Joy Hawley
Rosie Banks
Double Bass
Lynda Houghton
David Johnson
Percussion
Jeremy Cornes
Helen Yates
Owen Gunnell
Tim Gunnell
Celeste
Clare Isdell
With the generous support of :
Page 12
Evelyn Strasburger
Recorded for future broadcast on
BBC Radio 3 at 19.00 on 30 May