New music lunch box

Do we all agree that contemporary music needs a new audience?

And do we also agree that reaching that audience takes imaginative commissioning, innovative programming, a very wide reach, and some damn hard work from the musicians?

Well, I’ve just returned from the first in the new season of Britten Sinfonia at Lunch concerts in Norwich, and I challenge anyone to show me an ensemble that are doing more to reach new audiences with contemporary music. First let’s take the concerts. The 2005/6 Britten Sinfonia at Lunch project comprises five separate concert series. Now listen to this. Each concert series consists of four lunchtime concerts played over five or six days, and not only are all the four concerts in different venues, but three are here in East Anglia, and one is in the Philharmonic Hall in Kraków, Poland, which is 750 miles away. But stay with me, it gets even better. Everyone of the five concert series features a world premiere by a contemporary composer, and to complete the virtuous circle all the concerts are being broadcast from Cambridge in BBC Radio 3’s lunchtime concert slot.

The players each deserve a medal for their sheer commitment. The East Anglian concert venues are Aldeburgh, Norwich, and Cambridge, and the Polish concerts are made possible by the budget airline flights between Standsted Airport, near Cambridge, and Kraków. In December this concert series involves an ensemble of oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn (not to mention pianist), playing in Aldeburgh at 1.00pm on a Saturday, and Kraków at 12.00pm on a Sunday. I think someone planned that schedule before the current security restrictions on cabin baggage! You can catch up with the travel tales of the Sinfonia’s peripatetic oboeist via Nicholas Daniel’s own blog.

The Britten Sinfonia is a flexible ensemble and the At Lunch concerts use chamber sized groups. There are some real gems in the series, including first performances from female composer Tansy Davies (right), John Tavener, and Tarik O’Reagan, and rarely performed 20th century masterpieces including two of Peter Maxwell Davies’ arrangements of Bach’s Prelude and Fugues (a commercial recording PLEASE of those), Berio’s Folk Songs, and de Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto. This is imaginative and innovative programming with no Puccini Chrysanthemums or Copland Shakers to blunt the challenge.

Today’s concert was played by the trio of the Russian Alina Ibragimova (violin), Joy Farrall (clarinet) and Huw Watkins (piano), and contained two astringent 20th century masterworks in the form of the reduced concert suite from the Soldier’s Tale Suite Stravinsky’s and Bartók’s immensely challenging Contrasts, which was written for Benny Goodman. Balancing these were two contemporary works including. Michael Zev Gordon’s Fragments from a Diary. dates from 2005 (photo below), and here is a description in the composer’s own words.

’My music tends to pull between two very different characters: the passionate and the contemplative. The former is often expressed through kinds of lyricism, the latter through subtly altered repeating patternings, quite often broken into fragments. Sometimes these occur in the same work, and the music’s course has to do with moving away from “heat” into serenity. In others, the temperament is more a kind of steady state. Stylistically, my music often bridges quite different musical types too, frequently at the border between tonality and atonality. Recently, this has crystallised into a number of works rooted in a wide range of other music, including Dowland, Couperin, Chopin and Tom Jobim. Quite different to transcription, my pieces dip in and out of these past works - structurally exploring ideas of merging, layering and juxtaposing materials

At the time of writing I considered the seven short of Movements of Fragments from a Diary almost as private jottings to myself, hence the title. Most are brief and fleeting. The tone is often one of fragility. They each ‘look’, in the main at one musical object. Still I was interested in exploring how much can be ‘said’ in such short, immediate utterances. Kurtág was a contemporary point of departure; so too was the 19th century ‘confessional’ piano miniature. The title of one comes from a poem by Primo Levi, the titles of three others are words by Rilke.

Today’s first performance was Huw Watkins’ Dream. The 30 year old composer, who was also pianist, studied at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, and King’s College, Cambridge, and his teachers included Robin Holloway, Alexander Goehr, Peter Pettinger (biographer of Bill Evans) and Julian Anderson. Here is Dreams in the composer's own words - 'I wanted to use the same instruments as Bartók’s Contrasts, but to create something atmospheric rather than showy, exploring just one mood. Dreams evokes the feelings and moods associated with night and sleep .. It begins with gentle, hypnotic music played slowly and quietly on all three instruments. As the piece progresses there are faster, more troubled outbursts, but eventually the mood returns to that of the opening.'

All too often today, appealing menus of new music turn out to be measly meals relying heavily on technical gimmickry, self-serving cliques, bitchiness and cynicism. By contrast the Britten Sinfonia at Lunch project is a nourishing meal whose courses include imaginative commissioning, innovative and open-minded programming, a truly international perspective, and some damn hard work from the musicians.. But don’t take my word for it. Here are the words of clarinettist Joy Farrall as she introduced the Huw Watkins premiere at lunchtime - ”It is great to see such a large audience for this concert, and it is also really nice to see so many young people here today.

Other contemporary music groups and promoters please take note.

For more new music advocacy take An Overgrown Path to Hildegard comes to Norwich via IRCAM and Darmstadt
With acknowledgements to the Britten Sinfonia for use of programme notes. Bento box image credit Internetkookboek . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Medieval mystics with musical connections

Today we literally follow an overgrown path down a narrow alley in search of a remarkable woman. She was the author of, what is believed to be, the first book written by a woman in the English language, and a thinker who is now venerated alongside such great medieval mystics as Hildegard of Bingen and Hadewijch of Antwerp.

After years of blight following severe war damage the area around St Julian's Alley in Norwich is once again a vibrant area. The surviving medieval houses are beautifully restored, new town houses and apartments are filling the vacant lots, entry-phones and security alarms are de rigeur, and the pavements are lined with BMWs and Range Rovers.

Things were very different in the 14th century. St Julian's Alley was within the medieval city walls, and the prosperous port with its thriving wool trade with Europe was a short distance away. The prosperity which made Norwich England's second city after London was celebrated in a profusion of churches, no less than 22 monasteries and convents, and the construction of the magnificent Norman Cathedral.

One of the many churches, St Julian's, was in a narrow alley leading from one of the main thoroughfares, and was one of 37 churches in the city with an attached anchorage; this was a small cell built against the wall of the church in which an anchorite or anchoress followed his or her vow of living a solitary existence. The anchorage at St Julian's was occupied by a woman, and, as was the tradition, the anchoress took the name of the church, which explains why many people today still think Julian was a man. My photo below shows the rebuilt anchorage on the east wall in the peaceful churchyard surrounded by the bustle of the city centre.


Julian of Norwich had a mystical revelation in May 1373 when she was critically ill. Following her recovery she wrote The Revelations of Divine Love over a 20 year period living as an anchoress. Julian was a contemporary of Chaucer and wrote in Middle English which means all today's editions are 'translations'. A pioneering edition published in 1901 brought her writings to popular attention, and their importance was confirmed by a Penguin edition in 1966. The Revelation of Divine Love is now regarded as a spiritual classic throughout the world, and has never been out of print over a 106 year period.


Julian's cell was destroyed during the Reformation, and the church was severely damaged by a direct hit by a bomb in 1942. After the war the church was rebuilt, and the cell was reconstructed on foundations discovered during earlier excavations, and my photo above is of the shrine in the cell. The restoration of the church, which is still accessed by the original narrow alley, was inspired by the sisters of the Community of All Hallows, Ditchingham. Today Julian's cell, the main church, and the nearby Julian Centre draw pilgrims from all around the world, and there is a flourishing contemplative Order of Julian of Norwich in Southern Wisconsin.

Now playing - Roger Mayor's choral work Julian - Mystical revelations. Hildegard of Bingen is the medieval mystic with the musical reputation, but Roger Mayor's 2002 composition is a very worthwhile addition to the catalogue with its settings of Julian of Norwich's writings. There is an excellent commercial recording made in Norwich Cathedral with the fine Keswick Hall Choir and soloists conducted by John Aplin. Norfolk based Roger Mayor (above) studied under Dr Paul Steinitz, and is best known for his sacred compositions. The hour long Julian - Mystical revelations is more Rutter than MacMillan, but the tuneful score does an excellent job in bringing Julian's writings to a new audience. The CD is available from Prelude Records.

* Revelations of Divine Love can be read online via this link.
* Follow this link for the Penguin edition of Revelations of Divine Love.
* In Search of Julian of Norwich by Sheila Upjohn (Dartman, Longman & Todd ISBN 0232518408) provides an excellent introduction.
* Julian of Norwich shrine website via this link.
* Fiona Maddock's Hildegard of Bingen - the Woman of Her Age is highly recommended. (Image ISBN 0385498683). This is the book that inspired contemporary composer James Wood's exciting, and avant garde, choral work that I wrote about in Hildegard comes to Norwich via IRCAM and Darmstadt.
* Canticles of Ecstacy is a wonderful CD of Marian antiphons, sequences and responsories sung by Sequentia. The Hildegard industry was started by Hyperion's A feather on the breath of god, read Paying the piper for an interesting slant on that best-selling recording.

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If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to The music of Taizé