Insomnia
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Label: Warner
Cat No: 2564608223
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 31st July 2015
Contents
Works
Nocturne, op.60I've been high (Michael Mills, John Stipe)
Pieces de clavecin II
Sleep (arr. Iain Farrington)
Blackbird
Poeme symphonique, for 100 metronomes
Artists
Allan Clayton (tenor)Aurora Orchestra
Conductor
Nicholas CollonWorks
Nocturne, op.60I've been high (Michael Mills, John Stipe)
Pieces de clavecin II
Sleep (arr. Iain Farrington)
Blackbird
Poeme symphonique, for 100 metronomes
Artists
Allan Clayton (tenor)Aurora Orchestra
Conductor
Nicholas CollonAbout
'Insomnia' is the second Warner Classics album from the innovative, imaginative Aurora Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon.
In a typically colourfully themed programme it explores the night, its thoughts and dreams and the hazy space between waking and sleeping. Britten’s Nocturne – with tenor Allan Clayton – and Brett Dean’s Pastoral Symphony are juxtaposed with music by Couperin, Ligeti, Gurney, The Beatles and REM.
The Aurora Orchestra, founded in London in 2005, enjoys a reputation for innovation and imagination as well as virtuosity. Under its Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon it introduced the Insomnia concept at concerts in the UK in 2013. As Collon has said: “A big feature of Aurora’s programming over the past few years has been playing around with a consciously eclectic vein of repertoire that can cover all periods, styles and genres ... We like the idea of an album having some kind of narrative and flavour, which is quite unusual for an orchestral CD. It allows for some interesting and unexpected repertoire to appear together, and to be presented in an unusual way.”
At the heart of 'Insomnia' are two major works: Benjamin Britten’s Nocturne for tenor (here Allan Clayton, described by The Telegraph as a “rising star”) and chamber orchestra, which, composed in 1958, sets poetry by such figures as Shakespeare, Shelley and Tennyson; and the Pastoral Symphony by the contemporary Australian composer Brett Dean, which was premiered in Paris in 2001. Dean has described his piece as being “about glorious birdsong, the threat that it faces, the loss, and the soulless noise that we're left with when the birds are all gone”.
In typically enterprising fashion, the Aurora Orchestra has complemented these two central works with music from the 18th century – François Couperin’s keyboard piece Les baricades mistérieuses in a new arrangement by Thomas Adès – and from the 20th century – Ivor Gurney’s song Sleep and György Ligeti’s Poème symphonique (written for 100 ticking metronomes!). Joining them are versions of two pop songs: The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ and REM’s ‘I’ve Been High’.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Gurney/Farrington - Sleep
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2Couperin/Ades - Les Baricades misterieuses
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3Britten - Nocturne: I. On a poet's lips I slept
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4Britten - Nocturne: II. Below the thunders of the upper deep
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5Britten - Nocturne: III. Encitured with a twine of leaves
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6Britten - Nocturne: IV. Midnight's bell goes ting, ting, ting
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7Britten - Nocturne: V. But that night when my bed I lay
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8Britten - Nocturne: VI. She sleep on soft, last breaths
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9Britten - Nocturne: VII. What is more gentle than a wind in summer?
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10Britten - Nocturne: VIII. When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
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11Lennon/McCartney - Blackbird
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12Dean - Pastoral Symphony
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13Ligeti - Poeme symphonique for 100 metronomes
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14Buck/Mills/Stipe/Tognetti - I've been high
Europadisc Review
Benjamin Britten's Nocturne (1958) sets a marvellously varied collection of texts reflecting on sleep and darkness. Here it is given an exquisitely sensitive performance by tenor Allan Clayton, whose beauty of tone is matched by his sensitivity to and projection of the text. It also offers the Aurora Orchestra's wind, harp and timpani soloists a chance to shine, and they each display a keen musical interaction with Clayton's honey-toned singing, while the framing string figuration creates a gently rocking cradle of sound. It's almost worth the price of the disc for this alone, but happily there's much more to enjoy besides.
Brett Dean's Pastoral Symphony (2000) is a powerful meditation on nature, beauty and loss. Scored for nine strings, wind, a wide selection of percussion and electronically sampled sounds, it takes as its point of departure the rich tapestry of birdsong from the composer's native Australia. After an idyllically evocative opening, the music becomes more animated as a chorus of startled bird-sounds presages a frenzy of aggressive deforestation (complete with felled tree). As a door crashes shut on the music, all that is left is a devastated emptiness: a potent cry against the folly of humankind's appetite for destroying nature.
Alongside these two larger works is splendidly a diverse cross-genre array of smaller pieces, all of which explore some facet of the nocturnal and natural themes. Ivor Gurney's Sleep (1914), from his Five Elizabethan Songs, is a dreamily melancholic lullaby. It is followed by Thomas Adès's mesmerisingly effective arrangement for clarinets and strings of François Couperin's enigmatic harpsichord piece Les Baricades Mistérieuses.
In Paul McCartney's Blackbird from the Beatles' White Album, Clayton hits just the right style, relaxed but not too laid-back, and turns in an impressive spot of whistling too, while Iain Farrington's delicate chamber arrangement is complemented by a nicely integrated blackbird courtesy of wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson.
The metronome backing for Blackbird is multiplied a hundredfold in the tick-tocks of Ligeti's Poème symphonique (1962). In it, ten musicians are each responsible for setting in motion ten metronomes, every one set at a different rate. The work caused controversy on its first performance, but it's an engaging example the fluxus genre which finishes only when the last metronome has wound down. You'll never hear the tick of your bedside clock in quite the same way after hearing this!
I've been high, a ballad by alternative rock band R.E.M., rounds off the disc. The arrangement for voice, strings and bass drum by Richard Tognetti highlights the music's feelings of melancholy and repose, steering the disc to a restful conclusion.
Attractively presented by Warner Classics, Insomnia is so imaginative that you're highly unlikely to fall asleep, or at least not before you've heard some beautifully thought-provoking music.
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