Artwork: N.Plaha, A.Singh
"Of Dragonflies and Moonbeams"
Alison Wells with Firebird
Schoenberg's masterpiece of the surreal "Pierrot Lunaire" is coupled with a new and innovative arrangement for the same ensemble of his earlier song cycle "Das Buch der hangenden Garten" to make this truly a feast of the unusual.
Cat. Number: |
020011007 |
Year of issue: |
2007 |
Duration: |
60:57 |
No. of tracks: |
36 |
Recording date: |
16th & 17th of July 2007 |
Recorded at: |
West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge |
Overview
Martyn Parry, my colleague and great friend performed “Das buch der hangenden Gartens” on numerous occasions with his wife, Alison Wells. Tragically Martyn died young and Alison, named by the students at The University of Hertfordshire, “drama queen” for her expert and committed performances of music theatre works, was temporarily left without a performing partnership. After a very enjoyable lunch one summer Sunday, I sat down with Alison to discuss what programme we could put together for her to undertake the recording we had planned of “Das buch” before Martyn’s death. We talked of this and that and something else but nothing seemed coherent, when suddenly the penny dropped simultaneously with both of us that we did “Das buch” and that I should score it for the same ensemble as “Pierrot” and hey presto, we had a disc!
The scoring of it for me was a labour of love but not without its problems, one of which is how you set about scoring a work written for piano with a piano in the ensemble. Why not leave it totally alone? Indeed I asked myself that question many times during the process! But singlemindedly I persevered and was very content with the result when I had finished.
“Pierrot” and “Das buch” are two very different works, one surreal and impressionistic the other truly romantic yet together they form an enlightening and inspiring duo.
Howard Burrell
VIEW SESSION PHOTOS
Press quote
"Wells takes on the 'sprechstimme' writing of the vocal part with no mean assurance, the members of Firebird rendering their various contributions with no little imagination"
International Record Review, January 2010