“Brett Dean was the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence from 2020–2023; this release brings together seven works recorded live in concert during his tenure.“
Brett Dean
Amphitheatre
Viola Concerto
In spe contra spem
Cello Concerto
Three Memorials
Notturno Inquieto
The Players
Edward Gardner conductor
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Karina Canellakis conductor
Hannu Lintu conductor
Enrique Mazzola conductor
Alban Gerhardt cello
Lawrence Power viola
Emma Bell soprano
Elsa Dreisig soprano
Bartosz Glowacki accordion
This generous, 150-minute, collection gathers distinctive and compelling scores by Brett Dean (born 1961) in consistently excellent performances, captured in high-fidelity, tangible sound.
Amphitheatre is a sonic spectacular that also takes the listener to the darkest recesses of the mind, hallucinatory sounds, a soundtrack to schizophrenia, maybe. The Viola Concerto (Dean’s own instrument, and with it a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1985-99, appointed during Karajan’s time) is essentially lyrical if with obsessive underpinnings, dramatic exchanges, constantly changing orchestration, with absorbing passages of frenzy and anguish. In spe contra spem (‘In hope against hope’) is a marvellous tour de force for the two sopranos (playing between them Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart), white-hot, theatrical (a draft for a potential opera), addictive music given a thrilling (first) outing. Also opera-related, from Dean’s triumphant take on Hamlet, is The Players, with a starring role for an accordion, an arresting synthesis created.
The Cello Concerto – active, emotional, rhapsodic, tantalising – in five continuous movements again proves Dean’s prowess for engaging ideas and imaginative orchestration, here releasing the deep communication and soul of the solo instrument, Alban Gerhardt exceptional, a vivid narrative created, cacophonously climaxed. ‘Dispersal’, the first of Three Memorials, is a mighty ride of sound and detail that subsides to what might be termed an in memoriam response, itself carried into ‘Ceremonial’, eruptions therein accumulating into ‘Komarov’s Fall’ with rapidity and intensity. As a contrast, Notturno Inquieto, even without the title, is about the night – fragmentary, elusive, portraying the heightened awareness (nightmarish) that the dark can bring; Bartók’s fireflies too.
LPO-0130 (2 CDs) is recommended unreservedly and enthusiastically.
https://lpo.org.uk/people/brett-dean
https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Brett-Dean-In-spe-contra-spem/104444
https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Brett-Dean-The-Players/103956