M BERKELEY Collaborations

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Owain Park

Genre:

Vocal

Label: Orchid Classics

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 73

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: ORC100321

ORC100321. M BERKELEY Collaborations

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Haiku 1: Birds Michael Berkeley, Composer
Clare Hammond, Piano
Notes on the Loss of a Friend Michael Berkeley, Composer
Madeleine Mitchell, Violin
Haiku 2: Insects Michael Berkeley, Composer
Mahan Esfahani, Harpsichord
Speaking Silence Michael Berkeley, Composer
Alice Coote, Mezzo soprano
Julius Drake, Piano
The Magnolia Tree Michael Berkeley, Composer
Chris Hopkins, Piano
Rachel Roberts, Viola
Robert Plane, Clarinet
Super Flumina Babylonis Michael Berkeley, Composer
BBC Singers
Owain Park, Composer
Released by Love Michael Berkeley, Composer
BBC Singers
Owain Park, Composer
Cradle Song Michael Berkeley, Composer
BBC Singers
Owain Park, Composer
Listen, Listen O My Child Michael Berkeley, Composer
BBC Singers
Owain Park, Composer
Zero Hour Michael Berkeley, Composer
David Gilmour, Guitar
Neil Tennant, Vocals
Magna Carta Te Deum Michael Berkeley, Composer
BBC Singers
Owain Park, Composer

Here’s a marvellously stylish showcase for some eclectic and characteristically communicative repertoire by the seemingly indefatigable Michael Berkeley (76 years young at the time of writing), its title sparked by a suggestion from Neil Tennant, singer and songwriter with Pet Shop Boys. Read on to find out more (turns out they are fans of each other’s work – and I didn’t know about the youthful Berkeley’s former life as the keyboard player in a rock band called Seeds of Dyscord).

Back to the present disc, however, and proceedings are launched by two sets of sharply inventive miniatures, Haiku 1: Birds and Haiku 2: Insects, conceived for pianist Clare Hammond and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani respectively. These in turn frame a touching elegy for solo violin that Berkeley wrote for Madeleine Mitchell on the news of the death of Nicholas Snowman (arts administrator and co-founder of the London Sinfonietta). Likewise, there’s no denying the consummate artistry shown by mezzo Alice Coote (persuasively partnered by Julius Drake) in the song-cycle Speaking Silence, originally designed for baritone David Wilson-Johnson and containing darkly intense settings of (among others) Christina Rossetti, WB Yeats and the 16th-century French poet Pontus de Tyard. Not to be outdone, clarinettist Robert Plane teams up with viola player Rachel Roberts and pianist Chris Hopkins for a superbly compelling rendering of The Magnolia Tree, a strongly appealing, exquisitely crafted and (by the close) memorably serene 13-minute essay commissioned for the 2023 Presteigne Festival and inspired in large part by measures from Bach’s The Art of Fugue.

Plaudits, too, to the BBC Singers under Owain Park for their flawless technical control and breathtaking composure in a sequence of four offerings, perhaps the highlight of which comprises Super flumina Babylonis (Psalm 137, ‘By the waters of Babylon’): inscribed to the memory of John Tavener, it was first heard in November 2017 at Westminster Cathedral’s St Cecilia’s Day celebrations and incorporates some giddily vertiginous soprano-writing. Last, but definitely not least, comes Zero Hour. ‘Put it on the next Michael Berkeley album of Collaborations’, suggested Neil Tennant, when he appeared as a guest on Berkeley’s long-running BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions. Also released as a separate single, it’s a joint effort in support of Ukraine with vocals and lyrics by Tennant, and features notable contributions from rock guitarist David Gilmour, DZVIN.CO (a Ukrainian refugee women’s choir), the BBC Singers and producers Hugh Padgham and Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens.

Exemplary production values and presentation add further lustre to a conspicuously enterprising and rewarding issue.

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