Brett Dean: recording collection from London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates three years of collaboration with Brett Dean as Composer-in-Residence with a new two-disc collection of orchestral works. Repertoire includes his Cello Concerto and Viola Concerto and the world premiere of In spe contra spem for two sopranos and orchestra.
Australian-born and UK-resident composer Brett Dean was the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence for three years between 2020 and 2023. This release on the LPO’s own label brings together seven works recorded live in concert during his tenure. Together with five leading conductors and five outstanding soloists, the LPO skilfully navigates the diverse facets of Dean’s orchestral writing, from the vivid soundscapes and virtuosity of the Viola Concerto and Cello Concerto, to the drama of In spe contra spem – quoting letters and speeches by Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots – and the theatrical work with solo accordion _The Players, which revisits scenes from Dean’s award-winning 2017 opera Hamlet.
In spe contra spem was commissioned by the LPO with the support of The Boltini Trust. Dean is known for taking inspiration from literary, political and environmental sources, and the drama of In spe contra spem showcases his talent – quoting letters and speeches by Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, compiled by librettist Matthew Jocelyn. The Guardian praised the work’s ‘vivid orchestral colour and ear-catching textures’ and The Times noted its ‘fascinating orchestration, with trumpets in fanfare-like call, but also muted and metallically sinister’. In spe contra spem receives its Spanish premiere in Madrid on 24 January with sopranos Jennifer France and Emma Bell and the Orquesta Nacional de España conducted by Jaime Martin.
Dean has said that the viola is often an integral part of his composition process as he tests out motivic shapes on the instrument. As a skilled violist himself, the act of composing offers him the opportunity to examine his relationship with ‘this curiously beautiful, somewhat enigmatic instrument’. In the hands of the outstanding soloist Lawrence Power, Dean’s Viola Concerto finds another ideal interpreter.
Dean received his second Ivor Novello Award for the Cello Concerto. The work was written for Alban Gerhardt, who played it again with the LPO for the UK premiere captured in this release. Edward Gardner compliments Dean’s complex and dense orchestration perfectly, bringing out ‘curious mix of playfulness and intensity’ (The Guardian).
The Players for accordion and orchestra is a theatrical work that revisits scenes from Dean’s opera Hamlet, which was premiered by the LPO and Vladimir Jurowski at Glyndebourne in 2017. Hamlet has won numerous awards and nominations, including Best Opera at the 2018 South Bank Sky Arts Awards, World Premiere of the Year at the 2018 International Opera Awards and Best Opera at the 2018 Helpmann Awards. In The Players, Bartosz Glowacki’s accordion wears the mask of ‘the modernist accordion of tiny, sinister sounds […] or glacial dense dissonances, or huge gruff bass sounds’ (Daily Telegraph).
The collection is completed by Dean’s Amphitheatre, Notturno Inquieto and Three Memorials. The Times commented on the LPO’s performance of the latter work: ‘Such is the Australian composer’s genius for orchestration and for painting a vivid picture in sound that one cannot but be dazzled.’
> Listen to the recording
> Buy the recording from Presto
> Further information on Work: In spe contra spem
Photo: Bettina Stoess