Gary Carpenter: SET Concerto for Tenor Saxophone & Orchestra

• Set
• Carpenter
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Product Description Gary Carpenter - one of Britain's most diverse and engaging composers, whose work's span: dance, film, opera, musicals and concert music, releases a highly anticipated CD of his orchestral works. Each of the immaculately crafted compositions moves effortlessly between contagious toe tapping energy to more reflective, poignant and timeless pieces. His is a sound world enthused with quirky jazzy undertones and lush orchestrations a truly contemporary composer whose musical language speaks to all. Originally hailing from London, Gary's strong connections with the North of England have led to many fruitful artistic collaborations. He is the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's Composer in Association and this CD sees conductor Clark Rundell and Andrew Manze bring the RLPO, with soloists Iain Ballamy (saxophone) and Kathryn Rudge (mezzo-soprano) to life. This CD is a gem to be discovered! A must for music connoisseurs of all ages and those wanting to delve into the musical imagination of one Britain's quietly impressive talents. © Daniel Kidane 2018 Review Gary Carpenter (born 1951 in London) has the knack of writing music of wide appeal without one ever thinking that it is contrived to be liked, or that he is second-guessing the audience; the result is music that is immediately engaging and satisfying yet with something saved for return listens. It also paints pictures; music for the imagination. Fred and Ginger (2011, composed for the LSO and Daniel Harding) has a whiff of a 1930s dance sequence surreally re-imagined; it s a pulsating if (to my mind) quite sinister score as the famous couple dance across a haunted ballroom, large orchestra in attendance. SET, a Saxophone Concerto, is in five short movements and opens in punchy/jazzy style (leaning Stan Kenton s way). It s an appealing start and inspiration is maintained over what follows, whether intensely romantic or pulsating with purpsoe. Iain Ballamy is quite brilliant (so too Sophie Hastings on drum-kit) on his smoky-sounding tenor in this very enjoyable foot-tapping and lyrically enticing (nightclub bluesy) Concerto. In Willie Stock (2016, commissioned to mark the centenary of World War One, and premiered by Oliver Knussen), at the opening one might sense a misty, grey-cloud morning, and the soldiers trepidation before going over the top . Then greater activity is apparent (the orchestration is similar to Berg s awesome Opus 6) one might imagine the troops advancing slowly, their boots caked in movement-sapping mud as conflagration becomes horrific before settling to ghostly flecks of sound, including a distant trumpet fanfare and a long funeral roll on a side drum; it s a haunting piece. In reality Willie Stock existed and was killed, aged twenty-five, at The Somme and was the composer s uncle. Dadaville (commissioned for BBC Proms 2015, the premiere led by Sakari Oramo) was inspired by Max Ernsts relief that is housed in Tate Liverpool. As music Dadaville connects in its pictorial proposals and increasing activity, and also through colourful scoring and dynamic contrasts, and with musical growth being seamless; and towards the end do I hear the two notes that open Beethoven 9? I believe I do. These are all impressive and rewarding pieces, heard in excellent performances and first-class sound, yet are overshadowed by Love s Eternity (initiated in 1992 and since revised), a quite wonderful set of songs that owe in one way or another to Roberts Browning and Schumann and to Heinrich Heine, and that really touch the heart and send shivers of appreciation down the listener s spine. If I were asked to guess the composer I would have come up with Ned Rorem, André Previn and Leonard Bernstein as possibilities there is something outgoingly American here (the final number, Reunion , had me thinking it would find a place in Bernstein s Candide). Carpenter has produced something special here, deeply affecting settings (as he says, as much to do with Death as