Pickard(1963-) - The Gardener Of Aleppo-chamber Works: Brabbins / Nash Ensemble Bickley(Ms) - Import SACD Hybrid

Credits:

Ippolitov-Ivanov / Zagarinskiy

Description:

An album of chamber works by English composer Picard performed by the Nash Ensemble. Mezzo-soprano Susan Vickrey's beautiful voice is also featured on this SACD hybrid disc. English composer John Picard studied with William Matthias and Louis Andriessen and has worked primarily in orchestral works, including five symphonies, and instrumental and chamber works. This album features chamber works written by Picard on various occasions and performed by the Nash Ensemble. The title of the album was taken from "The Gardener of Aleppo," a composition commissioned by the Octandre Ensemble. "On August 22, 2016, Britain's Channel 4 reported the story of Abou al-Ward. His name, which translates as 'Father of Flowers,' ran the last remaining garden center in the destroyed city of rebel-held East Aleppo with his son Ibrahim for five years, when the carnage of the Syrian civil war and bombing by Syrian and Russian forces never stopped. ......" The "delicate and fragile combination of flute, viola, and harp" expresses "the fragility of Abou al-Ward and the flowers he nurtured in the fires of war. The Daughter of Zion was also composed around the theme of battle and violence.A mezzo-soprano sings a text by Picard's colleague at the University of Bristol, Catholic Theology Professor Gavin D'Costa, performed by an ensemble of piccolo, flute, alto flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, cello and double bass. Composed between Christmas and New Year's in 2009, when heavy snowfalls prevented people from going outside, "Snowbound" explores "a sense of claustrophobia and the feeling that familiar landscapes seem out of place in the deep snow" with "darker colors" on bass clarinet, cello and piano. Serenata Concertata was composed by Picard in the summer of 1984, the year he graduated as an undergraduate from Vanger University, and includes two "cadenzas," two "arias," and a "scherzo-notturno. It was the first commissioned work by the University's Contemporary Music Ensemble, funded by the Arts Council of Wales. Three Studies of Chickens" (Laying, Feeding, Fighting) depicts a day in the life of Picard's pet chicken and was intended as a birthday present for a friend, an oboe player.Afranio's Fagotus," named after the instrument "fagotus," a combination of bagpipe and chamber organ said to have been invented by Afranio of Ferrara in the early 16th century, is a "capriccio" for bassoon and piano in which "the performer gets into trouble here and there. The "Ghost Train" is an "indefinite movement" using the Gregorian chant "Diez Ile (The Day of Wrath). The piece was commissioned by the French contemporary music group Ensemble Valiance. King International

Tracklisting:

1.The Gardener of Aleppo for flute, viola and harp
2.Daughters of Zion for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble
3.Snowbound for bass clarinet, cello and piano
4.Serenata Concertata for solo flute and chamber ensemble~Cadenza I
5.Serenata Concertata for solo flute and chamber ensemble~Aria I
6.Serenata Concertata for solo flute and chamber ensemble~Scherzo-Notturno
7.Serenata Concertata for solo flute and chamber ensemble~Cadenza II
8.Serenata Concertata for solo flute and chamber ensemble~Aria II
9.Three Chicken Studies for solo oboe~Laying
10.Three Chicken Studies for solo oboe~Feeding
11.Three Chicken Studies for solo oboe~Fighting
12.The Phagotus fo Afranio
13.Ghost-Train for chamber ensemble