Figures in the Garden

Welcome!

Today you’re about to meet a fascinating cast of characters real and imagined, living out their own lives, dreams and challenges through the minds of composers from Britain and Canada.

Two Railoramas (1990)

Eldon Rathburn (1916-2008) Canada

2 flutes/piccolos, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons

2 mins - 2 mins

I. Dvorak at 155th Street - Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak lived in America from 1982-1895, where he wrote his famous New World Symphony. Perhaps he came up with those memorable tunes waiting for a train?

II. Hindemith Rides the Merchant’s Limited German composer Paul Hindemith lived in New York from 1930-1953. His music sounds quirky due to its free and equal use of all twelve notes, rather than keeping one note as ‘home-base’. Hindemith’s musical ideas swirl freely in his head before the train arrives at the platform.

Suite from Carmen: The Passion (2009)

Elizabeth Raum (b. 1945) Canada

2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

3 mins - 3 mins - 3 mins - 4 mins

You might have heard of the story of Carmen, the ill-fated gypsy woman who works in a Spanish cigar factory and seduces soldiers. It was made famous in the opera by Georges Bizet. Elizabeth Raum’s music was written for a 2007 retelling of the story through ballet. You’ll hear typical Spanish motifs woven with her own melodies, and a few sneaky quotes from Mr Bizet in the last movement.

II. Fortune Teller

III. Girls at the Cigar Factory

IV. Carmen’s Theme

V. Soldier’s Dance

Figures in the Garden (1991)

Jonathan Dove (b. 1959) UK

2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

2 mins - 1 min - 2mins - 2 mins

For the bicentenary of Mozart’s death in 1991 Glyndebourne Opera commissioned a host of composers to write music for wind octet - a favourite genre of Mozart’s - to accompany his most famous operas. Just like in Mozart’s day, the music was to be performed outdoors, in the garden.

Tasked with writing a companion to The Marriage of Figaro Jonathan Dove imagined all the many characters that had been brought to life at the opera house descending into the gardens. What conversations might they have? What alternative endings and plot twists might arise? Figures in the Garden is the result.

I. Dancing in the Dark

III. A Conversation

V. The Countess Interrupts a Quarrel

VI. Voices in the Garden

Old Wine in New Bottles (1959)

Gordon Jacob (1895-1984) UK

2 flutes (including piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

2.5 min - 2.5 min - 2 min - 4.5 min

I. The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies - A young lady gives up her life (perhaps by force) to run away with the gipsies.

II. The Three Ravens - Three ravens contemplate feasting on a dead knight for breakfast. But protected by his hounds and hawk they witness him buried mournfully by a doe.

III. Begone, Dull Care - This one never gets old: Don’t worry so much, and live a little!

IV. Early One Morning - Love lost: “O don’t deceive me! O do not leave me! How could you use a poor maiden so?”.

Ozark Folksong Suite (2014)

Troy Armstrong (b. 1990) USA

2 flutes, oboe, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

3 min

III. Barbra Allen

Sweet William lies on his deathbed and calls for Barbra Allen, the woman he’s spent his life loving from a distance. She shuns his declarations, only to lose herself in regret when he dies.

Musicians

Flute & Piccolo Nichaud Munday & Kate Rockstrom

Oboe Brienne Gawler & Jasper Ly

Cor Anglais Jasper Ly

Clarinet Thomas D’Ath & Tessa Rowe

Bassoon Hamble Geary & Chris Haycroft

Horn Lyndelle Newey & Susan Eldridge

Conductor Ingrid Martin