Emily Howard: The Anvil BBC Singers, Hallé Choirs, BBC Philharmonic, Ben Gernon, Vimbayi Kaziboni

• Emily Howard (b. 1979): The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo" (2019):
• 1 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": I. Heavy stone harvest 03:12
• 2 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": II. Pelt of rough turf 01:47
• 3 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": III. Battered shuttles 04:39
• 4 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": IV. The Commissioner for Paving 01:07
• 5 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": V. Fife drums love command liberty 01:59
• 6 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": VI. A lake of hats 02:24
• 7 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": VII. We walk in communion 00:58
• 8 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": VIII. We ask for sustenance and suffrage 00:48
• 9 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": IX. The order comes 00:25
• 10 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": X. Were we quickened from brick-dust 00:45
• 11 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": XI. Sabred and stabbed 02:53
• 12 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": XII. The field turns inside out 04:35
• 13 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": XIII.Some of our cry is their cry 03:09
• 14 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": XIV. Now, when you see a blush 01:53
• 15 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": XV. Ghosts conjured from cotton smoke 02:49
• 16 Howard: The Anvil "An Elegy for Peterloo": XVI. Our shibboleth 02:59
• Elliptics (2022):
• 17 Howard: Elliptics: I. Like a bird that has hit glass 01:12
• 18 Howard: Elliptics: II. Be quiet, you say 01:54
• 19 Howard: Elliptics: III. On the way, I reckoned up trios of street-lamps 01:21
• 20 Howard: Elliptics: IV. Rooks wake, warn and clatter 01:16
• 21 Howard: Elliptics: V. The long-gone and the not-yet-here 02:05
• 22 Howard: Elliptics: VI. Full-tilt towards infinity 01:28
• 23 Howard: Elliptics: VII. Night-long drive 01:50
• 24 Howard: Elliptics: VIII. Houses dark and steep, oblivious 00:56
• 25 Howard: Elliptics: IX. Love alone brooks resurrection 00:40
• 26 Howard: Elliptics: X. Under our feet, below the sewers 01:48
• 27 Howard: Elliptics: XI. Seven swans in grief 01:28
• 28 Howard: Elliptics: XII. Wildfires on the bare hills 01:17
• 29 Howard: Elliptics: XIII.Like a bird that has hit glass 00:52
• 30 Howard: Elliptics: XIV. Beyond these walls is so much silence 00:15
• 31 Howard: Elliptics: XV. Dusk that never blossoms. Endless vespers 05:53
• Total Runtime 01:00:37

Info for Emily Howard: The Anvil

Die imaginären Klänge des Massenprotests durchziehen das Werk The Anvil der Komponistin Emily Howard und des Dichters Michael Symmons Roberts, das von BBC Radio 3 und dem Manchester International Festival in Auftrag gegeben wurde, um den zweihundertsten Jahrestag des Massakers von Peterloo im Jahr 1819 zu begehen, bei dem eine für das allgemeine Wahlrecht protestierende Menschenmenge auf den St. Peter's Fields in Manchester brutal niedergeschlagen wurde. Zu einem Solo-Sopran, der erzählt und sich erinnert, und einem Bariton, der in das Geschehen verwickelt zu sein scheint, gesellen sich die immensen Kräfte von vier Chören - jeder mit einer Musik, die auf seine besonderen Fähigkeiten zugeschnitten ist, von Profis bis zu Amateuren - und dem BBC Philharmonic, um die Frage zu stellen: Welche Zukunft wurde in den tragischen Ereignissen dieses Tages geschmiedet? Die zweite Zusammenarbeit zwischen Howard und Symmons Roberts, Elliptics, ist ruhiger, elegischer: eine Meditation über Liebe und Tod und darüber, was wir hoffen.

"Howards musikalischer Stil, schrill und gegensätzlich, passt ganz zu ihrem Thema, dem Peterloo-Massaker von 1819, bei dem Truppen in eine Menschenmenge stürmten, die Wahlreformen forderte... Das begleitende Gesangsstück von Howard, Elliptics, ist etwas weniger überzeugend, bietet aber mehr Beweise für ein heftiges, individuelles Kompositionstalent." (The Times)

Kate Royal, Sopran
Claire Booth, Sopran
Hugh Cutting, Countertenor
Christopher Purves, Bariton
BBC Singers
Halle Choirs
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Ben Gernon, Dirigent
Vimbayi Kaziboni, Dirigent

Kate Royal
Born in London, Kate Royal studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. Her many awards include the 2004 Kathleen Ferrier Award, the 2004 John Christie Award and the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award.

In concert she has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle (BBC Proms and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden), the Bach Akademie Stuttgart under Helmuth Rilling, at the Edinburgh Festival with Sir Charles Mackerras, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington) under Helmuth Rilling, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, the Orchestra of La Scala Milan and Chung, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Pablo Heras-Casado, Le Concert d’Astree under Emanuelle Haim and the Berlin Philharmonic under both William Christie and Sir Simon Rattle. She has appeared in recital throughout Europe and North America.

She has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Manchester Camerata and Schumann’s Liederkreis (for Hyperion) with Graham Johnson. In October 2006 Kate Royal signed an exclusive contract with EMI Classics. Her first solo recording with Edward Gardner and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields was issued in the summer of 2007.

In opera she has sung Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) for both the Glyndebourne Festival and the Royal Opera, Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) and Governess (The Turn of the Screw) for Glyndebourne on Tour, Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for both the Teatro Real, Madrid and the Glyndebourne Festival, Poppea for the English National Opera, Miranda (Ades’ The Tempest) for the Royal Opera, Handel’s L’Allegro for the Paris Opera, Micaela (Carmen) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) for the Glyndebourne Festival and Countess Almaviva for the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Her concert engagements include both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestra of Bavarian Radio under Rattle, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Ticciati and the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Nezet-Seguin. Her operatic engagements include the Governess for the Glyndebourne Festival, Pamina for the Royal Opera and Euridice in her Metropolitan Opera debut.

The BBC Singers
has held a unique place at the heart of the UK’s choral scene for almost 100 years and has collaborated with many of the world’s leading composers, conductors and soloists.

Based at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, the choir records music for broadcast on BBC Radio 3, alongside work for other network radio, television and commercial release. It also presents an annual series of concerts at Milton Court Concert Hall, performs free concerts in London and appears at major festivals in the UK and abroad.

The BBC Singers promotes a 50:50 gender policy for composers whose music it performs, and champions composers from all backgrounds. Recent concerts and recordings include music by Soumik Datta, Joanna Marsh, Reena Esmail, Sun Keting and Roderick Williams, and recent collaborations have featured Laura Mvula, Clare Teal, South Asian dance company Akademi and the Choir recently appeared as guests on ‘The Choir Badge’ episode of popular children's programme *Hey Duggee*.

The BBC Singers appears annually at the BBC Proms. The 2023 season saw the group perform at the First and Last Nights, as well as concerts with Sir Simon Rattle, an evening with Jon Hopkins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and a concert with Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin.

At the heart of the BBC Singers work is a wide-ranging programme of learning activities working with children and adults in schools, music colleges, universities and community groups.

Halle Choirs
is a large symphony chorus, made up of over 200 singers from across the North West and beyond, and from all walks of life.

Founded alongside the Orchestra by Sir Charles Hallé in 1858, the internationally-acclaimed Hallé Choir gives around 15 concerts a year. Recent highlights have included performances of Elgar’s three great oratorios The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom as the climax to the Hallé’s 2022–2023 season (and all three have also been released on the Hallé’s own multi-award-winning CD label) and Rachmaninov’s The Bells with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder at the 2023 BBC Proms.

As well as appearing with the Hallé, the Choir also performs regularly with other orchestras at venues and festivals around the UK, including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and York Minster. Recent collaborations have included Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under Edward Gardner at the 2022 BBC Proms, and the world premiere of Brett Dean’s In This Brief Moment with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Nicholas Collon, also in 2022.

In earlier seasons the Choir has been thrilled to have performed Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Verdi’s Requiem, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Act 3 of Wagner’s Parsifal, as well as undertaking a Spanish tour in 2019 that included two concerts with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and an a cappella programme of English music.

Made up of 200 singers from all over the North-West of England and from all walks of life, the Hallé Choir offers a range of additional activities, including individual coaching and social events, as well as regular rehearsals.

This album contains no booklet.