Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass Joseph Havlat

• Cassandra Miller (b. 1976), Michael Finnissy (b. 1946): Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass:
• 1 Miller, Finnissy: Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass: I. Either strident or striding or somewhere in between 02:59
• 2 Miller, Finnissy: Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass: II. Sostenuto. Legato 06:29
• 3 Miller, Finnissy: Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass: III. Andante mosso 01:51
• 4 Miller: Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass: IV. Sweetly, with forgiveness and patience 05:11
• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Theme & Variations in E-Flat Major, WoO 24 “Geistervariationen”:
• 5 Schumann: Theme & Variations in E-Flat Major, WoO 24 “Geistervariationen”: Thema. Leise, innig 01:50
• 6 Schumann: Theme & Variations in E-Flat Major, WoO 24 “Geistervariationen”: Var. 1 01:25
• 7 Schumann: Theme & Variations in E-Flat Major, WoO 24 “Geistervariationen”: Var. 2, Canonisch 02:05
• 8 Schumann: Theme & Variations in E-Flat Major, WoO 24 “Geistervariationen”: Var. 3, Etwas belebter 01:40
• 9 Schumann: Theme & Variations in E-Flat Major, WoO 24 “Geistervariationen”: Var. 4 02:04
• 10 Schumann: Theme & Variations in E-Flat Major, WoO 24 “Geistervariationen”: Var. 5 02:46
• Michael Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen:
• 11 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Thema 02:23
• 12 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Trope (a) 02:34
• 13 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Var. 1 01:30
• 14 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Var. 2 01:15
• 15 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Trope (b) 04:11
• 16 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Var. 3 02:34
• 17 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Trope (c) 01:15
• 18 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Var. 4 02:10
• 19 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Var. 5 01:20
• 20 Finnissy: RS Geistervariationen: Chor der Geisterstimmen aus der Ferne 06:16
• Cassandra Miller: Philip the Wanderer:
• 21 Miller: Philip the Wanderer: I. Gently rumbling without direction 08:17
• 22 Miller: Philip the Wanderer: II. Broadly (surveilling the great expanse) 04:07
• 23 Miller: Philip the Wanderer: III. Joyfully, jauntily, as if running away from regret itself 03:05
• Total Runtime 01:09:17

Info for Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass

Sinner, Don’t Let This Harvest Pass is the new release from rising pianist Joseph Havlat, featuring music by Michael Finnissy, Cassandra Miller, and Robert Schumann. This ground-breaking Album includes Schumann’s Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations), Finnissy’s response, or allusions to, this work in his RS Geistervariationen, and Miller’s Philip the Wanderer as well as the title work, Sinner, Don’t Let This Harvest Pass, a rare co-composition between Finnissy and Miller, based on the well-known Afro-American spiritual. The compositions and working styles of Finnissy and Miller are a natural fit for this collaboration, the result of their longstanding friendship and correspondence.

Transcription is another thread tying the works on this programme together, each composer having a unique approach. Finnissy’s RS Geistervariationen (2021) contains large transcription sections of Brahms’ piano duet Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op.23 and is heard alongside Schumann’s original Geistervariationen. For Michael Finnissy, this process is in itself composition – he’s working with the material as if it were his own, like portraiture seen through multiple lenses. As Joseph Havlat observes: “These passages of transcribed Brahms…are melded and fused with Finnissy’s own voice, creating ghostly echoes of bygone music, just as the variations themselves are ghosts of the original theme, and Schumann’s theme a ghost of something else heard as well.” In between the variations are heard a series of Tropes in Finnissy’s own compositional approach, acting as a musical commentary.

Cassandra Miller started to write Philip the Wanderer (2012) in Canada but continued in the UK during a period of mentorship under Finnissy. Viewed by the composer as more of a ‘translation’ or ‘adaptation’ than a transcription, it draws its source material from Mandowa II, a recording by Mozambican musician Zhukake Masingi, of which Miller generated a rhythmically hyper-rigorous computer-generated MIDI transcription. The three-movement piece reflects the rhythmic pushing-and-pulling found in the recording, with its danceable and ultimately joyous irregularity.

For their collaborative work, Sinner, Don’t Let This Harvest Pass, inspired by the spiritual sung by the great Marian Anderson, Finnissy and Miller wanted to capture something of the ‘inflections’ and the ‘mood’ of her performance and not just the tune itself. They wrote alternating sections, Cassandra Miller going first and Michael Finnissy following her tonal theme, not imitating each other but more like a slow-moving conversation, mirroring their own dialogue as they created the piece.

Michael Finnissy is widely regarded as one of Britain’s most important living composers and teachers, his prolific output including solo instrumental, chamber, and choral works as well as songs and works for stage. To mark his 80th birthday earlier this year, Métier released a 10-volume digital box set, Michael Finnissy: The Complete Métier Collection from 1998–2026.

The composition methods of Canadian-British composer Cassandra Miller incorporate unique meditation-based practices, and her works have been performed by ensembles and orchestras across the UK, Europe, and the US. “Music this uncalculatedly beautiful leaves you almost desperate with gratitude” —Alex Ross, The New Yorker.

Australian pianist and composer Joseph Havlat is based in London. A leading interpreter of modern and contemporary music, he performs as a soloist and chamber musician in major concert venues around the UK, Europe, America, Japan, and Australia. He currently teaches piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music. His previous recording of Michael Finnissy’s vocal music, Alternative Readings with Lotte Betts-Dean and the Marsyas Trio, was released on Métier.

Joseph Havlat, piano

Joseph Havlat
is a pianist and composer from Hobart, Australia, based in London.

Working as a soloist and chamber musician for music very new, very old and some things in between, he has performed in major concert venues around the UK, Europe, America, Japan and Australia.

Joseph is a leading interpreter of new music, having collaborated personally with a range of composers across the full spectrum of contemporary aesthetic, including John Adams, Gerald Barry, Cassandra Miller, Brett Dean and Sir Harrison Birtwistle. He has developed close relationships with: Thomas Adès, under whom he has played In Seven Days with the LSO and premiered Növények at Wigmore Hall; Hans Abrahamsen, with whom he has worked to produce and record a definitive edition of 10 Studies for Piano; and Michael Finnissy, whose work Joseph performs regularly, including a BBC Radio 3 recording of Piano Concerto no.2, and debut recordings of vocal works for Divine Art Metier.

Joseph’s broad musical interests inform and shape his performance of canonical repertoire. Aside from solo recitals at King’s Place and Wigmore Hall, he is a prolific collaborative pianist and has performed with William Bennett, James Ehnes, Steven Isserlis, Katalin Károlyi and Jack Liebeck, alongside regular duo partners Lotte Betts-Dean, Tim Posner and also violinist Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux, with whom he has recorded an all-Schubert CD for Delphian Records. He regularly plays as orchestral pianist in the LSO, as part of which he has toured the USA and Australia under Sir Simon Rattle. He is also a member of the LSO percussion ensemble, with whom he has released a CD featuring the premiere recording of John Adams’ two-piano work Roll Over Beethoven on the LSO Live label.

As a composer his music often explores the sounds of the natural world, imbued with the harsher shapes of human modernity. He has written music spanning from solo voice to large ensemble, including for Ensemble x.y, of which he was a founding member. Alongside composers Elischa Kaminer and Alex Paxton, he has worked as an improviser in projects concerning both music and theatre.

Booklet for Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass