Pickard: Sixteen Sunrises, Symphony No. 5 & Concertante Variations BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Martyn Brabbins

• John Pickard (1963):
• 1 Symphony No. 5: I. Tempestoso 09:29
• 2 Symphony No. 5: II. Prestissimo 04:39
• 3 Symphony No. 5: III. Maestoso 06:53
• 4 Symphony No. 5: IV. — 10:53
• 5 Sixteen Sunrises 14:38
• 6 Concertante Variations "Presteigne Concerto" 12:59
• 7 Toccata (After C. Monteverdi) 02:06
• Total Runtime 01:01:37

Info for Pickard: Sixteen Sunrises, Symphony No. 5 & Concertante Variations

Born in 1963, John Pickard is best known for a series of powerful orchestral and instrumental works and previous recordings on BIS of his music have received critical acclaim in reviews such as Gramophone (‘simply stunning’), American Record Guide (‘superb works in wonderful readings’) and BBC Music Magazine (‘an absolute triumph).

The present album brings together some of Pickard’s most recent orchestral compositions, in performances by two of his long-time collaborators: the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Martyn Brabbins. The opening work is Symphony No. 5, which was composed in 2014 with these performers in mind. Lasting some thirty minutes, the symphony is in a single continuous movement. It requires no less than three timpanists who are placed at the back of the orchestra to the right, left and centre, leading to some dramatic antiphonal exchanges. The symphony is followed by Sixteen Sunrises, the result of the composer’s wish to compose a piece ‘filled with light’. The title of the piece refers to the number of sunrises that can be observed during a twenty-four-hour period from the International Space Station (ISS), as it orbits the earth. Musical depictions of sunrises are normally gradual processes, but viewed from the ISS, a sunrise occurs in a matter of seconds, and it is the idea of suddenly shifting from darkness to light (and back again) that formed the basis of the shape of Pickard’s piece.

In contrast to these two works, the Concertante Variations have been described by the composer as ‘a light-hearted divertimento that poses no profound questions’. It is a concise concerto for wind quintet, strings and timpani, cast in the form of a theme and variations. The disc closes with Pickard’s transcription of the well-known Toccata that Monteverdi used first in his opera Orfeo and later in the Vespers.

Martin Featherstone, flute
Geoffrey Cox, oboe
Nicholas Cox, clarinet
Jaroslaw Augustyniak, bassoon
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Martyn Brabbins, conductor

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW)
is one of the UK’s most versatile orchestras, with a varied range of work as both a broadcast orchestra and national symphony orchestra of Wales. The orchestra’s adventurous programming is driven by principal conductor Thomas Søndergård, principal guest conductor Xian Zhang and conductor laureate Tadaaki Otaka; the Welsh composer Huw Wat- kins is the orchestra’s composer-in-association.

Generously supported by the Arts Council of Wales, and part of BBC Wales, BBC NOW is orchestra-in-residence at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall, and performs a busy series of live concerts throughout Wales and the UK, with almost all of its performances heard on the BBC. BBC NOW appears biennially at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and annually at the BBC Proms. Autumn 2015 saw one of its most ambitious tours to date – a community residency celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia, followed by performances across South America.

The orchestra’s home is BBC Hoddinott Hall, a world-class concert hall and recording studio based in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, where BBC NOW continues its work as the UK’s foremost soundtrack orchestra.

Martyn Brabbins
was appointed music director of the English National Opera in 2016. An inspirational force in British music, Brabbins has had a busy opera career since his early days at the Kirov and more recently at La Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and regularly in Lyon, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Antwerp. He is a popular figure at the BBC Proms and with many of the UK’s top orchestras, and regularly conducts top international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Deutsches Symphonie- Orchester Berlin.

Known for his advocacy of new music and particularly of British composers, he has conducted hundreds of world premières across the globe. He has recorded over 120 CDs to date, including prizewinning discs of operas by Korngold, Birtwistle and Harvey. He was associate principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1994–2005), principal guest conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2009–15), chief conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (2012– 16) and artistic director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music (2005– 07), and in 2016 was appointed visiting professor at the Royal College of Music.

Booklet for Pickard: Sixteen Sunrises, Symphony No. 5 & Concertante Variations