A Plastic Theatre (Choral Works by Joanna Marsh) Jennifer Johnston, Liverpool Philharmonic, I Fagiolini, The Lyon’s Mouth, Stile Antico

• Joanna Marsh (b. 1970): Batter My Heart:
• 1 Marsh: Batter My Heart 04:52
• Now I Lay:
• 2 Marsh: Now I Lay 04:57
• All Shall Be Well:
• 3 Marsh: All Shall Be Well 05:08
• Geocentric:
• 4 Marsh: Geocentric 03:00
• Evening Prayer:
• 5 Marsh: Evening Prayer 03:32
• Evening Prayer
• 6 Marsh: metachoral in blue 01:47
• O Magnum Mysterium:
• 7 Marsh: O Magnum Mysterium 04:49
• In Winter's House:
• 8 Marsh: In Winter's House 04:58
• The World is Charged:
• 9 Marsh: The World is Charged 06:49
• Dialogo and Quodlibet:
• 10 Marsh: Dialogo and Quodlibet 05:14
• A Plastic Theatre:
• 11 Marsh: A Plastic Theatre: Act I 03:10
• 12 Marsh: A Plastic Theatre: Act II 07:01
• 13 Marsh: A Plastic Theatre: Act III 03:04
• 14 Marsh: A Plastic Theatre: Act IV 03:25
• 15 Marsh: A Plastic Theatre: Act V 05:25
• Total Runtime 01:07:11

Info for A Plastic Theatre (Choral Works by Joanna Marsh)

The title work on this album is A Plastic Theatre, an extended setting of a five-act text by Katie Schaag exploring the connotations—whether positive or negative—of all things ‘plastic’. Joanna Marsh’s response is a work of pathos and humour, a tone which carries through to several of the other works presented here.

A Plastic Theatre takes its name from a text by Katie Schaag which I set for a commission for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Youth Company in 2023, a 20-minute work for the orchestra, mezzo soloist Jennifer Johnston and the RLPO Youth Choir and Children’s Choir. The live world premiere performance of this work is the centrepiece of this album which also provides an opportunity to feature some of my recent commissions, notably those I wrote for I Fagiolini in 2021. Their four pieces were commissioned for a programme called ReWilding the Wasteland with thanks to renowned ensemble Voces8, who hosted an online concert series during the Covid pandemic, was viewed globally. Voces8 also join forces with I Fagiolini in one of these tracks, now i lay.

I’m thrilled to introduce The Lyons Mouth, a remarkable choir (and solo consort) of singers who studied at the University of York with Robert Hollingworth before turning professional. Their exceptional understanding of tuning and attention to text brings a fresh and vibrant quality to some of my newest works that are receiving their recording premieres on this album, including my Ivor Novello Composer Award winning work, All shall be well. It is a delight to be able to feature another renowned ensemble that I have recently worked with, Stile Antico who commissioned Dialogo and Quodlibet, a parody piece based on mansplaining, repurposing texts from the 16th century.

It is a joy to share this collection of my latest works with you, and I hope you find as much pleasure in listening to them as I found in creating them.

Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
I Fagiolini
The Lyons Mouth
Stile Antico

Jennifer Johnston
Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society's Singer Award, Jennifer Johnston is a former BBC New Generation Artist, and a graduate of Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music. She has enjoyed close collaborations with both the Bayerische Staatsoper, where she has sung over 80 performances as a guest artist and with whom she won Recording of the Year at the Gramophone Awards for Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, for whom she was their Artist-In-Residence for two seasons.

Her operatic roles have included Brigitta in Korngold's Die Tote Stadt (Petrenko/Bayerische Staatstoper, Gramophone's Recording of the Year), Mrs Sedley in Britten's Peter Grimes (Gardiner/Bayerische Staatsoper), Hedwige in Rossini's Guillaume Tell (Ettinger/Bayerische Staatsoper), Second Norn in Wagner's Götterdämmerung (Petrenko/Bayerische Staatsoper), Mrs Grose in Britten's The Turn of the Screw (Eschenbach/La Scala), Juno in Handel's Semele (Luks/Glyndebourne Festival), Lady de Hautdesert in Birtwistle's Gawain (Metzmacher/Salzburg Festival), Jocasta in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (Gardiner/Berlin Philharmonic & London Symphony Orchestras and on disc), Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle (Yankovskaya/English National Opera, Mäkelä/Oslo Filharmonien), Dido in Purcell's Dido & Aeneas (Weiss/Festival d'Aix-en-Provence), Waltraute in Wagner’s Die Walküre (Rattle/Bayerische Rundfunks Symphony Orchestra on disc), and Pasqualita in Adams’ Doctor Atomic (Adams/BBC Symphony Orchestra and on disc).

The works of Mahler lie at the heart of her repertoire, particularly his Second Symphony (Rouvali/Philharmonia Orchestra on disc, Zinman/Vienna Symphony Orchestra), Third Symphony (Vänskä/Minnesota Orchestra, Mäkelä/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Welser-Möst/Cleveland Orchestra), Eighth Symphony (Bychkov/NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Welser-Möst/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Petrenko/Bayerisches Staatsorchester), Rückert Lieder (Zinman/Vienna Symphony Orchestra), Das Lied Von Der Erde (Marin/Hamburg Symphony Orchestra), and Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (V.Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra),

In huge demand on the concert platform, she has collaborated with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, particularly Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (Gardiner/Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique at the BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall and on disc), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Welser-Möst/Cleveland & Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras), Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder (Madaras/Halle Orchestra), Elgar’s Sea Pictures (Slatkin/Irish National Symphony Orchestra), Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (Brabbins/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), Verdi’s Requiem (Oramo/BBC Symphony Orchestra at the First Night of the Proms, Slatkin/Orchestra National de Lyon), Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri (Gatti/Accademia Di Santa Cecilia), Schumann’s Faustszenen (Harding/Gewandhausorchester), Ravel's Schéhérezade (Oramo / BBC Symphony Orchestra), Adès’s Totentanz (Adès/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) ,Janacek's Glagolitic Mass (Kanellakis/BBC Symphony Orchestra at the First Night of the Proms), Britten's Phaedra (Brabbins/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra), Chausson's Poeme de l'Amour et de la Mer (De Billy/London Philharmonic Orchestra), and Respighi's Il Tramonto (Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra).

She has appeared extensively in recital with Malcolm Martineau, Joseph Middleton, Alisdair Hogarth and James Baillieu for BBC Radio 3, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Leeds Lieder and the Aldeburgh Festival. Her extensive discography includes the release of her debut solo album 'A Love Letter To Liverpool' (Rubicon Classics) including You'll Never Walk Alone with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, which as a single reached #1 in the iTunes Classical Chart, and Anthony Payne’s arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ Four Last Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins for Albion Records, which she premiered at the BBC Proms (Vänska/BBCSO) and which was nominated for a Grammy Award. ​

She is a Creative Consultant for the London Transport Museum, a member of the Liverpool City Region Music Board, Performing Arts Network Lead at the Royal Society of Arts, a contributing writer for publications including the Guardian, Opera Now, London Book Review and The Stage, and a commentator on the arts for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, Classic FM and Times Radio. A former Barrister, she received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Enterprise Award, supporting her participation in Harvard University's Women in Leadership Programme.

Joanna Marsh
Joanna’s life in the Middle East has led to many unique musical opportunities including writing an orchestral work to celebrate the building of the Burj Khalifa, a commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the BBC Proms in Dubai, and a fanfare for the Queen’s visit to Abu Dhabi. Her first opera, a collaboration with librettist David Pountney entitled My Beautiful Camel, was also inspired by Dubai life.

Recent commissions include a set of four choral songs for I Fagiolini; The World is Charged, Geocentric, Metachoral in Blue and i lay (with everywhere around), a seasonal piece In Winter’s House for Tenebrae, and the string work Another Eden for the United Strings of Europe and Gandini Juggling. Her 2021 choral piece All Shall Be Well, commissioned for the ORA Singers, won the choral section of the Ivors Composer Awards 2022.

Joanna’s most substantial work of the 2022 season was a 20-minute BBC Radio 3 commission for the BBC Singers called SEEN, written for choir and electronics. For this Joanna commissioned a text by Fiona Lindsay. The première was held at Milton Court on 20 May 2022, conducted by Sofi Jeannin and with electronics created by Glen Scott.

Joanna was Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from 2015 through to 2020. During that time she wrote a number of works for the college’s choir and organ. She is a Co-Founder of ChoirFest Middle East in Dubai, an annual celebration of the region’s choral music scene that reached its tenth anniversary in March 2020. She is also Founder of the Dubai Opera Festival Chorus: a large body of singers set up for the BBC Proms in Dubai that continues to undertake concert performances of various types across the UAE.

Joanna was an undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and subsequently organ scholar at Sidney Sussex College Cambridge. She studied composition with Richard Blackford and Judith Bingham.

Booklet for A Plastic Theatre (Choral Works by Joanna Marsh)