The Nash Ensemble Presents Four World Premieres

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Nash Inventions: Thursday 5 March 2009, 7.30pm, Wigmore Hall

“The Nash Ensemble is still the best champion that any composer could hope to have” The Times
ANDERSON Poetry Nearing Silence for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet*
MATTHEWS The Island for soprano and ensemble*
MICHAEL BERKELEY Piano Quintet* (world première)
ANDERSON Prayer for solo viola (world première)
WATKINS Trio for horn, violin and piano* (world première)
BENJAMIN Piano Figures for solo piano (UK première)
TURNAGE A Constant Obsession for tenor and ensemble** (world première)
* Nash Commission
** Wigmore Hall Commission

Claire Booth soprano • Mark Padmore tenor • Ian Brown piano • Lawrence Power viola • Martyn Brabbins conductor

On the 5 March 2009 the Nash Ensemble will present its annual collection of the best in British contemporary music, with world premieres of compositions by Huw Watkins and Michael Berkeley, for Brahmsian instrumental combinations, a virtuoso solo viola piece by Julian Anderson and a new song-cycle by Mark-Anthony Turnage, setting music to English poems about love. Also featured are Julian Anderson’s mercurial Poetry Nearing Silence, the UK premiere of George Benjamin’s Piano Figures and Colin Matthews’s beautifully suggestive setting of Rilke’s evocation of a North Sea island.

The Nash Ensemble is widely recognised as a pioneer in the commissioning of new work, adventurous programming and virtuoso performances. By the end of this season the group will have performed over 255 premieres, of which 145 have been specially commissioned. This concert showcases the works of some of the most exciting British composers performed by some of Britain’s most talented musicians.

Recently described by the Sunday Times as a “first-rate team of players”, the Nash has received many accolades including The Edinburgh Festival Critics Award “for general artistic excellence” and two Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in the chamber music category “for the breadth of its taste and its immaculate performance of a wide range of music”. The impressive array of recordings by the Nash perfectly illustrates its love for both classical and contemporary works. The Ensemble have made recordings for Black Box and NMC of chamber works by many distinguished British composers, including Harrison Birtwistle, Mark-Anthony Turnage, James MacMillan, Simon Holt and a host of others. The Ensemble’s British Composers series for Hyperion Records has been highly praised and the latest recording of chamber works by Coleridge-Taylor was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award and was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone.

The 7.30pm concert will be preceded by a pre-concert talk featuring Anthony Burton in conversation with the composers of the evening concert.

Tickets for the evening concert: £15 (concessions £10)
Tickets for the pre-concert talk are free but reservation is required.
www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
Box Office: +44 (0) 20 7935 2141

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