Sounds New
Works by Ben Nobuto, Héloïse Werner et al
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Clark Rundell
NMC NMCDL3054 (digital) 88:20 mins
The West Midlands has a long association with new music: in 1987 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) musicians Simon Clugston and Ulrich Heinen founded Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) with Simon Rattle – then CBSO music director – as patron. The parent ensemble has continued to support rather than silo music by living composers, and commissioned 20 small-scale pieces (alongside 20 larger works) to mark its centenary in 2020. These were intended for performance throughout the anniversary season, but, as we all know, that year didn’t go exactly to plan. Instead, the short works appeared in a single concert, which was recorded.
Of the 20 ‘emerging composers’ – a strange descriptor conjuring images of musical insect pupa – Héloïse Werner is the best known. As an upcoming associate artist at Wigmore Hall, and with an album that comprises five of her own compositions (Phrases, Delphian, 2022), Werner is entering the imago stage. Like Confessional, crossings is written in the soprano-composer’s distinctive language, splattered with colourful timbres. The vocal part (sung by Werner) laps against the CBSO strings, which alternately swell and settle. Sighing vocalise moves into punchy staccato and upper-octave notes that are picked up and mimicked by the orchestra; Werner chases and catches the phrase into her signature Lear-like expressivo. Ryan Latimer is another composer with a clear style (see Antiarkie, NMC, 2021): Bellwether is topped with percussion sprinkles as it shapeshifts from abstraction to pastoral scenes, taking inspiration from its shepherding title. There is wonderful variety within this programme, from the glittery Glisk by Aileen Sweeney to Anna Appleby’s song without words Sonnet 43, all beautifully realised by the CBSO. Claire Jackson