EXAUDI ¦ Michael Finnissy Maldon & other choral works (2005)
EXAUDI’s debut CD on NMC is a thrillingly intense disc of music by Michael Finnissy. Maldon sets Anglo-Saxon texts of battle for an impressive ensemble of voices, trombones, organ and percussion; other works feature Michael Finnissy as part of a piano duo (in Vertue) and Howard Skempton on accordion (in the setting of Scots poet William MacGonagall's travels, Descriptive Jottings of London).
EXAUDI ¦ Christopher Fox A Glimpse of Sion’s Glory (2006)
EXAUDI's second recording for NMC features choral works by Christopher Fox with the common theme of Puritanism, Liberty and dissent. American Choruses is one of the composer’s earliest works, exploring his relationship to an American tradition which includes Ives, Cage and the poetry of Walt Whitman. In A Glimpse of Sion’s Glory, conflicting lines voice the idealisms of protestors including the histoical Levellers' movement and John Milton; and the monolithic Missouri Harmony for solo organ evokes the meditative aspect of Shaker worship. Rendered Account, setting Ian Duhig’s lively political verse on the nature of walls and boundaries, and Open the Gate, with its basis of plainsong, complete the disc.
A tribute to this radical and influential composer in the centenary of her birth, this CD presents a selection of Lutyens' varied and inspirational choral works - including the Motet setting of excerpts of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and the Chaucer setting The Country of the Stars - with a series of instrumental pieces including the fearsomely difficult String Trio and the lyrical Presages for solo oboe; it is performed by EXAUDI and Endymion.
EXAUDI & BCMG ¦ Howard Skempton Ben Somewhen (2007)
This collection contrasts Skempton's choral works - including the dancing setting of Shelley’s The Voice of the Spirits and spiritual Rise Up, My Love - with chamber music ranging from the Suite from Delicate, for 2 cellos and percussion, to the exuberant (yet very English), Chamber Concerto. The title piece, Ben Somewhen, for solo double bass and ensemble, and was inspired by Ben Hartley's drawings of rural life.
EXAUDI ¦ Christopher Fox Catalogue irraisoné (2009)
In 1998 leading contemporary British composer Christopher Fox began work on a new commission, a piece that was to be 'evening-long, and not a concert'. The result was the quasi-dramatic 'installation piece' Everything You Need to Know - a body of musical material which can be deployed in many different ways. Fox realised that the work needed a guide - a parallel version of the same ideas in a different form, rather like the 'catalogue raisoné' at an art exhibition. Thus was born a series of pieces for solo voice, as recorded here for the first time under the supervision of the composer and with his appearance as narrator. The sections are based on a series of multiligual texts from various sources including Virgil, Dante, tourist guides and essays. The 'catalogue' is about ideas, remembrance and the possibility of improbable connections. In itself as a sound work it is absolutely and positively unique.
EXAUDI performers: Julia Doyle and Juliet Fraser, sopranos; Tom Williams, countertenor; Jimmy Holliday, bass; Christopher Fox, speaker; James Weeks, speaker and director