Brett Dean (b. 1961)
Concertos and Orchestral Works
Contents, performers and recording details listed after review
rec. live 2020-2023, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
Reviewed as a 16-bit/44kHz download
London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO-0130 [2 CDs: 140]

The seven pieces here were composed by Brett Dean between 2000 and 2022 and were all recorded live by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in concert at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall between 2021 and 2023. Dean studied in his hometown of Brisbane, Australia, before moving to Germany in 1984, where he was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic’s viola section for 14 years. He began composing in 1988, initially on experimental film and radio projects. He has spent three seasons as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence, from September 2020 to July 2023. In addition, he is building his reputation as a viola player.

Amphitheatre, composed in 2000, is inspired by amphitheatres large or small where in years gone by everyone could gather in order to experience theatre, to satisfy their hunger for stories and spectacles, and be part of their culture. The conductor on this recording is Enrique Mazzola, an Italian conductor who is an accomplished interpreter of contemporary music.

The composer comments on the piece as follows: “The unifying factor amongst most of these round or oval structures, whether large or small, was that they were made of massive blocks of stone. Through a change of colours, from the low brass, to winds, strings and then back to brass, we take in different perspectives of the same object.” It’s a slow, dramatic piece for large orchestra. For most of its time, I felt that it had a menacing feeling to it. The composer also introduces another motif distant, beginning with trumpet fanfares, perhaps memories of past events that took place in the old stone walls, momentarily replacing the stillness of time. The fanfares become increasingly bold and eventually are almost grotesque, adding to the menacing atmosphere of the music. These suddenly end and we return to the music of stillness, the piece slowly and gently fades away and a more reflective melody can be heard on the trumpet.

Three Memorials, composed between 2001 and 2006, was originally commissioned as single, stand-alone pieces.  This time, the conductor is Karina Canellakis, the principal guest conductor with the LPO. She trained as a violinist, and was initially encouraged to pursue conducting by Sir Simon Rattle while playing regularly in the Berlin Philharmonic as a member of its Orchester-Akademie. She performed for many years as a soloist, guest leader and chamber musician, until conducting eventually became her focus. She was born and raised in New York City. The first memorial piece, Dispersal, was written in 2001. ‘Dispersal’, in colonial Australian parlance, was a widely used euphemism for the pursuit and slaughter of indigenous Australians. The piece feels menacing and threatening; it’s fast, with the frequent use of a clapper suggesting a pursuit. There is a moment of relative calm before returning to the frantic music, it becomes quiet again, then mournful and finally we can hear in the distance Parry’s hymn tune ‘Intercessor’ the first line from which is “This is the night, dear friends, the night for weeping”.

The second movement of Three Memorials is called Ceremonial. Composed in 2003, it is a memorial to the over 200 people who were killed in the Bali bombing of October 2022. The prominent role accorded to tuned percussion, particularly gongs, pays musical homage to the moving traditional ceremonies held on Bali. The range of emotions portrayed in the piece for me include the spooky, the mysterious, the ominous, the frenzied and the threatening – and a sense of loss. It is a real mixed bag.

The final memorial, Komarov’s Fall, memorialises Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, the first person to die in space aboard the ill-fated Soyuz 1, a project plagued by serious problems. But whose launch in April 1964 took place nevertheless in order to coincide with Lenin’s birthday. Dean tells us, “The work starts with the eerie vastness one senses from listening to space telemetry signals, however it was the chance finding of an archival recording of Komarov’s last frantic radio transmissions with ground control that informed the jagged urgency of the ensuing music.” The music has a very quiet start, suggesting the vastness of space, electronic, not of this world. A brief lyrical section in the middle of the work was inspired by the final words shared between Komarov and his wife Valentina. On the Soyuz’s final orbit, she was invited into the control centre to bid farewell, so certain were all concerned of the impending doom. However, after this, the tension rises, the music then portrays an urgent message, as if in morse code, urgency and confusion reign, then silence for a second, followed by an unanswered call, loss. It is a really atmospheric piece.

The conductor for the viola concerto is the Finnish Hannu Lintu, who has many recordings to his name. Descriptions of Lintu include, ‘Dynamic and sharp on the podium’ (Bachtrack) and with a ‘scrupulous ear for instrumental colour and blend’ (The Washington Post), he maintains his reputation as one of the world’s finest conductors. Since his London solo debut with The Philharmonia, violist Lawrence Power has performed in the UK and abroad, appearing with many orchestras. At the Proms, he played the Mozart Sinfonia concertante with Maxim Vengerov in 2006, the Walton Viola Concerto in 2007, Vaughan Williams’s Flos Campi in 2008, and he took part in a chamber music Prom in 2009. James MacMillan dedicated his Viola Concerto to him in 2013.

Dean himself is a violist and comments, “I’ve often mused upon the fact that so much music written for the viola is characterised by a particular sense of melancholy, invariably coupled with a busy, dogged brand of defiance or even gruffness.” That’s certainly not the case in the Viola Concerto on this recording.

As is usual for a concerto, it is a three-movement piece and the first movement, Fragment, less than three minutes long, introduces us to the music to be involved in the next two movements. Pursuit is crowded with busy, frantic music, full of energy and drama. It relents somewhat for a while, but then becomes even busier and more frantic. The third and final movement is called Veiled and mysterious and once again that title sums its affect up well – at least at the beginning of the movement. Then it becomes more like the previous movement, in that the music is full of energy and urgency. Finally, the mysterious feeling returns with some wonderful melodies on the viola accompanied by a bassoon. 

Dean’s Cello Concerto (2018) is conducted by Edward Gardner and the soloist is Alban Gerhardt, who back in 2011 was already hoping for a piece from Brett Dean for his instrument, noting to the Sydney Morning Herald: ‘I am convinced that the world needs a cello concerto from Brett … I would be in heaven if it happened.’

The Concerto is in one, uninterrupted movement but can be heard in five major sections:

I. Extremely intimate, yet flowing and playful. The solo cello, in a high register, begins with a tentative dialogue with the orchestra through short bird-like material. While introducing various musical themes that will feature throughout the piece, it picks up in density, pulse, and tempo. Unexpectedly, however, it dissipates into …

II. Slow, dreamy, unhurried. An extended slow introspective movement with an eerie feeling in which the soloist floats above gently undulating wave-like harmonies in harp and divided strings. At its peak, the orchestral colours are dominated by swirls coming from the two contrasting keyboard instruments, piano and Hammond organ. The solo cello slowly descends, down, down, down from its elevated, bird’s-eye-view into the new energy of …

III Allegro agitato sempre. In which the various rhythmic components that we’ve heard earlier return with a more urgent and threatening edge, forcing the soloist to ‘duck and weave’ around the orchestra. This persuades the orchestra into more volatile and animated actions of its own, in turn pushing the soloist into new territories of repeated down-bow chords and different textures and colourings of the same note. The race comes to a sudden stop and everyone catches their breath for a moment whilst a gentle melody is heard on the cello as well as some distant bells. But just when we think a calm may have returned, we’re thrown into …

IV Fast, rhythmic, relentless. The soloist, now in the lowest register, as if suddenly woken, takes off again; this cat-and-mouse chase with the orchestra isn’t over yet! At times, the orchestra, having taken up the solo cello’s motivic ideas as their own, then leaves the soloist behind, so keen are they to ride the wave. This culminates in an extended piece with a threatening feel and using the full orchestra, including a great use of the percussion section. After it subsides, the soloist returns, hushed, chastened perhaps by the orchestral storm he/she has set in motion, playing tentatively as if checking their ground. Shadows of former music lead us to …

V Slow, spacious, and still. In the stillness, the soloist tentatively reconnects with the orchestra through a series of extended quarter-tone trills shared with other string soloists in cellos and basses. Calm, distant memories of the cello’s opening bird-calls combine with delicate orchestral trills. Nevertheless, it retains a tense feel. All in all, the concerto is a lovely, fascinating piece, full of different emotions and tonal colours. Gerhardt has really done the piece proud with his intense musicality and I agree with his comment quoted above; Brett has given the world a wonderful piece of music with this concerto.

Notturno inquieto was commissioned, and premiered on 14 June 2018, by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic as part of Rattle’s final concerts in Berlin as the orchestra’s Artistic Director. Dean appears to be acknowledging his former colleagues with this work. Starting with one solo viola, then a second, the viola section evokes a scene of nocturnal unrest, which culminates progressively until it becomes overlaid by a wind chorale. After a brief calmer section and with new energy, the piece reaches a massive climax, chaos reigns, but it suddenly calms down and ends in a restrained manner, with the music all but melting away ‘al niente’ – to absolute silence. The work’s Italian title is intended as a wink of friendly acknowledgment to its dedicatee, Simon Rattle, who would often clarify his musical intentions to the orchestra by using Italian terms. It’s conducted on this recording by Vladimir Jurowski, who became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Conductor Emeritus in 2021, following 14 years as Principal Conductor, during which his creative energy and artistic rigour were central to the orchestra’s success.

He also conducts The Players, where the soloist is Bartosz Glowacki (accordion), who is a winner of numerous competitions, he was awarded the Polish Young Musician of the Year in 2009 and represented Poland at the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition in Vienna. Bartosz graduated from London’s Royal Academy of Music and is now preparing his PhD thesis at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland. Of the piece, Dean writes, “Among the first sketches for the opera Hamlet that I wrote together with librettist Matthew Jocelyn between 2013 and 2016 were various ideas for solo accordion.” The result is The Players, a 20-minute concerto with mid-sized orchestra that revisits the players’ scenes from the first act of Dean’s Hamlet opera in a suite of five connected movements. The opera itself has been reviewed by my colleague, Richard Hanlon. The connected movements are called Prelude, Look, look! Look where my abridgement comes!, Fanfare, The players arrive, Pantomime and finally Postlude.

The Prelude starts very quietly, the accordion begins with fragments of music – a restless, ominous feeling and this along with the Postlude set the mood of the whole piece. The middle three movements are turbulent and full of energy with lots of changes in tempo, harmonic colour and motifs. The whole piece is atmospheric with feelings of creepiness, drama, tension, and threat. 

Dean’s most recent work on the CD is In spe contra spem, which translates as “Hoping Against Hope”. The conductor is once again Edward Gardner. The soloists are Emma Bell (soprano) and Elsa Dreisig (soprano). British soprano Emma Bell trained at the Royal Academy of Music and is a former winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award. Elsa Dreisig is a French-Danish native, who is rapidly establishing herself as one of today’s most captivating lyric sopranos. The song cycle In spe contra spem for two sopranos and orchestra represents a pivotal scene in which a confrontation between Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England takes place. In real life, Mary and Elizabeth, never met. Only on stage and screen do we see dramatic stand-offs between these two cousins and rival monarchs, be it in Friedrich Schiller’s play of 1800, Donizetti’s subsequent opera setting of it from 1838, or any of the numerous film and television adaptations. It’s understandable; it makes for a great climactic moment, full of tension and expectation. On this recording, the part of Elizabeth Tudor is sung by Bell and Mary Stuart by Dreisig. It’s in two parts containing five and then four movements respectively; the total piece is just over 30 minutes and depicts a confrontation happening between Elizabeth and Mary, although not necessarily happening in the same place. A copy of the text compiled by Matthew Jocelyn is included in the CD booklet.

The first movement is called Full Grievous Is The Way. It’s ghostly, tense and charged with emotion. The text tells us that Elizabeth is in conflict at the advice being given to her by her advisors “that this is, I troth, an irksome burden, a burden to me”. The second movement titled In Spe Contra Spem is Mary hoping against hope. In the text she sings, “I resolve now to strengthen myself in Jesus Christ, In Jesus Christ alone” Her musings feel unresolved and then at the end both sopranos sing “In Spe Contra Spem”. The third movement We Princes Are Set On Stages is again set with emotion and tension as Elizabeth laments the fact that she and her cousin are in the public eye, however towards the end both sing together gently “My closest kinswoman…Mistress, my best sister. In hoping against hope”. Next we hear Were We But As Two Milkmaids; it is a gentler piece, almost soothing, in which Elizabeth bemoans her and her cousin’s burden of responsibility. The final movement in Part 1 is La Fin De Mon Long Et Ennuyeux Pelerinage i.e. “The End of my Long and Troubled Pilgrimage” is sung mainly by Mary in which she begs Elizabeth to allow her body to be taken to France for burial; it’s a charged and tense ending.

Part 2 of the work begins with an instrumental Interlude, giving us a rest from the drama of the previous movement. It slowly gathers pace, becoming frenzied before it moves into the second movement I am not so Ignorant, Gentlemen. It’s a dialogue between the two sopranos, in which they both remain relatively restrained. The third movement is titled Yet I Find No Great Cause. The soloists sing slowly together ruefully, tension builds, the voices are well-matched, as the climax is reached. The movement ends with both singing “My death. Her death. Your death”. The final movement Accuse Me Not Of Presumption is once again tense. The final words of Mary are “In my end is my beginning. With that, I shall die as I have lived, Your loving sister … and prisoner.” Whilst Elizabeth’s are “In hoping against hope.” The whole piece is tense and emotionally charged, in keeping with the subject matter.

The CD booklet is excellent, packed with information. I am grateful to its authors, as it has been very useful to me in writing this review.

Ken Talbot

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Contents:
Amphitheatre (2000)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Enrique Mazzola
rec. live 18 January 2023
Three Memorials (2001 – 06)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Karina Canellakis
rec. live 19 October 2022
Viola Concerto (2004)
Lawrence Power (viola)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Hannu Lintu
rec. live 9 February 2022
Cello Concerto (2018)
Alban Gerhardt (cello)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Edward Gardner
rec. live 27 April 2022 (UK premiere performance)
Notturno Inquieto* (2018)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski
rec. live 8 December 2021
The Players (2018/19)
Bartosz Głowacki (accordion)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski
rec. live 5 December 2020 (UK premiere performance)
In Spe Contra Spem* (2022)
Emma Bell (soprano), Elsa Dreisig (soprano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner
rec. live 26 April 2023
*World premiere recordings