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Three Premieres from Huw Watkins with Stile Antico, Orchestra of the Swan, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

May. 01, 2014

Three Premieres from Huw Watkins with Stile Antico, Orchestra of the Swan, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

May 2014 is a banner month for British composer Huw Watkins with two world premieres in the UK and an American premiere at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

On May 11, acclaimed chamber choir Stile Antico gives the world premiere of The Phoenix and the Turtle at London’s Wigmore Hall. Based on Shakespearian texts, the new choral work is highlighted as part of the ensemble’s “Golden Age of Choral Music”, and receives its premiere alongside of such choral giants as Palestrina, Praetorius, Byrd, Tallis and Taverner.

On May 30, soprano Ruby Hughes joins the Orchestra of the Swan and artistic director David Curtis in the world premiere of Watkins’s orchestral song-cycle, Remember. Commissioned as part of the orchestra’s “Composer in the House” program where Watkins serves as composer-in-residence, the 10-minute work for voice and strings features English texts by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Hardy, Philip Larkin, and Christina Rossetti. Remember was written for Hughes, who premiered the role of “Ella” in Watkins’s chamber opera, In the Locked Room. Watkins elaborates: 

Remember takes up some of the themes of the opera, which explores the darker depths of human emotion – unhappiness, yearning, and obsession. In the four poems set here, loss and longing are realized through achingly beautiful lyricism and the delicate balance between voice and string orchestra.

The US premiere of Blue Shadows Fall takes place on May 22, when Watkins joins the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as guest composer and pianist. Co-commissioned by Lincoln Center and Wigmore Hall, the 12-minute work for cello and piano premiered in 2013 featuring both the composer and his brother, cellist Paul Watkins, who joins the composer again for the American premiere.

Additionally this month, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and soloist Adam Walker perform the composer’s Flute Concerto as part of the 2014 Vale of Glamorgan Festival. The performance takes place on May 14 in Cardiff, Wales.

For more information on Huw Watkins, please visit www.schott-music.com. 

Concert details can be found at www.wigmore-hall.org.uk, www.orchestraoftheswan.org, lc.lincolncenter.org, and valeofglamorganfestival.org.uk. 

Huw Watkins
The Phoenix and the Turtle (2014)
for SATB chorus (minimum 12 voices)
5’ 

Remember (2014)
texts (Eng) by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Hardy, Philip Larkin, Christina Rossetti
for soprano and string orchestra
10’

Blue Shadows Fall (2012-2013)
for cello and piano
12’

Flute Concerto (2013)
for flute and orchestra
pic.1.2.2(2.bcl).2(2.cbsn)-4.2.0.0-perc(tub bells, tri, cym, b.d, wdbl)-hp.cel-str
20’

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