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World Premieres of Three New Works by Huw Watkins

Oct. 01, 2021

On October 10, tenor Nicky Spence premiered Huw Watkins's Five Welsh Songs, with the composer at the piano. The performance took place at St. Andrew's Church in Wiveliscombe as part of the Two Moors Festival.

Members of the City of London Sinfonia – Alexandra Wood, leader/violin and Katherine Spencer, principal clarinet – premiere Huw Watkins's Five Duos for Clarinet and Violin on October 27 at Southwark Cathedral in London. The composer notes that he is, "hugely excited about writing  a duo for them – I love the idea of combining these two players’ (and these two instruments’) distinct yet complementary characteristics."

Finally, Huw Watkins's chamber opera for four voices, In the Locked Room, will be performed in concert at Wigmore Hall on November 3 alongside his song cycle Echo for soprano and piano.

In the Locked Room takes Thomas Hardy’s short story as its starting point. In the opera, we are transported to the present for a contemporary take on the novella which explores the power the mind can have over that person’s actions. A closed door sparks an obsession so strong that the boundaries between reality and fantasy begin to blur:

Ella Foley and her high-finance husband Stephen rent a room in a holiday home on the coast, owned by Susan Wheeler. Ella discovers that a locked room in the house is rented by a poet - Ben Pascoe - whose work holds a deep fascination for her. The room is held for Pascoe, though he visits rarely.

Ella's obsession with Pascoe grows in parallel with the progress of Stephen's biggest City deal. She begins by imagining the poet's voice as she reads his work, but this quickly grows to fantasized encounters with Pascoe in his locked room. Stephen returns from the City and makes love to Ella, but it is not him she wishes for. We see the real Pascoe only once, with Susan.


As Stephen's financial dreams are realised and Ella's fantasy consumes her, she learns of Pascoe's death. Despite her changed circumstances, Ella chooses to stay in her new world.

Listen to Huw Watkins's Four Fables (2018):

(Four Fables/Huw Watkins/Gould Piano Trio/Robert Plane, clarinet)


To learn more about Huw Watkins, visit: schott-music.com.

Huw Watkins
Five Welsh Songs
for tenor and piano

Five Duos for Clarinet and Violin
for clarinet and violin

In the Locked Room (2011-2012)
opera in one act
libretto by David Harsent, based on a short story by Thomas Hardy
1(pic).1(ca).1.1-1.1.0.0-1perc(crot, s.d, b.d, high metal block, high and med wdbl)-hp-str(1.1.1.2.1)
Ella Foley · soprano - Susan Wheeler · mezzo-soprano - Stephen Foley · tenor - Ben Pascoe · baritone
45'

Echo (2017)
for soprano and piano
texts by Rossetti, Dickinson, Larkin, Yeats and Harsent
15'

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