Notes and Editorial Reviews
Joby Talbot’s music is increasingly popular and its surface
attractions help to explain why. His 2008 ‘water symphony’,
the 72 minute Tide Harmonic began existence as a dance
score called Eau for a French production choreographed
by the American, Carolyn Carlson. It was first performed in
Lille in April 2008. This in turn generated the desire to record
the work, which was duly carried out the following year.
It is, as with all Talbot’s music, wholly approachable. It opens
with a flurry of droplet percussion, conjuring up precise but
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rather hypnotic warmth and moves from there with increasing
density (but clarity) of sound, thrumming toward open lyricism.
The instrumentation of five violins, viola, two cellos, bass,
two harps, and then piano, celesta and harmonium ensures that
textures are clear and aerated. The effusiveness of the two
harps, rippling away, gives its own sound-world to the five
movement symphony. Hadal Zone is the name of the second
movement, a frozen but never static place, indeed lissom in
its central section where one hears some rolled chords and romantic
expression, tangy tremolandi and a well managed steady crescendo.
The central movement sounds to me to be the Scherzo. Called
Storm Surge it is, at nine minutes, the most compact
of the five and also the most propulsive, with plenty of kinetic
wave energy — a storm at sea with funky patterns. Algal Bloom
returns us to thin strands of sound; it’s a kind of Adagio,
with plenty of minimalist sounding repeated pattern riffs, before
music accretes to music and it develops greater athleticism
and sweep. The finale is Confluence, a cleansing, rather lovely
affair — filmic, visual, the harp figures promising the hope
of renewal.
Talbot’s reputation as an accessible and enjoyable composer
will certainly take no hits from this latest recording. It’s
the antithesis of Boulez.
-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
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Works on This Recording
1.
Tide Harmonic by Joby Talbot
Performer:
Chris Worsey (Cello),
Rick Koster (Violin),
Morgan Goff (Viola),
Eos Chater (Violin),
Everton Nelson (Violin),
Steve Gibson (Percussion),
Deian Rowlands (Harp),
Jeremy Holland-Smith (Piano),
Joby Talbot (Piano),
Manon Morris (Harp),
Rob Farrer (Percussion),
Patrick Kiernan (Violin),
Ian Burdge (Cello),
Mary Sculley (Double Bass)
Conductor:
Jeremy Holland-Smith
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