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Huw Watkins: Symphony No. 2 & Concerto for Orchestra
£12.99
In stock
Catalogue Number
CDHLL7569
This album celebrates a warm and close musical relationship between composer, conductor and orchestra – and the extraordinary impact the Covid pandemic had on British cultural life. Sir Mark and the Hallé commissioned and premiered the works on this album between 2020 and 2025, with Huw Watkins writing with the specific sound of the Hallé in mind. Symphony No.2 and Fanfare for the Hallé were born of the pandemic. The symphony was composed during Covid lockdown and Watkins said this influenced the work’s character, with a determination that it should end positively. This is uplifting music, crafted in a symphonic tradition whilst offering a fresh voice and skilful use of instrumental writing. The performance was awarded the South Bank Sky Arts Classical Music Award for 2022. The Fanfare for the Hallé was commissioned by the Hallé to celebrate the return of the orchestra to the concert platform following the first Covid lockdown. Scored for 11 brass instruments the work moves from a tentative beginning to a confident and defiant conclusion – arguably reflecting much of the national mood during the pandemic. Following almost a quarter of a century as Music Director of the Hallé, Sir Mark premiered Watkins’ Concerto for Orchestra in his first concert as Conductor Emeritus. The piece particularly reflects the qualities of the orchestra and its musicians, and their longstanding relationship with Sir Mark. The work exudes positivity, with rhythmic deftness and highly effective orchestral colourations, displaying the musical strengths of all sections of the orchestra, in writing that is beguiling and joyous.
Manufacturer: Wyastone Estate Limited, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, NP25 3SR
Email: sales@wyastone.co.uk
Reviews:
"The album culminates with the Concerto for Orchestra, perhaps the most extroverted work and, at the same time, the one that best evidences Watkins' intimate knowledge of the Hallé. What makes this work particularly convincing is its architecture: despite the succession of virtuoso moments, Watkins avoids dispersion and maintains a clear narrative line. The direction of Elder —already as Coinductor Emeritus in the premiere— brings authority and fluidity, and there is a deep complicity between the podium and the orchestra.
Huw Watkins' music is accessible, intelligent without being hermetic. But, above all, this recording highlights the extent to which the continuous relationship between composer and orchestra can generate interpretations of rare authenticity. It is a coherent, well-defended and musically very satisfactory project." Marçal Borotau, Sonogram Magazine (Read full review here)
"Colourful, imaginatively structured, communicative without being banal, Huw Watkins’s music usually spreads instant delight. And often, in his orchestral music, it’s the same kind of delight.
One work might be a symphony and the other a concerto, but when miniature motifs chase each other, climaxes keep building and woodwind tendrils prettily curl, it’s hard keeping the two genres apart. Similar fingerprints occur in Watkins’s previous symphony, recorded by the Hallé in 2017. In making the family resemblances clear, Watkins, you could argue, is following the symphonic models of Mozart and Haydn, rather than Beethoven. And what’s wrong with that?... Meanwhile, the symphony and concerto show Watkins’s skill at orchestral bustle, and the central slow movements glory in lyrical contemplation, tugging at the listener’s heart. Instant delight, as I said." Geoff Brown, Classical Music (Brought to you by BBC Music Magazine)