CDs

Kokoschka’s Doll

Our most recent CD, Kokoschka’s Doll, is a recording of our latest commission from John Casken, featuring Sir John Tomlinson and Rozanna Madylus. Telling the story of the tempestuous affair of Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler, the score weaves poetic and epistolary texts by Kokoschka into a musical fabric that references fin-de-siècle Vienna (including the music of Wagner and Alma Mahler) while being of our own time. Kokoschka’s Doll is complemented by a sequence of music and text, featuring the work of Gustav and Alma Mahler, Wagner and Zemlinsky, under the title The Art of Love: Alma Mahler’s Life and Music. For more details see Projects

Champs Hill
CHRCD150
Playing Time: 81 mins

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Kokoschka’s Doll – John Casken

ensemble, bass, mezzo-soprano, text by John Casken and Barry Millington, drawing on Oskar Kokoschka’s letters and autobiography

1 Laue Sommernacht (Alma Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 2:13
2 Licht in der Nacht (Alma Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 3:36
3 Erntelied (Alma Mahler, arr. David and Colin Matthews)
4 Einsamer Gang (Alma Mahler) 3:13
5 Selige Stunde (Alexander Zemlinsky) 1:47
6 Adagietto (Symphony no. 5, extract) (Gustav Mahler, arr. Iain Farrington) 3:57
7 Liebst du um Schönheit (Gustav Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 2:16
8 Wo die schönen Trompeten (Gustav Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 7:17
9 Trio movement (Anton Webern) 1:02
10 Transformation (David Matthews) 1:20
11 Träume (Richard Wagner, arr. David Matthews) 4:31
12 Isolde’s Liebestod (Richard Wagner/Franz Liszt) 7:14
13 Kokoschka’s Doll (John Casken) 38:29

All tracks except 5 and 12 are premiere recordings

Deadly Pleasures

The acclaimed ensemble Counterpoise brings its groundbreaking repertoire to CD for the first time with two of its most successful commissions for spoken narrator and ensemble. In John Casken’s Deadly Pleasures, Donald Maxwell tells the story of nights of passion and subsequent forfeits at Cleopatra’s court, while in David Matthews’ Actaeon, Eleanor Bron narrates Ovid’s tale of Diana and Actaeon in Ted Hughes’ vibrant translation. Britten’s jazz-inflected Cabaret Suite and the Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, played on the soprano saxophone, complete the programme.

Deux-Elles
DXL 1151
Playing Time: 66 mins

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Deadly Pleasures – John Casken

ensemble, narrator, text by D.M. Thomas after Pushkin

1 Cleopatra’s Challenge; Flavius, the Old Soldier; Kriton,
the Youthful Musician; A Nameless Man 29:59

Six Metamorphoses after Ovid – Benjamin Britten
soprano saxophone

2 Pan 2:43
3 Phaeton 1:22
4 Niobe 2:48
5 Bacchus 1:57
6 Narcissus 3:43
7 Arethusa 3:07

Actaeon – David Matthews
ensemble, narrator, text by Ted Hughes after Ovid

8 Actaeon encounters Diana; Metamorphosis; The Hunt;
Epilogue 14:14

Cabaret Suite – Benjamin Britten, arr. Iain Farrington
ensemble

9 The Spider and the Fly 3:28
10 Funeral Blues 2:40
11 Boogie-woogie 2:27
12 When you’re Feeling Like Expressing your Affection 1:21