Kenneth Lieghton Orchestral Music, Vol. 3 Martyn Brabbins & Fabien Gabel

• Kenneth Leighton (1929 - 1988): Symphony No. 1, Op. 42 (1963-64):
• 1 Leighton: I. Lento ma non troppo - Movendosi un poco di piu - Piu sostenuto - Ardente - Piu largo. Maestoso e sostenuto - Tempo giusto alla fine - 11:36
• 2 Leighton: II. Allegro molto ed impetuoso - Piu animato - Molto cantabile 08:21
• 3 Leighton: III. Molto adagio e sostenuto - Piu sostenuto - Declamato - A tempo. Sempre sostenuto - Sostenuto - Tempo giusto 15:34
• Concerto No. 3, Op. 57 'Concerto estivo' (1969):
• 4 Leighton: I. Introduction and allegro. Lento maestoso - 13:00
• 5 Leighton: II. Pastoral. Adagio, delicato e lontano - 11:54
• 6 Leighton: III. Final Variations. Allegro molto e brillante 12:06
• Total Runtime 01:12:31

Info for Kenneth Lieghton Orchestral Music, Vol. 3

This is the third volume in Chandos’ latest championing of the music of Kenneth Leighton, presenting two further premiere recordings. The previous volume, including Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia mistica), received tremendous critical acclaim, earning a Rosette in the latest Penguin Guide to Recorded Music. It was a Critic’s Choice in the December 2009 issue of Gramophone, Andrew Achenbach writing: ‘Chandos’ most valuable exploration of Kenneth Leighton’s large-scale output continues with this exhilarating coupling… Miss at your peril.’ International Record Review wrote: ‘I cannot do better than urge this new release on all those with ears to hear. For Leighton’s Sinfonia mistica is, I humbly submit, indeed a masterpiece.’

This latest volume includes the very successful First Symphony, completed in 1964, which won first prize in the 1965 City of Trieste international competition for a new symphonic work. It received its British premiere in October 1967 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Groves. In three movements, it is the only Leighton symphony to employ purely orchestral forces. The composer says that the opening movement ‘sets a mood of elegiac lyricism, and eventually becomes a strong, even desperate protest’, while the second movement, a vibrant scherzo, ‘loosens the reins, and on a spirit of rebellion seeks to arrive at an affirmative answer by sheer force of will’. He describes the final movement as the ‘expressive essence of the symphony… a movement of great beauty’.

The Third Piano Concerto was written in 1968 when the composer succeeded Edmund Rubbra as a fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. Leighton wrote: ‘On the whole the music is more relaxed, more lyrical, and certainly more tonal than that of the previous two piano concertos. And there is also much less emphasis on counterpoint and more on vertical sonorities. Its three movements follow the traditional fast – slow – fast form.’ The central Pastoral evokes ‘the warmth and stillness of a long hot summer afternoon… with a more agitated and dance like central section’. The final movement comprises a set of variations, based on the main theme of the work.

One of the most famous and recorded of pianists in the world today, Howard Shelley receives unanimous critical acclaim for his many recordings, whether on Chandos or other labels. Like the conductor, Martyn Brabbins, he has championed much rarely performed repertoire, this disc being only his his latest example.

“Shelley proves a marvellously stylish, involving exponent and is backed to the hilt by Brabbins and the BBC NOW. Chandos's sound and balance, too, are beyond reproach.” (GRAMOPHONE)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Martyn Brabbins
Howard Shelley, piano

KENNETH LEIGHTON (1929-1988)
Symphony No. 1, Op. 42 (1963-64)
I Lento ma non troppo - Movendosi un poco di più - Più sostenuto -
II Allegro molto ed impetuoso - Più animato - Molto cantabile -
III Molto adagio e sostenuto - Più sostenuto - Declamato - A tempo.
Concerto No. 3, Op. 57 'Concerto estivo' (1969)
for Piano and Orchestra
I Introduction and allegro. Lento maestoso - Con moto, dolce e ritmico -
II Pastoral. Adagio, delicato e lontano - Intenso - Molto adagio.
III Final Variations. Allegro molto e brillante - Più largo, ma tempo giusto sempre -

Martyn Brabbins
is one of Britain's leading and most versatile conducting talents. He has been Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of Sinfonia 21 since 1994. He is also Conducting Consultant at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Principal Conductor of the Huddersfield Choral Society and has been the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today Series Conductor since autumn 1999.

After studying composition in London and then conducting with Ilya Musin in Leningrad, he returned to the UK and, in 1988, won first prize at the Leeds Conductors' Competition. Since then he has conducted most of the major symphony orchestras in Britain, including the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Hallé and London Sinfonietta. He is much in demand abroad with orchestras of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, St Petersburg, Lahti, Bergen, Montpellier, Gulbenkian Lisbon, Gran Canaria, NDR Hannover and Ensemble InterContemporain.

Brabbins also works regularly at many of the leading UK summer festivals; he has conducted in venues from St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney, to the Royal Albert Hall, where he conducts at the BBC Proms every year. At the Edinburgh International Festival he has conducted Boulez Pli selon Pli. Indeed contemporary music is a priority in Martyn Brabbins’ schedules and in recent years he has championed the music of composers as varied as James Dillon, Jonathan Lloyd, Harrison Birtwistle, Steve Reich, James MacMillan, Minna Keal, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Robin Holloway.

On the concert platform he is particularly admired for his performances of British music, especially that of Walton, Britten and Elgar, but he is equally at home in the opera house. He has conducted Mozart in productions at the Kirov Opera and for English National Opera; he conducted a concert performance of Gavin Bryars' Medea with the BBCSSO and Schreker's Der Ferne Klang for Opera North. He conducted a double-bill of L'enfant et les Sortilèges and Les Mamelles de Tiresias at Montpellier Opera, repeating their production of Les Mammelles with La voix humaine in Athens.

In recent seasons he has conducted Don Giovanni with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, David Sawer’s From Morning to Midnight at English National Opera, Der Prinz von Homburg for Deutsche Oper Berlin and the world premiere of Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland with the Netherlands Opera.

Future plans include Troilus and Cressida for Opera North, and a double bill of Dallopicola operas, Prigioniero and Vollo di Notte, for Frankfurt Opera, as well as concerts throughout the UK, Europe and Canada, and recordings for Chandos, EMI and Hyperion Records.

As a recording artist he is also in great demand. His discography for the Hyperion label with the BBC Scottish continues to expand; they have over fifteen discs issued to date. He has also recorded works by Birtwistle, David Bedford and Finnissy for NMC; Rachmaninov and Scriabin for Collins Classics and a notable live recording of Britten's War Requiem for Naxos. His recording of Korngold's Die Kathrin with the BBC Concert Orchestra for CPO won the Opera Award at the Cannes International Music Festival.

Michael Collins
dazzling virtuosity and sensitive musicianship have made him one of today's most sought-after soloists. At 16 he won the woodwind prize in the first BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and at 22 made his American début at Carnegie Hall, New York.

Since then he has performed as a soloist with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the Philadelphia, NHK Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, City of Birmingham Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra. Since his first performance at the BBC Proms, Collins has returned to the festival more often than any other wind soloist, including several appearances at the renowned Last Night of the Proms.

As a chamber musician, he has a long standing relationship with Wigmore Hall and this season sees him enjoy a further residency there.

Indisputably one of the leading clarinettists of his generation, Collins has formed close alliances with conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Carlo Maria Giulini, Neeme Järvi, Tadaaki Otaka, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Leonard Slatkin and Mikhail Pletnev.

In recent seasons Collins has become increasingly highly regarded as a conductor and from September 2010 assumed the role of Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia. His successes as a conductor with both the City of London Sinfonia and other orchestras with whom he works as a guest conductor, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony and Johannesburg Philharmonic are testament to the persuasive musicianship and galvanising leadership that is evident in both his playing and conducting.

Olivier Charlier
is a modest man who has never courted the media but has made a name for himself as one of the finest violinists of his generation. He showed a precocious talent, graduating with a Premier Prix from the Paris Conservatoire (CNSM) at the age of fourteen, then reaping prizes at international competitions, including Munich, Montreal, Helsinki (Sibelius), Paris (Jacques Thibaud), Indianapolis, and New York (Young Concert Artists). Great artists such as Nadia Boulanger, Yehudi Menuhin and Henryk Szeryng spontaneously took the brilliant young musician under their wing.


Olivier Charlier is a fine representative of the French school of violin playing (that of Jacques Thibaud, Ginette Neveu, Christian Ferras) on stages all over the world. He has given concerts with about fifty different French orchestras, including all those of Paris (Orchestre National, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonique de Radio France, Opéra, Ensemble Orchestral, etc.), and all the regional orchestras (Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Orchestre National des Pays de Loire, Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lille, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Cannes, Nice, etc).


He also appears regularly with major international orchestras: London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, CBSO, Berlin Symphony, Hamburg and Saarbrücken Radio Orchestras, Württemberg Chamber Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk, Tonhalle Zurich, Netherlands Philharmonic, the orchestras of The Hague, Monte-Carlo, Prague, Zagreb, New York, Montreal, Quebec, Mexico, Tokyo, Sydney, and so on.


Olivier Charlier’s active recording career reflects his eclecticism ; it includes (for Chandos) the violin concertos by Dutilleux (‘L’arbre des songes’), Lalo (Russian Concerto and Concerto in F), Edward Gregson, Gerard Schurmann (all of them with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Roberto Gerhard Concerto (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra); (for Erato) the Mendelssohn Concertos with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic and Lawrence Foster; (for EMI France) Saint-Saëns with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and Jean-Jacques Kantorow. Olivier Charlier appears regularly with outstanding international orchestras such as Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle Orchestre Zurich, London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Halle Orchestra, CBSO Birmingham, Residentie Orchestre of The Hague, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Munich, Hamburg, Saarbrücken, Budapest, Prague, Monte Carlo, Turin, New York, Pittsburgh, Montréal, Mexico, Sydney, Tokyo... Mr. Charlier has a distinguished recording career, including many violin concertos: (for Chandos) Dutilleux L'arbre des Songes, Lalo (Russian concerto and concerto in F), Edward Gregson, Gerard Schurmann, (all with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra), Roberto Gerhard's concerto (BBC Symphony), Mendelssohn's both concertos with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo and Lawrence Foster (Erato), Saint-Saens with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and Jean-Jacques Katorow (EMI France). He recorded as well numerous French sonatas with Jean Hubeau: Franck, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Pierné, Vierne (Erato), and sonatas by Schumann, Grieg, and Beethoven with Brigitte Engerer (Harmonia Mundi). Olivier Charlier is professor of violin at the Paris Conservatory, and regularly jury member at international violin competitions: Paris Long-Thibaud, Indianapolis, Hanovre, Munich, Helsinki Sibelius...

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