Second Child Berkeley Ensemble, Clare Hammond, Exaudi, Marmen Quartet

• Kevin Raftery (b. 1951): With the Marmen Quartet:
• 1 Raftery: String Quartet No. 2 "Serioso": I. Fragmented 10:07
• 2 Raftery: String Quartet No. 2 "Serioso": II. Cool, Poised, Alert 07:00
• 3 Raftery: String Quartet No. 2 "Serioso": III. 3 Themes with Variations 08:17
• With Clare Hammond on piano:
• 4 Raftery: Cook from Frozen 09:56
• With EXAUDI & James Weeks:
• 5 Raftery: Dimitte nobis 04:33
• With the Berkeley Ensemble (Sophie Mather & Francesca Barritt):
• 6 Raftery: Musica fermata 11:52
• With EXAUDI & James Weeks:
• 7 Raftery: 3 English Poems: No. 1, Ribblesdale 06:18
• 8 Raftery: 3 English Poems: No. 2, Unhaunted Desert 02:36
• 9 Raftery: 3 English Poems: No. 3, From Prison 03:07
• With the Berkeley Ensemble & Paul Cott:
• 10 Raftery: Elegy upon Elegy 12:35
• Total Runtime 01:16:21

Info for Second Child

Kevin Raftery was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1951 and studied composition with Peter Racine Fricker at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1989 he moved to London where he studied with Justin Connolly and maintained a dual career as musician and project manager until 2004 when he retired from non-musical work. Now a citizen of the UK and of Ireland, he sings in the New London Chamber Choir and plays bassoon in several ensembles. Composing, however, has always been his primary concern. This ‘Second Child’ album follows his first portrait recording for Métier, which included his First String Quartet and other chamber works. Here his Second Quartet is partnered with choral works (both sacred and secular), and works for solo piano, violin duo and ensemble. Raftery’s music may be mildly dissonant at times and harmonically adventurous, but is always brilliantly constructed: new music which is a joy to hear. The performers here are of the top flight. Clare Hammond is in great demand for recordings and recitals, and recently for film roles too. She was described by Gramophone as a ‘pianist of extraordinary gits’. EXAUDI is one the world’s leading vocal ensembles in the field of new music and while here they produce delightful renditions of relatively tonal works they also have a special affinity with the ‘radical edge’ of new music. The Marmen String Quartet, founded in 2013 at the Royal College of Music in London, is fast gaining a reputation for the vitality and vigour of their performances. They won major international competitions in 2019. The Berkeley Ensemble also specialises in the new – and also the neglected and forgotten. Its eight recordings (before this one) include 18 world premieres and have elicited great praise including a Gramophone award nomination.

Clare Hammond, piano
Marmen Quartet
EXAUDI
Berkeley Ensemble

Clare Hammond
Acclaimed as a “pianist of extraordinary gifts” (Gramophone) and “immense power” (The Times), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances. In 2016, she won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 'Young Artist Award' in recognition of outstanding achievement and in 2020 she was engaged to perform at the International Piano Series (Southbank Centre). This season she appears with the CBSO (Michael Seal) and BBC NOW, at the Aldeburgh and Husum Festivals, and presents Ghosts & Whispers at the Barbican Centre.

Performances during the pandemic included recitals for the Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh Music, a live recital broadcast for BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts from St David’s Cardiff, and broadcast recordings of Moussa and Carwithen with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Geoffrey Paterson) and BBC Concert Orchestra (Gavin Sutherland). During 2020-21, Clare was engaged to perform with the Britten Sinfonia (Ryan Wigglesworth), Sinfonia Varsovia (Jacek Kaspszyk), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Christoph Altstaedt) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Dalia Stasevska), while in recent seasons she has appeared with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Vasily Petrenko), BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Martyn Brabbins) and Philharmonia (Jamie Philips). In 2019, Clare released the Complete Keyboard Works of Myslivecek with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Nicholas McGegan) for BIS Records.

Clare’s discs for BIS have been widely praised with her latest, Variations, receiving extensive critical approval. The disc was commended for its “shimmering pianism and lightly-worn virtuosity” (BBC Music Magazine) and “artistry of the highest order” (Musical Opinion), while Crescendo (Belgium) hailed her as “one of the most exploratory pianistic personalities of our time”. Clare’s discography includes world premiere recordings of over 45 works.

Contemporary music is at the core of Clare’s work and she has given over 50 world premieres, including those of works by composers Kenneth Hesketh, Arlene Sierra, Robert Saxton and Michael Berkeley. An active chamber musician, Clare works regularly with the Carducci Quartet and Henning Kraggerud, and has started a new collaboration presenting concert plays with actor Tama Matheson. In 2018, she developed Ghosts & Whispers, a performance piece for piano and film, in collaboration with composer John Woolrich and animators, the Quay Brothers.

Community engagement forms an increasingly important part of Clare’s work. Since 2017, she has performed to over 8,800 schoolchildren in partnership with Gloucestershire Music and Wye Valley Music in Schools. She frequently gives children’s concerts and masterclasses at festivals in the UK and France, and runs an ongoing series of recitals in prisons.

Clare completed a BA at Cambridge University, where she obtained a double first in music, and undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and with Professor Rhian Samuel at City University London. She completed a doctorate on twentieth-century left-hand piano concertos in 2012. In 2014 Clare was paired with French pianist Anne Queffélec on the Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme run by the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Clare is grateful for the support of the RVW Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, John S Cohen Foundation, Arts Council England, Scops Arts Trust, Golsoncott Foundation, Gemma Classical Music Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Help Musicians UK, Stradivari Trust, Ambache Charitable Trust, British Korean Society, Chandos Memorial Trust, Vernon Ellis Foundation, Polish Cultural Institute, British Council, and the Britten-Pears Foundation.

Booklet for Second Child