Humet: Niwa Ramon Humet, London Sinfonietta & Nicholas Collon

• Ramon Humet (b. 1968): Quatre jardins zen.:
• 1 Quatre jardins zen. Prelude 01:07
• 2 Quatre jardins zen. I 03:43
• 3 Quatre jardins zen. Interlude I 00:46
• 4 Quatre jardins zen. II 03:28
• 5 Quatre jardins zen. Interlude II 00:57
• 6 Quatre jardins zen. III 04:40
• 7 Quatre jardins zen. Interlude III 01:11
• 8 Quatre jardins zen. IV 01:57
• 9 Quatre jardins zen. Postlude 01:15
• Silence I:
• 10 Silence I 00:53
• Jardín de haikus.:
• 11 Jardín de haikus. I. Luminoso 01:14
• 12 Jardín de haikus. II. Nervoso 01:17
• 13 Jardín de haikus. III. Energico 00:43
• 14 Jardín de haikus. IV. Sospeso 02:17
• 15 Jardín de haikus. V. Secco 00:32
• 16 Jardín de haikus. VI. Estatico 01:54
• 17 Jardín de haikus. VII. Scorrevole 01:45
• 18 Jardín de haikus. VIII. Scherzando 01:06
• 19 Jardín de haikus. IX. Energico 01:41
• 20 Jardín de haikus. X. Espressivo 01:51
• Silence II
• 21 Silence II 00:44
• Pètals.:
• 22 Pètals. I. The longest winter night:… 05:47
• 23 Pètals. II. …plum petals fall… 05:44
• 24 Pètals. III. …and finally the western moon. 07:39
• Silence III
• 25 Silence III 00:23
• Total Runtime 54:34

Info for Humet: Niwa

"Ramon Humet's music is delicate and subtle, with high poetic imagination. Humet is a hope for the future; he has a fine ear, and a spirit full of light." Jonathan Harvey

The garden demarcates a space and establishes order where once capricious nature reigned, it creates a pleasant landscape sprung from the imagination of the one who designed it. When the wanderer enters, without hurry, the garden transforms time: everything seems to slow down and flow gently to the liturgy of wood and water, wind and rock. The garden is, after all, a metaphor for the world that has watched it grow. Like a Japanese garden, the music of Ramon Humet is beautiful, refined, transparent, and often playful. It is so, both in intention and in the measured use of the means employed, –I cannot but relate his music to Joan Miró's series Constellations. His work is capable of conveying the happy fascination of a child making a new discovery: music of magical smiles built on a foundation of solid technique. Music that flows naturally, –a feat in itself!– that seems to disguise the hours of experimentation and careful thought that went into its composition.

For some years now, Humet has been struck by the sensitivity of ancient Japanese culture. This has meant, inevitably, gazing at surrounding nature and finding beauty in every detail. And every object in the environment, whether stone, leaf, star or insect, becomes a universe of sensations that interact and, ultimately, lead to a spiritual attitude towards life. A fascination with Japanese art also implies stripping one’s discourse of superfluous elements in order to arrive at that which is essential. Hence the use of haiku as the starting point for many compositions. The ability to evoke these lines of scant syllables is so surprising that it has tied the music inseperably to the associated images. We should not think, however, that this is descriptive music in the usual sense: it is, rather, a successful symbiosis between different arts.

Having captured the spirit, the visual elements and the form’s rigour, it just remained for the author to concentrate on the sounds. The bamboo flute was the starting point. In fact, Humet had long been captivated by shakuhachi, to the extent of taking regular classes in order to play it himself. This knowledge from the inside hasallowed him to integrate aspects of the ancient flute into his music: its tonal inflections, the presence of air as an essential part of musical discourse, the meditative nature of the music.

However, his sensitivity towards Asian culture has germinated in very fertile ground, planted long before. Ramon Humet’s restless personality has been forged in various fields: musical, literary, technological, and that of life itself. The study of the piano, at first, and, later, of traditional composition, provided the essential theoretical and practical basis for the development of professional skills –a "necessary" condition, as he says, but "insufficient in itself to create interesting music". His knowledge of engineering, meanwhile, has made it simpler to apply technology to performance and composition. But the real turning point was meeting Jonathan Harvey, in the summer of 2000, during the workshop for young composers of the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia. From that meeting, new creative horizons opened up, above all the influence of spectralism, –mostly in practical terms, of research and treatment of materials, rather than in a dogmatic sense. From here arose the passion for all those composers –George Benjamin, György Ligeti, Toru Takemitsu, Per Norgard– who are so careful with harmony, subtle in their modulation of orchestral colour, true to the desire to innovate without destroying the link with tradition. This last aspect is crucial for those who approach the legacy of the Masters "with great respect and admiration". Talking with Ramon Humet means sharing the delight he takes in art, the poetry of Basho or Pessoa, or the polyphonic music of the Renaissance. He has never ceased to transmit an enviable enthusiasm for everything he does.

Residing in a small village of the Baix Camp area, at the foot of a rocky hill, the author has left behind the constant tumult of the big city of his birth, valiantly rejecting everything that is not essential to be able to compose. Always aware of recent developments, of significant changes, –his isolation has nothing to do with an apocalyptic attitude, and he is perfectly integrated into today’s culture–, the composer sits at his table, a cup of green tea in his hand, and goes back to his music, -humbly, rigorously, and with love -, picking up from the point where he left it the day before.

“Ramon Humet’s music is delicate and subtle, with high poetic imagination. Humet is a hope for the future; he has a fine ear, and a spirit full of light.” (JONATHAN HARVEY)

“Exquisitely simple, but endlessly deep.” (THE INDEPENDENT)

“The recording is spectacularly vivid, and it’s easy to appreciate the exotic soundworlds Humet invents in Quatre Jardins Zen (for three percussionists) and the crisp imagery of the 10 miniatures of Jardin de Haikus.” (THE GUARDIAN)

London Sinfonietta
Alexandra Wood, violin
Lionel Handy, cello
Huw Watkins, piano
David Hockings, percussion
Serge Vuille, percussion
Oliver Lowe, percussion
Nicholas Collon, conductor

The London Sinfonietta
mission is to place the best contemporary classical music at the heart of today’s culture; engaging and challenging the public through inspiring performances of the highest standard, and taking risks to develop new work and talent.

The ensemble is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre with headquarters at Kings Place, and continues to take the best contemporary music to venues and festivals across the UK and worldwide with a busy touring schedule. Since its inaugural concert in 1968 – giving the world premiere of Sir John Tavener’s The Whale – the London Sinfonietta’s commitment to making new music has seen it commission over 300 works, and premiere many hundreds more.

The core of the London Sinfonietta is 18 Principal Players, representing some of the best solo and ensemble musicians in the world. The ensemble has just launched its Emerging Artists Programme, which will give professional musicians at the start of promising and brilliant careers the opportunity to work alongside those Principal Players on stage across the season.

The London Sinfonietta’s recordings present a catalogue of 20th-century classics, on numerous prestigious labels as well as the ensemble’s own London Sinfonietta Label.

Nicholas Collon
British conductor Nicholas Collon is Founder and Principal Conductor of the ground-breaking Aurora Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Guerzenich Orchester in Cologne, and Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague until 2021, when he takes up the reins as Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony – the first non-Finnish conductor ever to hold this post.

His elegant conducting style, searching musical intellect and inspirational music-making have prompted guest invitations from orchestras such as the DSO Berlin, Bamberg Symphony, Danish National Symphony and many of the leading British orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Halle Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony; also the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Ensemble Intercontemporain and Les Siècles. Last season he made his North American debut with the Toronto Symphony and his Japan debut with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, also conducting the Oslo Philharmonic and Orchestre National de France for the first time.

Together with his Aurora Orchestra, he forms the centrepiece of the 2019 BBC Proms Berlioz celebrations, conducting a staged and memorised performance of the Symphonie Fantastique at the Royal Albert Hall which will be televised. Appearing at the Proms every year since 2010, they have also become regular visitors to leading European venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Cologne Philharmonie, returning to both this season and touring to the Bremen, Rheingau and Gstaad festivals. Aurora Orchestra is Resident Orchestra at Kings Place and Associate Orchestra at the Southbank, where they are reinventing the concert format with their Orchestral Theatre Series. In May 2019 this featured a programme of Mozart and Max Richter entitled ‘Music of the Spheres’, subsequently recorded for release on Deutsche Grammophon.

In 2019/20 Collon debuts with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and returns to the Finnish Radio, Danish National, Orchestre National de Lyon, Dresden Philharmonic and Halle Orchestra. After conducting Strauss Alpine Symphony with the Guerzenich Orchestra last season, he returns there for Szymanowski and the St Matthew Passion. With the Residentie Orkest he conducts several programmes at the Concertgebouw and performs Bruckner Symphony No. 5 at the Amsterdam Musiekgebouw Bruckner festival.

Collon has recorded two critically acclaimed recordings with Aurora for Warner Classics: ‘Road Trip’ featuring music by Ives, Copland, Adams and Nico Muhly (winning the prestigious 2015 Echo Klassik Award for ‘Klassik Ohne Grenzen’) and ‘Insomnia’ with music by Britten, Brett Dean, Ligeti, Gurney and Lennon and McCartney. He has also recorded Haydn and Ligeti with the Danish Radio Symphony, Britten and Delius with the Philharmonia, and several discs of contemporary repertoire with the Hallé Orchestra. He has conducted over 200 new works, including the UK or world premieres of works by Unsuk Chin, Phillip Glass, Colin Matthews, Nico Muhly, Olivier Messiaen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Judith Weir, and this season features works by Thomas Adès and Brett Dean.

Opera productions have included Peter Grimes and Don Giovanni for Oper Koeln, Magic Flute at English National Opera, Jonathan Harvey Wagner Dream at Welsh National Opera, Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and Turn of the Screw at the Aldeburgh Festival with Aurora Orchestra

Born in London, Collon is a violist, pianist and organist by training, and studied as Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge.

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