Gavin Higgins’ Horn Concerto & The Faerie Bride now on disc

Higgins’ Horn Concerto, written for Ben Goldscheider, takes its inspiration from the forest with three actions, Understory evoking the forest flooring, Overstorey taking us to the forest cover, and Mycelium Rondo which makes a nod to the fungal community that connects the timber. Higgins, who was born right into a brass banding household and who additionally performed the horn, displays the horn’s musical traditions with looking horns and fanfares, and using an ensemble of orchestral horns that evokes Schumann’s Konzertstuck.

The opening of the primary motion, nonetheless, takes us deep, deep into the Rhine with an evocation of Wagner’s Rheingold, and the solo horn emerges from this orchestral undulation. Higgins’ orchestral writing could be very detailed, we get a way of the roiling floor with numerous textures beneath, a wealthy tapestry that’s complicated but understandable. Goldscheider’s solo is a part of this, floating over or embedded however lastly he will get an exquisite solo second over mild atmospherics with horn calls to the fore. Because the music turns into extra cellular, with the orchestra pushing ahead, the solo half is busy certainly guaranteeing the motion ends with drama.

The second motion takes us excessive into the tree tops with quiet and eerie excessive textures, lastly the decrease devices be part of however at a unique tempo. This motion delights in presenting a number of layers, every shifting at a unique tempo, giving an actual really feel of house, and over which Goldscheider’s horn spins a rhapsodic solo line. Lastly issues wind down and the horn involves the fore once more over simply fragments and wisps of orchestra.

The finale is a particular nod to the rondos of Mozart’s concertos, however right here Higgins provides us very trendy pulse and rhythm, the joy echoed by Goldscheider’s vivid horn taking part in. The vigour and vitality lead us to some splendidly detailed counterpoint, and the climax is highly effective certainly, that includes tireless taking part in from Ben Goldscheider.

The work advantages, I feel from seeing it carried out in order that we will simply comply with the solo half. It is a large solo half, with heaps to do and loads of notes per sq. inch. Goldscheider performs tirelessly and provides no trace of the taxing nature of the half, a tour de drive certainly. The orchestra sound is terrific and we actually get a really feel for Higgins’ orchestral element.

Fanfare, Air and Thrives is a set for solo horn that Higgins created from three items written throughout lockdown. The Fanfare leans into the fanfare moments within the concerto while Thrives was written concurrently The Faerie Bride and has materials in frequent. Fanfare is all vivid vitality with Goldscheider and Higgins creating a way of the horn in dialogue with itself. Air is all lyric melancholy  while Thrives continues this temper however gathers momentum, changing into extra intense.

Gavin Higgins: The Faerie Bride Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Roderick Williams, BBC Nationwide Orchestra of Wales, Martyn Brabbins The Three Choirs Pageant 2023 (Picture: Dale Hodgetts)

Born within the Forest of Dean, Higgins seems Westward for the story on the centre of The Faerie Bride. Taken from the Purple E book of Hergest, the legend of The Woman of the Lake tells the story of a water spirit who marries an earthly man. He violates their settlement by putting three blows, in actual fact he denies her nature thrice, psychological fairly than bodily cruelty, and she or he returns to the lake. The piece explores concepts of the lake as liminal house in addition to the acquainted Celtic trope of the drawback of a mortal having a relationship with a fairy.

The librettist is Francesca Simon who wrote the libretto for Higgins’ opera The Monstrous Baby. Right here Simon provides us an elegantly structured, spare textual content whose repetitions assist to provide Higgins’ construction, but inside this he finds monumental selection. The Man, Roderick Williams, could be very a lot the narrator and although there are dialogues with the Lady, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, a lot of her function is taken up with a sequence of Welsh folksongs, with Higgins utilizing the Welsh textual content and melody to evoke the Lady’s otherness. After a prologue, the fundamentals of the plot are set out in The Lake, after which there are actions dedicated to Spring, Summer time, Autumn, Winter. The primary merely establishes issues, with a refrain of villagers that reoccurs, the Lady just isn’t fashionable. The next three seasons happen at a beginning, a wedding and a loss of life, when the Lady’s response is the other of what’s anticipated and the Man complains, putting one of many blows.

The music begins deep within the depths once more, because the music rises from the lake and creates a way of the liminal, with Fontanals-Simmons’ first Welsh track securely fastening her otherness. Roderick Williams makes an engagingly sympathetic narrator; while the Man’s behaviour is frustratingly silly, Williams makes it appear pure. Williams as story-teller is in his component main you on, and when Fontanals-Simmons engages him in dialogue the outcomes have moments of pleasure.

Higgins’ lake is a spot of magic, orchestral magic, with a Tippett-esque evocation of Spring, a vivid solo violin dancing on the Summer time marriage ceremony and the extra sombre temper for Winter. After the ultimate blow, the piece turns into positively gripping as Fontanals-Simmons provides an virtually ritualised reciting of every part that the Man is dropping as they return to the water together with her. The vividly realised orchestration lastly leaves the Man, alone and bereft because the music returns to the lake.

Higgins mines the cyclical nature of the story and of Simmons’ libretto, while his eye for orchestral element signifies that every motion is totally different. And total there’s a robust feeling of the conflict of cultures echoed within the totally different sound worlds.

The Faerie Bride is a really explicit piece, it’s described within the booklet notes as an oratorio. Maybe. I heard it reside in Gloucester Cathedral and while the efficiency as heard right here was fantastic certainly, the cathedral was not the best venue. The work was premiere at Aldeburgh and a venue the dimensions of the Maltings is maybe extra splendid. The recording hardly sounds reside, in that it has an admirable depth and element while slips are few. The microphones fairly convey the soloists ahead which, frankly, is not any unhealthy factor.

There’s a complexity and element to Higgins’ orchestral writing meaning having this disc provides us leisure to discover these fascinating works in larger element. And fortunately, there’s extra to return.