ARTISTS
The BBC Symphony Orchestra has played a central role at the heart of British musical life since its inception in 1930, and as the flagship orchestra of the BBC provides the backbone of the BBC Proms with at least a dozen concerts each year, including the First and Last Nights. Strongly committed to twentieth-century and contemporary music, it has given the premiere of more than 1,000 works by composers such as Bartók, Britten, Hindemith, Holst, Stravinsky and Shostakovich, and more recently has premiered BBC commissions by Simon Bainbridge, Jonathan Dove, Michael Nyman and Sir John Tavener among others. Its annual season of concerts as Associate Orchestra of the Barbican includes a weekend each January focusing upon a single composer from the twentieth or twenty-first century, most recently James MacMillan, Elliott Carter and Sofia Gubaidulina.
Jiří Bĕlohlávek took up the post of Chief Conductor in July 2006 and David Robertson was appointed Principal Guest Conductor in 2005. The BBC SO works frequently with Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew Davis and Artist-in-Association John Adams. All concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and a number are televised, giving the BBC Symphony Orchestra the highest broadcast profile of any orchestra in the UK. The BBC SO is committed to innovative education work, with ongoing projects including the BBC SO Family Orchestra and Music Intro, introducing families to concert-going.
The BBC SO has appeared on 34 of NMC’s CDs, including the best-selling recording of Elgar’s Third Symphony.
Born in Sussex, Mark Wigglesworth studied music at Manchester University and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Whilst still a student, he formed The Premiere Ensemble, an orchestra committed to performing a new piece in every programme. A few weeks after leaving the Academy, he won the Kondrashin International Conducting Competition in The Netherlands, and since then has worked with many of the leading orchestras and opera companies of the world.
In 1992 he became Associate Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; further appointments have included Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In addition to concerts with most of the UK's orchestras, Mark Wigglesworth has regularly guest conducted Europe's leading ensembles, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He has been equally busy in North America, having been invited to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and the Boston Symphony.
Alongside his symphonic conducting, Mark Wigglesworth has always been equally at home in the opera house, beginning with a period as Music Director of Opera Factory, London, and since involving Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera and English National Opera, as well as engagements with the Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
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COMPOSERS
DESCRIPTION
An encore for three cult works previously issued as singles on NMC and now available on one disc: Howard Skempton's Lento; Dominic Muldowney's Oboe Concerto; and Barry Guy's After the Rain.
REVIEWS
"After the Rain wears its heart on its sleeve which, given the urgency of its images and the freshness of its inspiration, is precisely where it should be."
Gramophone 1994
RECORDING CREDITS
Skempton: Lento
Recording date: 9 August 1991
Recording venue: Royal Albert Hall, London
Engineer: Helen Robson / Producer: Martin Cotton
Muldowney: Oboe Concerto
Recording date: 1 October 1992
Recording venue: Henry Wood Hall, London
Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason, Geoff Miles / Producer: Colin Matthews
Guy: After the Rain
Recording date: 10 May 1992
Recording venue: All Saints Petersham
Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason, Andrew Hallifax / Producer: Colin Matthews
Cover image: Michael Trevillion
(P) 1996 NMC Recordings Ltd
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