From February 2023: The three composers whose works appear on this album are interconnected—Ravel was a mentor to Lennox Berkeley, and Berkeley to Pounds.
Adam Pounds studied privately with Berkeley in London during the late 1970s, and in his own music has perpetuated the firm commitment of the two earlier composers to clarity and accessibility in everything they wrote.* His Third Symphony was written in 2021 and is a response to the national [UK] lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pounds states that the piece captures the ‘sadness, humour, determination and defiance’ which everyone faced at this time—not least musicians. Scored for relatively modest orchestral forces, the work is dedicated to Sinfonia of London and John Wilson, who give the work its world première recording.
- I. Largo – Poco più mosso – Allegro – Largo – Allegro
- II. Tempo di Waltz
- III. Elegy (hommage to Anton Bruckner). Larghetto (con dimissioni)
- IV. Allegro moderato – Largo – A tempo I
*I’ve read this twice, and I still don’t know what the hell it means.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Classical Music (PDF)”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
"I'll Be Dead Before You Break My Heart" 