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Horizon 7

Bejun Mehta (countertenor), Dominic Seldis (double bass)

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nederlands Kamerkoor, George Benjamin, David Robertson, Daniel Harding

Horizon 7
Benjamin’s song cycle … has a warm (and sometimes searing) sensuality which is eloquently projected by Bejun Mehta … Tan Dun’s Wolf… [is] a virtuoso vehicle for bass player Dominic Seldis, and...

Horizon 7

Bejun Mehta (countertenor), Dominic Seldis (double bass)

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nederlands Kamerkoor, George Benjamin, David Robertson, Daniel Harding

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Benjamin’s song cycle … has a warm (and sometimes searing) sensuality which is eloquently projected by Bejun Mehta … Tan Dun’s Wolf… [is] a virtuoso vehicle for bass player Dominic Seldis, and...

About

The seventh release in RCO Live's Horizon series features world premieres recorded during three concert seasons. Magnus Lindberg's sumptuous 'Era' – a birthday present from the Concertgebouw Hall to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - dates from the 2012-2013 season. Both Tan Dun's catchy double bass concerto 'The Wolf' and Richard Rijnvos's 'fuoco e fumo' about the 1996 destruction by fire of the Venetian opera house La Fenice, are from 2015. The programme opens with a beguiling 20-minute work for countertenor, women’s voices and orchestra, 'Dream of the Song', Benjamin’s first work since his ground-breaking opera 'Written on Skin', was premiered in September at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw by the countertenor Bejun Mehta, the ladies of the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by its composer. The work sets verse by three major poets who spent formative years in Granada; two Hebrew poets of mid-11th century, Samuel HaNagid and Solomon Ibn Gabirol (sung by solo countertenor in English versions by Peter Cole), and Gabriel Garcia Lorca (sung by the female chorus in the original Spanish). Commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw, BBC and Boston Symphony Orchestras and the Festival d’Automne, the work received its UK premiere on 18 March with Iestyn Davies, the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen.

Recorded live at Concertgebouw Amsterdam on 17-18 January 2013 (Lindberg), 29-30 January 2015 (Tan Dun), 12 June 2015 (Rijnvos), 25-26 September 2015 (Benjamin)

Contents and tracklist

I. The Pen
Track length2:54
II. The Multiple Troubles of Man
Track length3:41
III. Gazing Through the Night - Casida del Llanto (Casida of the Weeping)
Track length5:02
IV. Gacela del Amor Maravilloso (Gacela of Marvellous Love)
Track length2:23
V. The Gazelle
Track length2:52
VI. My Heart Thinks as the Sun Comes Up - Casida del Herido por El Agua (Casida of the Wound by Water)
Track length2:36
I. Largo melancolica - Allegro
Track length10:41
II. Andante molto
Track length6:15
III. Allegro vivace
Track length5:00

Awards and reviews

November 2016

Benjamin’s song cycle … has a warm (and sometimes searing) sensuality which is eloquently projected by Bejun Mehta … Tan Dun’s Wolf… [is] a virtuoso vehicle for bass player Dominic Seldis, and like everything else on the CD, is immaculately recorded and expertly performed

CD Review 29th July 2016

channelling the spirit of Sibelius, not only in that obvious homage to the 4th Symphony a century earlier, but also in the way Lindberg layers tempos; an apparently fast speed in the foreground while the foundations below move with a kind of glacial inevitability.

July 2016

The true wonder of the RCO’s ‘Horizon’ series is in the sonic journey each record presents. And you’ll want to hear George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song, especially in this almost creepily perfect performance from Bejun Mehta…[the] breathtaking, chameleonic playing from Seldis that tells you why he’s this incredible orchestra’s principal

26th May 2016

Mehta…is alive to the sense of every syllable. The whole performance projects Benjamin’s soundworld and its luxurious interplay between instruments and voices far more vividly than it came across at the Barbican; it’s easily the most striking score in this collection.
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