Mozart 252
Encyclopedia
Mozart 252 is a 2008
album by Michael Nyman
(his 58th release) with the Michael Nyman Band
, Hilary Summers
, and Andrew Slater, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's birth. Although "Revisiting the Don," one of only two newly-written works on the album, was commissioned and performed in 2006, the album's title is a joke on its lateness as an album, released 252 years after Mozart's birth ("it seemed more appropriate to miss the beat by two years"). The album also includes "In Re Don Giovanni," Nyman's first composition for the band, which is based on the first sixteen bars of "Madamina, il catalogo è questo
" from Don Giovanni
, six selections from Peter Greenaway
's film, Drowning by Numbers
, in which he was instructed to base the music on the slow movement Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante K. 364, and two duets and an aria from Nyman's television opera, Letters, Riddles and Writs
, in this recording featuring bass Andrew Slater as Leopold Mozart
and contralto
Hilary Summers as Wolfgang.
The album appears on emusic
's list of The Best Albums of 2008.
". "Knowing the Ropes" is based on a "wiggly" semiquaver in the piece.
"O my Dear Papa" (also referred to as "O My Dear Son") is translations of letters between Wolfgang and Leopold by Emily Anderson
and "I Am an Unusual Thing" her translation of a riddle and a reported conversation with Constanze Mozart
, while the text of "Profit and Loss" is written by Jeremy Newson, co-librettist and director of the television opera. "O My Dear Son" is based on "O Osiris
und Isis
" from Die Zauberflöte, and "I Am an Unusual Thing" draws music from Mozart's "Haydn Quartets
," while "Profit and Loss" overlays "In Re Don Giovanni" and then goes in a darker direction based on the same material.
Performed by the Michael Nyman Band
2008 in music
2008 was a huge year in music history with the emergence of pop superstars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry into the mainstream. Also, this is the year that is widely agreed upon by critics as the start of the fall of hip hop from the mainstream and the rise of Synthpop into the mainstream due to acts such...
album by Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
(his 58th release) with the Michael Nyman Band
Michael Nyman Band
The Michael Nyman Band, formerly known as the Campiello Band, is a group formed as a street band for a 1976 production of Carlo Goldoni's 1756 play, Il Campiello directed by Bill Bryden at the Old Vic...
, Hilary Summers
Hilary Summers
Hilary Summers is a Welsh contralto. She was trained at Reading University, the Royal Academy of Music, and the National Opera Studio in London. She has performed on soundtracks such as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Libertine, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
, and Andrew Slater, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's birth. Although "Revisiting the Don," one of only two newly-written works on the album, was commissioned and performed in 2006, the album's title is a joke on its lateness as an album, released 252 years after Mozart's birth ("it seemed more appropriate to miss the beat by two years"). The album also includes "In Re Don Giovanni," Nyman's first composition for the band, which is based on the first sixteen bars of "Madamina, il catalogo è questo
Madamina, il catalogo è questo
"" is a bass aria from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.It is sung in scene 5 of the first act of the opera, by Leporello, to Donna Elvira. It consists of a description and count of his master's lovers and is sung to a light-hearted tune...
" from Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, six selections from Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
's film, Drowning by Numbers
Drowning by Numbers
Drowning by Numbers is a 1988 British film directed by Peter Greenaway. It was entered into the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:The film's plot centers on three women — a grandmother, mother and daughter — each named Cissie Colpitts. As the story progresses each woman successively drowns her husband...
, in which he was instructed to base the music on the slow movement Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante K. 364, and two duets and an aria from Nyman's television opera, Letters, Riddles and Writs
Letters, Riddles and Writs
Letters, Riddles and Writs is a one act opera for television by Michael Nyman. The story is devised by Nyman, with a libretto by Jeremy Newson and Pat Gavin that incorporates Emily Anderson's English translations of correspondence and other texts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the subject of the...
, in this recording featuring bass Andrew Slater as Leopold Mozart
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
and contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
Hilary Summers as Wolfgang.
The album appears on emusic
EMusic
eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City with an office in London and owned by Dimensional Associates. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers....
's list of The Best Albums of 2008.
The music
Nyman's liner notes are relatively brief and refer the reader to Pwyll ap Siôn's The Music of Michael Nyman: Texts, Contexts and Intertexts for an extensive analysis of the relationship of Mozart's music to Nyman's. Nyman notes that "Not Knowing the Ropes" is the piece erroneously titled "Knowing the Ropes" on the original Drowning by Numbers soundtrack. The piece "Knowing the Ropes" is a sort of "list" in the way that "Trysting Fields" is a list, but he is unclear on the relationship of the two pieces, which are similar to one another. "Trysting Fields" is built out of every apoggiatura from the movement in order (each repeated three times), and ends with a bit of "rock and rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
". "Knowing the Ropes" is based on a "wiggly" semiquaver in the piece.
"O my Dear Papa" (also referred to as "O My Dear Son") is translations of letters between Wolfgang and Leopold by Emily Anderson
Emily Anderson
Emily Anderson, OBE was a British Foreign Office official and scholar of German.She was born in Galway, Ireland, the daughter of Alexander Anderson, president of Queens College Galway. Ms Anderson was educated privately and won the Browne Scholarship in 1909 at QCG, where she received a B.A. in 1911...
and "I Am an Unusual Thing" her translation of a riddle and a reported conversation with Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-Early years:Constanze Weber was born in Zell im Wiesental. Her mother was Cäcilia Weber, née Stamm. Her father Fridolin Weber worked as a "double bass player, prompter and music copyist." Fridolin's half-brother was the father of composer...
, while the text of "Profit and Loss" is written by Jeremy Newson, co-librettist and director of the television opera. "O My Dear Son" is based on "O Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
und Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
" from Die Zauberflöte, and "I Am an Unusual Thing" draws music from Mozart's "Haydn Quartets
Haydn Quartets (Mozart)
The "Haydn" Quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are a set of six string quartets published in 1785 in Vienna, dedicated to the composer Joseph Haydn. They are considered to be the pinnacle of Classical string quartet writing, containing some of Mozart's most memorable melodic writing and refined...
," while "Profit and Loss" overlays "In Re Don Giovanni" and then goes in a darker direction based on the same material.
Track listing
- In Re Don Giovanni
- Revisiting the Don
- Trysting Fields
- Not Knowing the Ropes [otherwise known as 2M6]
- Wedding Tango
- Wheelbarrow Walk
- Fish Beach
- Knowing the Ropes
- O my Dear Papa
- I am an Unusual Thing
- Profit and Loss
Personnel
- Music composed, directed and produced by Michael NymanMichael NymanMichael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
- Recorded, edited and mixed by Austin Ince
Performed by the Michael Nyman Band
Michael Nyman Band
The Michael Nyman Band, formerly known as the Campiello Band, is a group formed as a street band for a 1976 production of Carlo Goldoni's 1756 play, Il Campiello directed by Bill Bryden at the Old Vic...
- Michael Nyman, Simon Chamberlain, piano
- Ian Humphries, violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
- Gabrielle LesterGabrielle LesterGabrielle Lester is an English classical violinist and orchestra leader. She maintains an extensive discography of classical, popular and soundtrack recordings.-Career:...
, violin - Catherine Thompson, violin
- Kate Musker, viola
- Tony HinniganTony HinniganAnthony "Tony" Hinnigan is a musician from Glasgow. He is best known for his work with Michael Nyman , Ennio Morricone, and James Horner. He plays cello as well as Irish whistle and various Andean woodwind instruments...
, celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is... - Martin Elliott, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- David Roach, sopranoSoprano saxophoneThe soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
and alto sax - Simon Haram, soprano and alto sax
- Andrew FindonAndrew FindonAndrew Findon is an English flautist and saxophonist. Educated at Harrow County School for Boys, he trained as an orchestral flautist, and served as principal flute of the National Youth Orchestra in the early 1970s and three years at the Royal College of Music...
, baritone sax, fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, piccoloPiccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written... - Nigel Gomm, trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
- Steve SidwellSteve Sidwell (musician)Steve Sidwell is a conductor, composer, and instrumentalist specialising in swing music. Renowned as an arranger and composer, Steve, has featured on numerous albums, television shows, advertising campaigns and films with his distinctive and innovative orchestrations and compositions.He is also a...
, trumpet - Nigel BarrNigel BarrNigel Barr grew up as a member of the High Wycombe Salvation Army band. In 1980 he went to the Guildhall School of Music and studied trombone with Peter Gane and Denis Wick during that time he was also a member of International Staff Band playing bass trombone.Since then Nigel has had a varied...
, bass trombone, euphoniumEuphoniumThe euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...
- Hilary SummersHilary SummersHilary Summers is a Welsh contralto. She was trained at Reading University, the Royal Academy of Music, and the National Opera Studio in London. She has performed on soundtracks such as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Libertine, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
, contraltoContraltoContralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... - Andrew Slater, bass
- Assistant engineers:
- Abbey Road StudiosAbbey Road StudiosAbbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
2: Alex Scannell - Angel StudiosAngel StudiosAngel Studios is a commercial recording studio located on the corner of Upper Street and Gaskin Street Islington, London, England.The three-studio complex is in The Angel, a renovated United Reform Church. Some internal features of the church remain in the studio, such as the original Victorian...
3: James Stone
- Abbey Road Studios
- Olympic StudiosOlympic StudiosOlympic Studios was a renowned independent commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, Barnes, South West London, England. The studio is best known for the huge number of famous rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward....
1: Philippe Rose
- Mixed at Olympic Studios 28, 29 August 2007
- Assistant: Dave Emery
- Mastered by Austin Ince at Pentland Studio
- Special thanks to Nigel Barr, Lucy Bright, Jane Carter, Viviana D'Ambrosio, Rowan Drury, Annette Morreau, Jeremy Newson, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
- Design by Russell MillsRussell Mills (artist)Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, UK in 1952. He paints, creates multimedia installations, designs stage sets and lighting and has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins,Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch...
(shed) http://www.russellmills.com - Co-design Storm Clarke-Webster (BryanstonBryanstonBryanston is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour one mile west of Blandford Forum. The parish has a population of 968 . The village is adjacent to the grounds of Bryanston School, an independent school.The village was named after Brian de Lisle, a...
) http://www.michael-webster.co.uk - Cover photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
by Michael Nyman
External links
- Mozart 252 at MN Records