Simon Bainbridge

[jazzy_dave]

Yesterday in the post I received a cheque from the tax people for the princely sum of £11.

So I ordered this CD which had a glowing review in Wire back in 1999.

Simon Bainbridge - Ad ora incerta: No.1 "Il conto del corvo."

Born in 1952, Simon Bainbridge was influenced early on by Steve Reich's process music and by jazz - the chamber piece For MiIes paid tribute to Davis and especially his collaborations with Gil Evans.

Wire said -

"This intensely moving recording, one of the finest recent releases by NMC, is an orchestral song cycle which sets poems by the Italian Holocaust survivor and novelist Primo Levi. The four poems here were probably written in 1946, soon after Levi's release from Auschwitz. Although Bainbridge has written a number of concert work including concertos for viola, horn, and guitar, this is his most ambitious orchestral composition to date. The vocalist - here, mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley - is shadowed almost throughout by the bassoon of Kim Walker, with The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. The pairing of voice and bassoon is a brilliant stroke. The first three settings approach the terrible subject matter obliquely. In the first, "The Crow's Song", cascading lines represent the malign bird wheeling in flight, bringing its unspecified "bad news".

The second, "SunsetAt Fossoli", finds voice and bassoon in rhythmic unison but often diverging in pitch, to a spare backdrop of strings. The full horror is revealed in the final song, 'Bunan. wherein the terrifying opening section we hear the 'Wiles tremble at dawn" -the "bad news" direct Joined by the horn, the bassoon gives a sickly commentary, the writing displaying an often overwhelming yet controlled power."

I ordered in on eBay (£11.50 inc. postage) rather than Amazon's ridiculous price of £24 for a single CD.    This will be my ninth CD on the NMC label.