Sally Beamish: The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone; The Caledonian Road; The Day Dawn; No, I'm not afraid (2000)

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Sally Beamish: The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone; The Caledonian Road; The Day Dawn; No, I'm not afraid (2000)

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This is the second recording by BIS of Sally Beamish’s music, and the four pieces it contains confirm utterly her high standing. Her work is thoughtfully lyrical, intense, individual, instinctively dramatic, in ways that remind me somewhat of Nicholas Mawmusic. Like him she has a particular gift for expressive harmony and timbre. The earliest piece here is No, I’m not afraid (1989), six poignant poems written from prison by Irina Ratushinskaya spoken – by Beamish herself – against sparse but hugely effective instrumental backgrounds and interspersed with five purely instrumental interludes. The disc opens with The Caledonian Road of 1997. The name of this piece refers not just to the north London thoroughfare remembered by Beamish from childhood but to her own pilgrimage northward to Scotland, where she now lives. The music resonates with a sense of ritual, of something inevitable. By contrast, the work that follows, the unabashedly poetic The Day Dawn (written for a summer school organised by Contemporary Music-making for Amateurs in 1997, and revised in 2000) derives from a Shetland fiddle tune, and is all about new beginnings. And finally there’s the saxophone concerto The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone (1999), whose starting point is a Swedish herding call – used as a kind of ritornello – but which is drenched in a plethora of references primeval, religious, mystical and contemporary, music at once hard and soft edged. Fine playing from the soloist, John Harle, in this work and throughout the disc by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Ola Rudner.

Review by Stephen Pettitt, BBC Music Magazine

British composer Sally Beamish's (b. 1956) career didn't take off until 1990, even though she had been composing since the age of four. Beamish's language is distinctly modern yet she writes in a primarily lyrical style that makes her music easily accessible. The four works here reveal different aspects of Beamish's deeply emotional and reflective artistic personality. The Caledonian Road opens with a plaintive oboe melody of a faintly Scottish character, establishing an atmosphere of isolation before the timpani steal in, Sibelius like, leading to agitated permutations in the full orchestra. The Day Dawn, scored for string orchestra, was inspired by an old Shetland fiddle tune and it varies in style and texture from country dancing to the shimmering sonic tapestry of John Adams' Shaker Loops.

No, I'm not afraid is a setting of six poems by Irina Ratushinskaya written during her years in a Soviet prison. Beamish juxtaposes the spoken verses against music that is at times nervously playful and at others deeply contemplative and poignant. Beamish herself provides the narration; her gentle voice and British accent lend an air of refinement to the verses that contrasts dramatically with Brian Elias' painfully bleak songs based on five of these same poems (type Q3661 in Search Reviews).

The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone, a Concerto for soprano saxophone and chamber orchestra, depicts "the moment at the solstice when light enters the prehistoric tomb." It begins with the haunting sound of a saxophone imitating a Swedish herding call, and from there the piece explores a variety of sounds "stored in stone for millennia", everything from primitive percussion to chants and psalms from Christian religious traditions. Saxophonist John Harle marvelously projects the music's power and rawness in his freewheeling solo performance, while Ola Rudner and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra provide idiomatic accounts of the orchestral scores. BIS' engineers grace the production with their usual startlingly realistic sound. A compelling introduction to Beamish's music, a composer well worth investigating.

Review by Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

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Sally Beamish: The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone; The Caledonian Road; The Day Dawn; No, I'm not afraid (2000)

Close

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Sally Beamish: The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone; The Caledonian Road; The Day Dawn; No, I'm not afraid (2000)

Close

×

Sally Beamish: The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone; The Caledonian Road; The Day Dawn; No, I'm not afraid (2000)

Close

×

Sally Beamish: The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone; The Caledonian Road; The Day Dawn; No, I'm not afraid (2000)

Close