RICHARD AYRES

 

NONcertos and others

 

No. 37b for Orchestra 23’00

1          I Alfred Wallis observes Saint Joseph at work and at leisure. 7’34

2          II Sjonnie Kurzak (a broken soul) ascends. 4’08

3          III but when Gippy Dixon opened his eyes, the procession was still continuing ... 4’08

4          IV Exit 7’10

(Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Roland Kluttig, conductor)

 

No. 36: NONcerto for Horn 21’52

5          Valentine Tregashian dreams... of the Swiss Girl 6’02

6          Valentine Tregashian dreams... of Jan Snaegl and the Pearly Gates 5’36

7-bs      Anna Filipiova goes on a journey... 10’14

(Wim Timmermans, horn, ASKO Ensemble, Roland Kluttig, conductor)

 

No. 31: NONcerto for Trumpet 18’37

8          Burlesque (with long scale) 5’37

9          Elegy for Alfred Schnittke 4’26

10         Rhapsody 8’34

(Marco Blaauw, trumpet, musikFabrik, Roland Kluttig, conductor)

 

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Wim Timmermans - horn

ASKO Ensemble

Marco Blaauw - trumpet

musikFabrik

Roland Kluttig – Conductor

 

 

Ayres studied composition, electronic music, and trombone. He moved to Den Haag to study with Louis Andriessen on the postgraduate composition course at the Royal Conservatoire. He settled in

Holland permanently and since2006 has taught at the Amsterdam Conservatoire. Ayres’ postmodern style is eclectic, comic and theatrical.

 

When asked what inspires his writing he replied ‘... consonance, dissonance, melody, texture, elephants, clouds, snowballs, anything, from any time and whenever it is needed – bound only by

the borders of my limited imagination’!

 

Ayres has won many awards, including the International Gaudeamus Prize for composition in 1994 during the Gaudeamus Music week and the Vermeulen Prize in 2003, the highest award for composition in the Netherlands.

 

This disc features two of Richard Ayres’ ongoing series of ‘NONcerti’ – a form he has invented which, he explains, is both an ‘un-concerto’ and an ‘uncertain concerto’. Rather than the traditional virtuoso soloist ‘battling’ with an orchestra, he explores ideas of collaboration, failure, imperfection and mortality, but expressed in a riot of melody, quotations and invented sounds.

 

His works often tell or illustrate a story, as the track-titles show, below: in No. 36 the solo horn player runs up and down ramps as part of its Alpine scenario, while No.37b, although not a NONcerto by

name, draws on the same narrative ideas. Based in Ayres’s Cornish-Swiss fantasy world the later stages of the first movement sees the two percussionists try some carpentry, one with a saw, the

other with a hammer, as if they are trying to nail the piece together.

 

NMC Recordings NMCD162