John Casken, qui célèbre son 60e anniversaire en 2009, la valeur de Christina Rossetti de la mi-hiver sombre - un poème popularisé par le paramétrage de Gustav Holt du même nom - Alwinton et Holystone Church Choir près d'où le compositeur vit à Northumberland. Un carol traditionnel basé sur la Nativité, il peint une image vivante de la froideur de l'hiver et est idéal pour les chorales désireux de s'éloigner de la bien connue, tout en conservant un élément de la tradition. Constamment fluidité des lignes orgue créant un sentiment de malaise, mais c'est la musique enlevante avec crescendos subtils et puissant homophonique écrit pour la voix. / Choeur Mixte (SATB) Et Orgue

L'oeuvre explore quelque chose de la façon dont nous pourrions vivre l'hiver. Le titre est un jeu de mots et le sens normal de bobines que des danses infecte à la fois le premier mouvement, avec ses rythmes cadencés triplets, et le dernier mouvement qui incorpore une vigoureuse bobine mélodie unisson qui se déroule dans le cadre d'une série d'épisodes énergétiques . La chanson du deuxième mouvement est une ligne de chant depuis longtemps fait du violoncelle, et l'ensemble, ici comme ailleurs, est coloré dans la percussion par l'utilisation d'un poêle en acier.John Casken / Ensemble

for soprano and piano. Par CASKEN JOHN. Chansons de Verlaine were completed in 2006. The third song, Colloque sentimental, was written in 2003 for Alison Smart and Katharine Durran’s New French Song project. It was as a result of having written one short song to words by Verlaine that I subsequently decided to set two further poems to make a group of three. All three were also set by Debussy: L’ombre des arbres and Chevaux de bois appear in Ariettes Oubliées, while Colloque sentimental belongs to Debussy’s second set of Fêtes Galantes. The poems I have grouped together are linked by the idea of three different landscapes. In the first, Verlaine precedes the words of his own sad, pale landscape with words from Cyrano de Bergerac about a nightingale who fears himself about to fall into a river and drown. In the second poem the landscape has been occupied by a fairground where men, women and children watch as the hobby-horses go round and round before night falls and the church tolls a passing-bell. The third poem takes us into an old park where two ghosts recall their past. The one wonders if the other remembers the happy days of their past lives, but the other doesn’t want to remember, barely acknowledging the closeness they once shared, seeing only that ‘hope has fled, defeated, towards the dark sky.’ I am very grateful to Roger Nichols and Dominique Mols for their advice with the setting of the French texts and with the translations. John Casken Colloque sentimental was first performed by Alison Smart and Katherine Durran at the Purcell Room in London on 13 July 2004/ Répertoire / Soprano et Piano

Casken's inspired double concerto for violin and viola makes reference to a John Donne poem depicting two lovers on the bank of a river with their hands entwined. The dialogue between soloists is organic in its complexity with the orchestra providing a fragmented yet driving backdrop. / Violon, Alto Et Orchestre

for violin and piano. Par CASKEN JOHN. 'Après un silence' was originally written as a work for violin and piano. The piano part was subsequently orchestrated in such a way that the work may be performed with a chamber orchestra or with an ensemble of the same forces using strings. 'The violin's opening interval of a rising sixth is the gem from which everything is developed into one extended movement.' This will become a regular presence in the violin and piano repertoire./ Répertoire / Violon et Piano