CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Zankel Hall
Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Pre-concert talk starts at 6:30 PM in Zankel Hall: Thomas Adès and Gerald Barry in conversation with Jeremy Geffen, Director of Artistic Planning, Carnegie Hall.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Thomas Adès, Conductor
Stephen Wallace, Countertenor (Pleasure)
William Purefoy, Countertenor (Truth)
Christopher Lemmings, Tenor (Beauty)
Roderick Williams, Baritone (Deceit)
Stephen Richardson, Bass (Time)

GERALD BARRY The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit (Concert Performance, NY Premiere)

The new-music ensemble from Birmingham, England, performs the New York concert premiere of contemporary Irish composer Gerald Barry’s opera The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit.

Program Notes:

By Gerald Barry

GERALD BARRY The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit

Born April 28, 1952, in Clarecastle, Ireland.

The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit was composed in 1991–2, with music by Gerald Barry and libretto by Meredith Oaks. It was originally commissioned as a television opera for a Channel 4 broadcast on March 5, 1995. 

It received its stage premiere at the Almeida Festival on June 27, 2006 at the Almeida at King’s Cross, London with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Almeida-Aldeburgh Opera conducted by Thomas Adès; directed by Nigel Lowery; with Andrew Watts (Pleasure), William Purefoy (Truth), Christopher Lemmings (Beauty), Roderick Williams (Deceit), and Stephen Richardson (Time). It received American premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2006 followed by performances in Paris and Amsterdam in 2007.


Cast: Pleasure, Truth, Beauty, Deceit, and Time

Act I
Beauty longs for immortality and is offered it by Pleasure. Time and Truth remind Beauty that it is the nature of time to pass, and all else is folly. Deceit tells Beauty that flight will conquer time. Pleasure and Time each try to win Beauty by a display of power. Pleasure speaks of the delights of love and the wonders of the world, while Time tells of the desolation and devastation of love. Deceit presses Pleasure’s case; Beauty resists and Deceit collapses.

Act II
Beauty believes Deceit destroyed, but Truth exposes his trickery. Truth offers Beauty an objective view but Beauty hesitates. All vie for Beauty; he flees. He is alone with Pleasure and Pleasure sleeps. Time and Truth show Beauty his decay, but this image is shattered by Deceit. Time and Truth withdraw and Pleasure wakes.

__________________________________________________________________________

The opera is a battle between Pleasure and Time, with Beauty as the prize.
Deceit sides with Pleasure, and Truth with Time.
Pleasure wins.

Aging, fear, vanity, and pleasure are some of the opera’s concerns, the endless hunting for someone to say:

You are my delight, my comfort at night,
And I’ll roll you nine times before morning.

It is the obsessiveness of the soldier in The Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis:

He was addicted to venery from his youth, and considered lawful any act which others wished to perform upon him, or he wished to perform upon others, involving lust in all its forms.

Found texts like these act as extremes of temperature, whooshing the music from one moment to the next.

Pleasure’s song to Beauty—“You are my delight”—is a setting out of wares in his war
with Time for Beauty. Time’s crushing response is James Clarence Mangan’s poem What is Love; he is devoted, annihilatingly, to the “sadness, desolation, devastation,
spoliation, and uprooting” of love:

What is Love? I asked a lover— 
Liken it, he answered, weeping,
To a flood unchained and sweeping
Over shell-strewn grottos, Over
Beds of roses, lilies, tulips,
O’er all flowers that most enrich the
Garden, in one headlong torrent,
Till they show a wreck from which the
Eye and mind recoil abhorrent. 

Images of flight from time litter the text, as well as desire for its destruction. Here, virtuosity— magically—is offered as a means of suspending time, keeping one safe from it. It’s as if protection from its ravages is the reward for the brilliance of the music and singing.

Vocal brilliance, therefore, sometimes enfolds the text. The text becomes abstract, foreign— perspective with a single viewpoint momentarily abandoned.

The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit. The passing of time, horrible. 
Vanity/yearning, as little as possible.
Ecstasy, yes.
To feel intensely.  Now.
Flaubert said that things have to enter into us enough to make us cry out.



Copyright 2008 Gerald Barry
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press

Gerald Barry has had a long association with BCMG, for whom he wrote Wiener Blut (which received its German premiere with the Frankfurt RSO in June 2006) and Dead March. He first came to public attention in 1979 with his radical ensemble works ‘__________’ and Ø (recorded on NMC). Many of Barry’s works have been commissioned by the BBC, including Chevaux-de-frise for the 1988 Proms; Hard D for Orkest de Volharding; The Conquest of Ireland and Day for the BBCSO; and The Eternal Recurrence, a setting of Nietzsche for voice and orchestra. His first opera, The Intelligence Park (recorded on NMC) was first performed at the 1990 London Almeida Festival.

In 2005, the stage premiere of Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (recorded on RTE) was given at English National Opera; the German language premiere will be given at the Basle Opera in 2008. Barry’s more recent works include Lisbon, written for the 25th anniversary of the Nieuw Ensemble, and La Plus Forte (The Stronger), a one-act opera on the Strindberg play commissioned by Radio France for the 2007 Festival Présences.

Barry’s latest commissions include a string quartet, First Sorrow, for Crash Ensemble, which premiered in October 2007; a work for piano solo, Los Angeles, which premiered in a special Barry portrait concert at the Miller Theater, New York in November 2007; and an orchestral work for the BCMG based on letters of Beethoven, which will premiere in March 2008, conducted by Thomas Adès with soloist Stephen Richardson.

For more information about Gerald Barry and his music, visit the Irish Contemporary Music Center website at cmc.ie.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Thomas Adès, Conductor
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) has a long-standing relationship with its former music director Thomas Adès, performing and recording his ensemble works, premiering his Sonata da Caccia and Concerto Conciso, and touring his opera Powder Her Face and recording it for the UK’s Channel 4 TV. In 2007, the ensemble took part in major festivals of Adès’s music in London and Paris; in 2006, Adès conducted BCMG in Cologne, Germany in works by Stravinsky. Adès and BCMG have frequently championed the music of Gerald Barry, including performances of his opera The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit on tour in the UK, France, and Germany, and, most recently, premiered his new work, Beethoven, in Birmingham two weeks ago.

BCMG was formed in 1987 by players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and is established as one of Europe’s leading ensembles. Sir Simon Rattle is the Group’s founding patron and has conducted BCMG in the UK, both on tour and on disc. BCMG has two Artists-in-Association, composer John Woolrich and composer-conductor Oliver Knussen, whose BBC Prom in London with the Group in August 2007 was recently nominated for an ITV South Bank Show award. Other recent awards include an international MIDEM recording award in January 2008 for the Group’s CD of Benjamin Britten’s complete film music.

BCMG promotes a season of concerts in its home, the CBSO Center in Birmingham, and tours widely in the UK, including annual appearances at the Aldeburgh Festival and London’s Barbican Center. The Group’s extensive international touring has included a major European tour in 2000 with Sir Simon Rattle and a tour of India with composer Judith Weir for the British Council in 2002. BCMG has pioneered many initiatives to bring new audiences to contemporary classical music, including its Sound Investment commissioning scheme, which gives individuals the chance to invest in new works and involves them in the commissioning process; and free touring performances in rural England and urban Birmingham.

BCMG is passionate about involving young people and the wider community in the performance and creation of new music. Recent learning projects include pioneering Family and Schools Concerts, which explore new ways of presenting contemporary music to young listeners, combining music with film and theater; and Resonance, a performance and commissioning project, which took the science of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy as inspiration for a series of new string quartets for young performers. BCMG also runs regular out-of-school composing and improvisation workshops: Music Maze, Zigzag Ensemble, and Feel the Buzz, for young people ages 8 through 18 who like to create their own music.

For more information, please visit bcmg.org.uk.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group:

Marie-Christine Zupancic, Flutes and Piccolo
Melinda Maxwell, Oboe and Cor Anglais
Christopher Richards, Clarinet
Mark O’Brien, Bass Clarinet
Margaret Cookhorn, Bassoon and Contrabassoon
Mark Phillips, Horns
Peter Currie, Horns
Jonathan Holland, Trumpet
Robert Farley, Trumpet
Anthony Howe, Trombone
Julian Warburton, Percussion
Malcolm Wilson, Piano
Alexandra Wood, Violin
Marcus Barcham-Stevens, Violin
Christopher Yates, Viola
Ulrich Heinen, Cello
John Tattersdill, Double Bass


As composer, conductor, and pianist, Thomas Adès and his music are presented throughout the world, and acclaim from all corners has made him a major presence on the music scene today.

For the 2007–08 season, Mr. Adès holds The Richard and Barbara Debs Composer Chair by Carnegie Hall, where he is featured in performances throughout the season, including a solo piano recital, a performance of his Piano Quintet with the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, the US premiere of his piece Tevót given by the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle, and the New York premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, with Mr. Adès conducting the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. He also makes appearances in the US conducting the Baltimore Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group. Elsewhere, Mr. Adès performs at the Lufthansa Jewel of Russia Festival in St. Petersburg, conducting his own work Asyla, along with performances of three of his major works by the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater; with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducting Asyla and his Violin Concerto; and at the Royal Opera House, conducting Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.

Born in London in 1971, Thomas Adès studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and read music at King’s College, Cambridge. Between 1993 and 1995 he was Composer in Association with the Hallé Orchestra, which resulted in The Origin of the Harp (1994) and These Premises Are Alarmed for the opening of the Bridgewater Hall in 1996. Asyla (1997) was commissioned for Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Rattle subsequently programmed Asyla in his opening concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker as Music Director in September 2002. His second orchestral work for Simon Rattle, Tevót (2007), was commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker and Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Adès’s first opera, Powder Her Face, has been performed worldwide and was televised by Channel Four in the UK. Mr. Adès’s second opera, The Tempest, was commissioned by London’s Royal Opera House and premiered under the baton of the composer to great critical acclaim in February 2004. In September 2005, his Violin Concerto for Anthony Marwood was premiered at the Berliner Festspiele and the BBC Proms, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the composer’s baton.

Stephen Wallace, Countertenor (Pleasure)
Stephen Wallace studied at the Royal Northern College of Music.

His opera appearances include Semele for Deutsche Staatsoper; Speranza in Orfeo under René Jacobs for La Monnaie; the title role in Radamisto at the Halle Festival; Didymus in Theodora with Haim for Glyndebourne on Tour; Narciso in Agrippina for Chicago Opera Theater; Birtwistle’s The Last Supper with Daniel Barenboim; Halimacus in Croesus for Opera North; Flavio for the Early Opera Group; Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea for Opera Theater Company; Orfeo for the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston; Truth in Gerald Barry’s Triumph of Beauty and Deceit for the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Adès, and Pleasure in the same opera at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Wallace’s concert appearances include Agostino in Hasse’s La Conversione di Sant’Agostino in Milan; Theodora with Haim; Messiah and Saul with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir; Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus and Handel’s Nisi Dominus with the Israel Camerata; Bach’s St. John Passion and B-Minor Mass; television and CD recordings of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater for the Rambert Dance Company; Dido and Aeneas for Harmonia Mundi; Armindo in Partenope and Athamas Semele with for Chandos.

His engagements in 2008 include Ottone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea for Royal Danish Opera and concerts throughout the United Kingdom. Wallace’s subsequent engagements include Athamas in Semele at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.

William Purefoy, Countertenor (Truth)
A graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, William Purefoy attended the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and studied with David Pollard. He has appeared with The English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, City of London Sinfonia, New London Consort, Hanover Band, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Musicians of the Globe, Le Concert d’Astrée, BBC Concert Orchestra, and the vocal ensembles Cantabile and I Fagiolini.

Purefoy has made many recordings, including Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day and David’s Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan (Boyce, Hanover Band) with ASV Gaudeamus, and Rosey Blood (Terror and Magnificence John Harle) with Decca Argo. He was also featured in the BBC documentary In Search of Shakespeare.

Purefoy’s operatic work includes Andronico in Handel’s Tamerlano with the Scottish Opera; Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea with the Theater Basel; Ptolemy in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Dr. Nice in Purcell’s Evening Hymn with the Staatsoper Hannover; Truth in Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit with the Almeida Opera; Sir Philip Sydney John Harle / David Pountney’s Angel Magick with the Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms; Ernesto in Haydn’s Il Mondo Della Luna with the Garsington Opera; and the Shepherd/Huntsman in Blow’s Venus and Adonis at Shakespeare’s Globe, where he also sang in The Tempest.

Christopher Lemmings, Tenor (Beauty)
Christopher Lemmings has enjoyed recent success with the role of Caliban in Thomas Adès’s The Tempest at both the Royal Opera (broadcast on television) and in Strasbourg, and an acclaimed CD of Ned Rorem songs. He also recently made his debut at BBC Proms and his US debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Lemmings sang John Casken’s Golem with the opera companies of Nantes, Angers, and Rennes, as well as The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit at the Royal Concertgebouw. His future plans include Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten for the Lincoln Center Festival, a Scandinavian recital tour, and Birtwistle’s The Last Supper, on tour with the London Sinfonietta.

Born in Surrey, Lemmings studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His appearances in Britain have included the title role in La Clemenza di Tito for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and his Covent Garden mainstage debut as Stingo in Sophie’s Choice, returning for Ariadne Auf Naxos.

As a concert and recital artist, Lemmings has performed Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Haydn’s Stabat Mater with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Messiah with the English Chamber Orchestra, both in London and on tour in Spain; and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass at the Brighton Festival.

Roderick Williams, Baritone (Deceit)
Roderick Williams encompasses a wide repertoire, from Baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concert platform, and in recital.

Williams has enjoyed close relationships with Opera North and Scottish Opera, and is particularly associated with the baritone roles of Mozart. In autumn 2007, he gave highly acclaimed performances of Papageno in The Magic Flute for the English National Opera. He has also sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa, and Alexander Knaifel. Williams has worked with orchestras throughout Europe, including all of the BBC orchestras in the United Kingdom, and his many festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, and Aldeburgh.

His recital appearances have taken him to London’s Wigmore Hall and many European festivals. He has an extensive discography and his recordings of English song with Iain Burnside have received particular acclaim.

Williams’s future plans include La bohème at Covent Garden, Pilgrim in Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress with the Philharmonia, as well as a busy concert and recital schedule including London, Paris, and New York.

Williams is also a composer; his works have premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room, and live on national radio.

Stephen Richardson, Bass (Time)
British bass Stephen Richardson has assumed many leading operatic bass roles, and is recognised for the broadness of his repertoire. Born in Liverpool, Richardson read music at Manchester University before training at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Richardson’s recent engagements have included Monterone in Rigoletto, Hobson in Peter Grimes, and Dikoy in Katya Kabanova for Opera North; a return to the Royal Opera, Covent Garden for The Tempest; Kaspar in Der Freischütz for the Danish National Opera; and Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust with Den Jyske Opera.

His notable concert appearances include Adès’s Powder her Face with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer; Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs. Kong with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins; Adams’s Nixon in China with the London Symphony Orchestra; and Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! with The Cleveland Orchestra under the composer’s direction.

This season includes two world premieres for Richardson: Gerald Barry’s Beethoven with BCMG, and Daniel Kellogg’s The Fiery Furnace with San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

Richardson’s recordings include Stravinsky’s The Flood and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis for Philips; Albert Herring for Chandos; and Tan Dun’s opera Tea, available on DVD.