Métier Announces a New Album of Vocal and Chamber Works by Michael Finnissy

The long-standing relationship between Métier and Michael Finnissy continues with a forthcoming album featuring the superb Marsyas Trio in collaboration with award-winning mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean.  The album is to be titled ‘Alternative Readings’ and will showcase solo vocal music by Michael Finnissy with diverse instrumental ensembles.

Throughout his life and music, Finnissy has thought to bring apparently dissimilar things and people together, confronting the problems of social-discourse, power, mysteries and beauty.  The common thread that runs through the album is the notion of ‘alternative readings’ in its broadest sense, which culminates in Finnissy’s substantial new work ‘Wisdom’, commissioned by the Marsyas Trio during the lockdown of 2020. This piece explores isolation and ways of dealing decisively and sensibly with solitude and abandonment, while transcending the boundaries and seeking connectivity between continents and cultures. It draws on a multitude of texts ranging from Australian Aboriginal (Nunggubuyu) Dreamtime myths to Shakespeare’s poetry to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.

Métier is the new-music imprint of Divine Art Recordings Group and this will be the fourteenth album in the label’s Finnissy series. Stephen Sutton, CEO of Divine Art, is delighted with this news: “It’s been a few years since our last album devoted to Michael’s music, so we are really pleased about this new project, as Michael is without doubt one of the most outstandingly talented composers of today and we are also excited to welcome the Marsyas Trio to our roster of artists.”

The news of this release is also welcomed by Judith Weir (CBE, Master of the King’s Music) who says:
A new release of Michael Finnissy’s work is always welcome news; this is important repertoire. Yet another generation of new, front-rank performers are now championing Finnissy’s music, and this is especially true of Marsyas Trio and the remarkable vocalist, Lotte Betts-Dean.

About the Marsyas Trio:

The London-based Marsyas Trio, formed in 2009 by graduates of the Royal Academy of Music, is the UK’s only permanent flute-cello-piano ensemble. Showcasing a hugely diverse repertoire from the Classical and Romantic eras to the present day, the Marsyas Trio’s programming illuminates forgotten masterpieces, whilst inspiring a generation of new works through commissioning initiatives and recording projects.

The Trio’s concert highlights include performances at Conway Hall and Kettle’s Yard, tours in Europe, China, the USA & Canada. UK festival highlights include the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, St David’s Cathedral Festival, Vale of Glamorgan, Three Choirs Festivals and Spitalfields Music in the City.

The Trio’s last CD In the Theatre of Air (NMC Recordings 2018), debuted at No. 7 on the classical charts and was one of NMC’s highest selling CDs in 2018/19.

In June 2022, the Marsyas Trio were announced as recipients of an Artist By-Fellowship at Churchill College, at the University of Cambridge.

Album Details

• Label: Métier
• Catalogue number:  MSV 28635
• Release date:  March 2024
• Recording venue: Goldsmiths Music Studios, London, UK
• Title:   “Alternative Readings”
• Composer: Michael Finnissy
• Artists: Marsyas Trio (Helen Vidovich, flute; Valerie Welbanks, cello; Volha Stsiazhko (piano)); Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano); Joseph Havlat (piano)

Works:

• Alternative Readings (for flute, cello and piano) – version 1 (Recording date: February 2021)
• Alternative Readings – version 2 (Recording date: February 2021)
• Wisdom (for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello and piano) (Recording date: February 2021)
  • All above recorded in February 2021
• Blessed be I (mezzo-soprano, cello and piano)
• Blessed be III (mezzo-soprano, flute and piano)
• Botany Bay  (Mezzo-soprano, flute and piano)
• June (for flute, cello and piano )
  • To be recorded in January 2023
• Salomé (2 songs)
• An den Mond (3 songs)
• Oxford in 1817 (3 songs
• All for mezzo-soprano and piano
• With guest pianist Joseph Havlat
  • To be recorded in December 2022

Total duration: about 74 min