Songs for Sir John: Works by composers including Robin Stevens, Martin Bussey, Sally Beamish, David Matthews, Peter Dickinson, Lennox Berkeley, Robin Walker and many more

Divine Art Records is honoured to announce a new album for release later this year in tribute to one of Britain’s most influential figures in recent musical history – and yet one whose name is shamefully little known outside the music profession.

Sir John Manduell, who died in 2017, was a consummate musician in many ways and held many posts of importance from being Director of Music at Lancaster University, to senior producing roles at BBC Radio 3, eventually (as composition was closest to his heart) taking up the post of Head of Composition and Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Indeed he was the founder of the college, incorporating the Royal Manchester College of Music and the Northern School of Music, thus building the foundation of what is now one of the UK’s most dynamic centres for ‘serious’ music. He was also the founder of the European Opera Centre.

Sir John’s own works are masterful and embody the best of the modern tonal tradition alongside composers such as William Alwyn and Lennox Berkeley (both of whom were his teachers), and most remain to be discovered by the worldwide audience. Two major orchestral works (the Double Concerto for Oboe and Cor Anglais, and the Flutes Concerto for flutes and harp) were recorded alongside works by Gordon Crosse for the album “Mixed Doubles” (Métier MSV 77201) released by Divine Art in 2013.

The new album is titled ‘Songs for Sir John’.  Curated by Sir John’s erstwhile colleague and close friend John Turner, it is a garland of tributes by several composers, who have in some way found their professional careers  guided and encouraged by the enthusiasm and ever-generous support of Sir John. Most of the pieces were originally composed for concerts celebrating Sir John’s life in 2018 and 2019 and are focused around the evocative poetry of William Butler Yeats. One set (works by Robin Walker) was recorded for a previous album and features as narrator the mellifluous voice of the late TV presenter and newsreader Richard Baker.

‘Songs for Sir John’ will be released on September 11, 2020.

Songs for Sir John (DDA 25210)

Works:

• Men Improve with the Years (Robin Stevens) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• Sonnet (Elis Pehkonen) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• The Cold Heaven (Martin Bussey) for soprano, recorder, violin and cello *
• Reflection (Geoffrey Poole) for soprano, bass recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• Yeats Interlude (Sally Beamish) for recorder, oboe, violin and cello
• Be Still (Michael Ball) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• Those Images (David Horne) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• Two Yeats Songs, Op. 23b (David Matthews) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• Zuzu’s Petals (Kevin Malone) for recorder, oboe, violin and cello
• This Great Purple Butterfly (Gary Carpenter)  for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• Strings in the Earth and Air (Peter Dickinson) for soprano, recorder, violin and cello (text by James Joyce)
• Three Duets (Lennox Berkeley) for two recorders
• Four Nursery Rhymes (Robin Walker) for narrator, recorder and piano (texts by Thomas Pitfield)
• The Cat and the Moon (Jeremy Pike) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
• Into the Twilight (Nicholas Marshall) for soprano, tenor recorder, viola and cello *
• The Cloths of Heaven (Naji Hakim) for soprano, recorder, oboe, viola and cello *

* Indicates setting of a Yeats poem

Artists

• Lesley-Jane Rogers (soprano)
• Richard Baker (narrator)
• John Turner (recorder)
• Laura Robinson (recorder)
• Richard Simpson (oboe)
• Benedict Holland (violin
• Susie Mészáros (viola)
• Nicholas Trygstad (cello)
• Keith Swallow (piano)

Apart from the Walker work (2005), the album was recorded on 18 and 19 December 2019 at St Paul’s Church, Stockport.

Producer: Paul Hindmarsh. Engineer: Philip Hardman