Turnage Festival at Barbican in London: 17-19 January 2003

(January 2003)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra celebrates the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage at its annual festival weekend at the Barbican in London (17-19 January). Turnage recently signed a new exclusive publishing agreement with Boosey & Hawkes.

The programme is summarised below, but for full information and booking details please visit the BBC Symphony Orchestra website

Friday 17 January
5.00pm Film, Cinema 1
Killing Time*

A dramatic musical work created by Mark-Anthony Turnage, inspired by a London Sinfonietta education project involving prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs. With tenor Vernon Henry Jr as a prisoner and actress Cathy Tyson as his girl. The film includes an introduction to the work by Turnage and his collaborators.

BBC2 1992 Dir. Robert Walker 35 mins
Please note that some scenes in this film are unsuitable for children

Profile: Mark-Anthony Turnage*

A fascinating study of Mark-Anthony Turnage, exploring his life and the influences on his music. Written and presented by Gerard McBurney, the film was made when Mark-Anthony Turnage was working on The Torn Fields, which will be performed live on Sunday 19 January at 4.30pm.

Mark-Anthony Turnage will introduce both films.

BBC4 2002 Dir. Mike Dibb 30mins

6.30pm Talk, Prompt Corner
The Composer Speaks

Mark-Anthony Turnage talks to writer and broadcaster Christopher Cook about his work and discusses Blood on the Floor

Due to space limitations, this talk is only open to Weekend Pass holders.

8.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
Blood on the Floor
LIVE broadcast on BBC Radio 3

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins conductor
John Parricelli guitar
Peter Erskine drums
Martin Robertson saxophone

MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Blood on the Floor

The first concert in the BBC Symphony Orchestra's weekend celebration of the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage features his powerful work Blood on the Floor. Presenting a meeting point between the worlds of contemporary classical music and modern jazz, Blood on the Floor preserves the integrity of both and offers a profoundly moving experience to the listener. Legendary jazz drummer Peter Erskine and saxophonist Martin Robertson are joined by the fine British guitarist John Parricelli as they return to the work they helped create. Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Symphony Ochestra.

Saturday 18 January

11.00am Film, Cinema 2
Getting Scorched*

Barrie Gavin introduces his film, made in collaboration with John Scofield, which shows Turnage at work on his latest big jazz score, Scorched, which was premiered in Frankfurt in September 2002.

BBC4 2003 Dir. Barrie Gavin 60mins

1.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
Etudes and Elegies
LIVE broadcast on BBC Radio 3

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin conductor
Martin Robertson saxophone
Peter Erskine drums

BRITTEN Sinfonia da Requiem
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Your Rockaby
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Momentum
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Etudes and Elegies
(BBC commission: world premiere)

The first concert of the afternoon features three works by Turnage: Your Rockaby, drawing on Samuel Beckett's bittersweet work of the same name and featuring the talents of saxophonist Martin Robertson; Momentum, complete with loosely disguised football chants; and the world premiere of the completed Etudes and Elegies, the first two parts of which have received highly successful performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The third part, A Quiet Life, receives its first performance this afternoon.

4.00pm Concert, St Giles Cripplegate
The Nash Ensemble
Broadcast on Sunday 19 January at 2pm on BBC Radio 3

The Nash Ensemble
Ian Brown piano

BEETHOVEN String Trio in C minor, Op 1 No 3
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE An Invention on 'Solitude'
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE True Life Stories
BEETHOVEN Clarinet Trio in B flat, Op 11
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Two Vocalises (UK premiere)
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Slide Stride (World premiere)

A concert featuring the outstanding Nash Ensemble, who have had a long and fruitful working relationship with Turnage. The programme includes the strikingly powerful An Invention on 'Solitude', influenced both by Brahms and Duke Ellington, and True Life Stories, a piano suite which includes Turnage's elegiac, hypnotically tranquil Tune for Toru, written following the death of Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. The concert concludes with the world premiere of Turnage's Piano Quintet which offers a unique contemporary perspective on one of the mainstay genres of chamber music.

4.00pm Film, Cinema 1
The Silver Tassie*

Gerald Finley leads the cast in this filmed version of Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera The Silver Tassie, based on Sean O'Casey's powerful anti-war play. The Silver Tassie moves between the trenches of the First World War and Dublin, focusing on the figure of Harry Heegan, a football hero who returns from the war embittered and disillusioned.

BBC2 2000 Dir. Peter Maniura 125mins

6.45 Talk, Prompt Corner
The Composer Speaks

Mark-Anthony Turnage discusses Greek with writer and broadcaster Christopher Cook.
Due to space limitations, this talk is only open to Weekend Pass holders.

8.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
Greek
Broadcast on Monday 20 January at 7.30pm on BBC Radio 3

London Sinfonietta
Jac van Steen conductor
Roderick Williams Eddy
Rebecca de Pont Davies Wife
Mary Plazas Mum
Richard Chew Dad

MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Greek

An unmissable chance to hear Turnage's ground-breaking opera based on Steven Berkoff's contemporary reworking of the Oedipus myth. Turnage's score starkly etches the ills of working-class family life in Thatcher's Britain and is performed by its long-time advocates the London Sinfonietta. The opera's premiere at the 1988 Munich Biennale established Turnage's international reputation as one of the finest composers of his generation.

Concert performance
Please note that Greek is not suitable for children.

10.30pm Concert, Barbican Hall
Late Jazz

John Taylor piano
Dave Carpenter bass
Peter Erksine drums

A trio of today's leading jazz musicians including LA-based Dave Carpenter, and John Taylor, one of the most highly-regarded of British jazz pianists, play their own compositions, the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage and tunes by some of Turnages' musical heroes.

Sunday 19 January

9.30am Open Rehearsal, Barbican Hall
Leonard Slatkin in rehearsal

Open to Weekend Pass holders only, this is a chance to see behind the scenes as Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Symphony Orchestra rehearse for tonight's concert.

11.00am Film, Cinema 2
The Silver Tassie*

Gerald Finley in Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera The Silver Tassie. See 18 January for full details.

2.00pm Concert, St Giles Cripplegate
Jazz in St Giles

Claire Martin voice
Richard Rodney Bennett piano

Claire Martin, three-times British Jazz Awards-winner, and Richard Rodney Bennett, one of the most versatile of British composers and performers, bring you some of Mark-Anthony Turnage's favourites by Duke Ellington and Joni Mitchell as well as songs that inspired Miles Davis.

2.15pm Film, Cinema 1
Getting Scorched*

Barrie Gavin's film showing Turnage at work on his latest big jazz score. See 18 January for full details.

3.30pm Freestage

Chamber music from students of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

4.30pm Concert, Barbican Hall
BCMG
Broadcast tonight at 6.30 on BBC Radio 3

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Alexander Briger conductor
Gerald Finley baritone
Dave Holland double bass

MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Dark Crossing
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE The Torn Fields (London premiere)
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Bass Inventions

The concert opens with Dark Crossing, described by Turnage as a dark Debussy's La mer. Gerald Finley is the soloist in the London premiere of The Torn Fields, a song-cycle reflecting on the senseless destruction of the Western Front during World War I, with texts by poets including Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. The concert closes with Bass Inventions, written for virtuoso bass player Dave Holland who performs the work today.

7.00pm Talk, Prompt Corner
The Composer Speaks

Mark-Anthony Turnage talks to writer and broadcaster Christopher Cook about The Game is Over, tonight's world premiere.
Due to space limitations, this talk is only open to Weekend Pass holders.

8.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
The Game is Over
LIVE broadcast on BBC Radio 3

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin conductor
Peter Erksine percussion
Evelyn Glennie percussion
BBC Symphony Chorus

MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE The Game is Over
(BBC commission: world premiere)
STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Fractured Lines
(World premiere of revised version)
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Three Screaming Popes

momentum: The music of Mark-Anthony Turnage closes with a concert including the world premiere of The Game is Over, written for the 75th Anniversary of the BBC Symphony Chorus. Evelyn Glennie and Peter Erskine are the soloists in the revised version of Turnage's percussion concerto, Fractured Lines in a concert which also includes Turnage's Three Screaming Popes and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, one of Turnage's favourite works.

Photo: Hanya Chlala / Arena PAL

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