Kokoschka's Doll

Our most recent CD, Kokoschka's Doll, is a recording of our latest commission from John Casken, featuring Sir John Tomlinson and Rozanna Madylus. Telling the story of the tempestuous affair of Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler, the score weaves poetic and epistolary texts by Kokoschka into a musical fabric that references fin-de-siècle Vienna (including the music of Wagner and Alma Mahler) while being of our own time. Kokoschka's Doll is complemented by a sequence of music and text, featuring the work of Gustav and Alma Mahler, Wagner and Zemlinsky, under the title The Art of Love: Alma Mahler's Life and Music.
For more details see here. Projects
 
Kokoschka's Doll
Counterpoise
Sir John Tomlinson and Rozanna Madylus with Counterpoise

Champs Hill
CHRCD150
Playing Time: 81 mins

£10

 

Kokoschka's Doll - John Casken
ensemble, bass, mezzo-soprano, text by John Casken and Barry Millington, drawing on Oskar Kokoschka's letters and autobiography
1Laue Sommernacht (Alma Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 2:13 Play Clip
2Licht in der Nacht (Alma Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 3:36 Play Clip
3Erntelied (Alma Mahler, arr. David and Colin Matthews) Play Clip
4Einsamer Gang (Alma Mahler) 3:13 Play Clip
5Selige Stunde (Alexander Zemlinsky) 1:47 Play Clip
6Adagietto (Symphony no. 5, extract) (Gustav Mahler, arr. Iain Farrington) 3:57Play Clip
7Liebst du um Schönheit (Gustav Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 2:16 Play Clip
8Wo die schönen Trompeten (Gustav Mahler, arr. David Matthews) 7:17 Play Clip
9Trio movement (Anton Webern) 1:02 Play Clip
10Transformation (David Matthews) 1:20 Play Clip
11Träume (Richard Wagner, arr. David Matthews) 4:31 Play Clip
12Isolde's Liebestod (Richard Wagner/Franz Liszt) 7:14 Play Clip
13Kokoschka's Doll (John Casken) 38:29 Play Clip
all tracks except 5 and 12 are premiere recordings

 

Deadly Pleasures

The acclaimed ensemble Counterpoise brings its groundbreaking repertoire to CD for the first time with two of its most successful commissions for spoken narrator and ensemble. In John Casken's Deadly Pleasures, Donald Maxwell tells the story of nights of passion and subsequent forfeits at Cleopatra's court, while in David Matthews' Actaeon, Eleanor Bron narrates Ovid's tale of Diana and Actaeon in Ted Hughes' vibrant translation. Britten's jazz-inflected Cabaret Suite and the Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, played on the soprano saxophone, complete the programme.
 
Deadly Pleasures
Counterpoise
with narration by Eleanor Bron and Donald Maxwell

Deux-Elles
DXL 1151
Playing Time: 66 mins

£10

 

Deadly Pleasures - John Casken
ensemble, narrator, text by D.M. Thomas after Pushkin
1 Cleopatra's Challenge; Flavius, the Old Soldier; Kriton,
the Youthful Musician; A Nameless Man 29:59
 
Play Clip
Six Metamorphoses after Ovid - Benjamin Britten
soprano saxophone
2 Pan 2:43
3 Phaeton 1:22
4 Niobe 2:48
5 Bacchus 1:57
6 Narcissus 3:43
7 Arethusa 3:07
 
Play Clip
Actaeon - David Matthews
ensemble, narrator, text by Ted Hughes after Ovid
8 Actaeon encounters Diana; Metamorphosis; The Hunt;
Epilogue 14:14
 
Play Clip
Cabaret Suite - Benjamin Britten, arr. Iain Farrington
ensemble
9 The Spider and the Fly 3:28 Play Clip
10 Funeral Blues 2:40 Play Clip
11 Boogie-woogie 2:27 Play Clip
12 When you're Feeling Like Expressing your Affection 1:21 Play Clip