Karl Jenkins - Quirk: The Concertos (2008)

The latest Karl Jenkins release on EMI Classics features world premiere recordings of four recent concertos. Over The Stone, a double harp concerto; La Folia for marimba; Quirk, a concertante for flutes, keyboards, percussion and Sarikiz, a violin concerto. The album is rounded off with the re-recording of the first movement of Palladio, a concerto grosso that Jenkins composed in 1996.
The performers include London Symphony Orchestra Principals Gareth Davies (piccolo, flute, alto flute and bass flute), John Alley (piano, harmonium, celeste, honky-tonk piano) and Neil Percy (xylophone, vibraphone, marimba, whistle, bamboo chimes, rainstick, temple blocks, various drums and cymbals), as well as harpist Catrin Finch and violinist Marat Bisengaliev with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Jenkins.
Jenkins says, “As is usually the case, I have dipped into other cultures, Kazakh, Indian, Latin American etc, and [I have] also introduced some oddball combinations such as a marimba [in La Folia] playing, essentially, baroque music.”
Over The Stone, [2002] a double harp concerto, was commissioned at the request of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales with the generous support of the Peter Moores Foundation for the Harpist to the Prince of Wales, Catrin Finch and Elinor Bennett. Premiered in Cardiff by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the presence of the Prince, it is in six movements: I. Carillon; II. Somnium Aeternum [Eternal Dream]; III. Song of the Bards; IV. Tros Y Garreg [the Welsh folk song, from which the work’s name is taken]; V. Cadenza; and VI. Vamp Latino. The written cadenza contains, at the suggestion of HRH The Prince of Wales, a quote from Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, the Welsh national anthem. Catrin Finch plays both harp parts in this recording.
La Folia, [The Leaf] for marimba and strings [2004], was commissioned by IMG Artists for, and premiered by, Dame Evelyn Glennie. A one-movement work, based on a violin sonata by Arcangelo Corelli, it is performed on this recording by Neil Percy.
Quirk, a concertante for flutes, keyboards, percussion and orchestra, was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra in celebration of its centenary year through the support of Eddie Waters. It was premiered in 2005 at the Barbican Hall, London, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Jenkins describes the work as being “in three, intentionally quirky movements: I. Snap, which suddenly ‘snaps’ between two ideas, one redolent of American film music and the other, almost ‘minimalist’; II. Raga Religioso, a juxtaposition of ‘church-like’ harmonies and harmonium against a ‘raga-like’ scale, with a sitar being simulated by the pianist plucking the strings inside the piano; and III. Chasing the Goose, which is slightly manic, having been composed when we had three geese on our land that were continually chasing each other!” The soloists on the recording are flautist Gareth Davies, pianist John Alley and percussionist Neil Percy.
The violin concerto, Sarikiz, was commissioned in 2008 by Sapar Iskakov, a well-known Kazakh philanthropist and benefactor, in memory of his ancestor, composer and kobyz player Tlep Aspantaiuly [1757-1820]. Jenkins describes the kobyz as “a kind of violin, with no sound box, played in an upright fashion on one’s knees. [The concerto] was written for Marat Bisengaliev and is in three movements, I. Sarikiz, II. Romanza, III. Dance. Apart from the occasional use of Kazakh themes, I employ two Kazakh indigenous percussion instruments, the dabel [hand drum] and kepshek [tambourine]” Allegretto is the first movement of Palladio, a concerto grosso written in 1996 and inspired by the Venetian architect, Andrea Palladio [1508 – 1580]. It is in a retro-baroque style.
Karl Jenkins is one of the most prolific and performed composers in the world today. His choral work, Armed Man: A Mass For Peace, alone has been performed nearly four hundred times in recent years and his recordings have won seventeen gold and platinum disc awards.
Classically trained, but drawing on a diverse range of global influences, Jenkins’ style and integrity have transcended musical boundaries, encompassing jazz-rock with Soft Machine, the global ‘crossover’ phenomenon Adiemus, award winning soundtracks for Levis and British Airways adverts, and numerous classical commissions. His soundtrack to the feature film River Queen (2005), starring Kiefer Sutherland and Samantha Morton, won the Golden Goblet award at the Shanghai Film Festival and was released by EMI Classics in mid-2007.
Other recent recordings include Kiri Sings Karl, with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Requiem and Stabat Mater, which was premiered and released in March 2008, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus and the EMO ensemble from Helsinki.
Karl Jenkins is both a Fellow and an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2005 New Years Honours List and a Doctor of Music by the University of Wales in 2006. Classic FM presented him with a ‘Red f’ award for ‘outstanding service to classical music.” He has been a castaway on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, featured on ITV’s The South Bank Show and he is the highest placed living composer in Classic FM’s “Hall of Fame.”
"As a composer, he recognises no boundaries - musical, commercial, geographical or cultural. His is a way of thinking and composing that is perfectly in tune with the spirit of the times…" Classic FM Magazine