programme note:

❝distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. a mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles AT THE VERY LIMITS OF CONCEPTION… life takes on a neat simplicity, too. time ceases to have any meaning. when it is dark, you go to bed, and when it is light again you get up, and everything in between is just in between… you exist in a tranquil tedium, serenely beyond the reach of exasperation. all that is required of you is a willingness to trudge. there is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going anywhere. however far or long you plod,
you are always in the same place… it’s where you were yesterday, where you will be tomorrow… every bend in the path presents a prospect indistinguishable from every other, every glimpse into the trees the same tangled mass. for all you know, your route could describe a very large, pointless circle. in a way, it would hardly matter.❞ - Bill Bryson.

the theme of this piece is based on distance, and my personal struggles with returning to my birthplace of jersey in the channel islands, during each of the u.k. national lockdowns. because i have no access to a car, and because public transport is running so sporadically, i am practically marooned within my own home. however, once a day, i walk to the nearby coastline for a walk and look out onto the horizon to see if i can spot any of the other islands, or france. this piece describes the juxtaposition of having two places that are called ‘home’, and the yearning to travel beyond geographical and psychological horizons – back to the u.k., and back to normality.

this piece was composed in february 2021 for the daryl runswick composition competition, where it was workshopped for the finals and performed by the trinity laban contemporary music group, conducted by Gregory Rose.

• Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Kit Venables and Ben Leigh-Grosart

at the very limits of conception

The Coming of Night was premiered by members of the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Chloe Rooke on BBC Radio 3 Breakfast with Petroc Trelawny on October 25th 2021. 

Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the BBC CO for BBC Radio 3's 'Capturing Twilight' series.

The piece is inspired by a poem by Emily Dickinson of the same title and it aims to explore the atmospheres, colours and images within her depiction of twilight and transition from sunset to night. The first lines of Dickinson's poem read:

"How the old mountains drip with sunset,
And the brake of dun!
How the hemlocks are tipped in tinsel
By the wizard sun!"

Image copyright BBC Radio 3 & BBC Concert Orchestra

The Coming Of Night

CLARINET TRIO

Sheet music: https://ump.co.uk/catalogue/max-noah-rain/
https://www.noahmax.net/

Rain
Text by Edward Thomas (below)
James Atkinson, Baritone
Nigel Foster, Piano

Commissioned by the London Song Festival
World Premiere: 6th November 2023

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
[Remembering again that I shall die]*
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into this solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying tonight or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain,
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be towards what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

* The composer chooses to omit this line.


Cover artwork by the composer.

Rain for baritone and piano, Op.48 | Noah Max, 2023 (World Premiere)

Premiered and recorded on 22/4/2015 by the RNCM Brand New Orchestra, conducted by Jan Wiersche.

Against The Tide

Cello Concerto
2006 (appx. 24’)
solo cello
1(+ alt.fl).1.1.1 - 1.1.1.0, - hp, perc, - 5vv, 2vla, 1vc, 1db

Programme note:
Don continues a theme of symbolism that permeates and guides so many of my compositions.  In this instance it explores certain moral issues in a somewhat enigmatic way, while exploiting the distinct nature of the concerto medium. Indeed it is the master/servant relationship, in which the soloist both guides and follows those around it, that stimulates much of the musical argument.  The use of a semi-solo bassoon part acts as a ‘doppelganger’ as well as allowing for that ‘master/servant’ relationship to be explored (hence the title Don as in Don Giovanni and Don Quixote, etc.)  The ‘solo role’ in any concerto has dramatic connotations, but it must reach beyond ‘pure theatre’ even if it embraces it.  This cello part is hugely virtuosic, as are many of the passages the other instrumentalists have to play.

The harmonic impetus stems from the opening chord to the central movement of Bartok’s fourth string quartet – a chord built up of two whole-tone triads which together form a diatonic hexachord.  This particular chord, composer and quartet are important to me.  There is an inherent symmetry of Bartok’s chord – and the way in which it is expanded as the movement progresses.  My work expands it, and symmetrically too, but delves into the world of microtones and harmonies that allude to other cultures.  Issues of ‘convergence’ and ‘divergence’ form the basis of the concerto, with the principals of two differing groups (cello and bassoon) responding to the harmonic realms established by each other.  While the cello continually sets the pace, its own musical material evolves and adapts as a result of varying ‘influences’ from others.  Political issues can be alluded to, of course. Not least in the suggestion that interaction of seeming opposites can share common ground through debate.  Bartok’s own music is particularly apposite to use in this way.  The renowned musicologist Theodore Adorno pointed out that Bartok’s music ‘spans the gulf between, on the one hand, the ahistorical, epic ‘natural community of the pre-industrial world where the ‘individual’ is represented by the hero… and, on the other hand, the highly industrialised societies of the modern world, within which the individual … exists in a state of alienation’.  © Paul Max Edlin 2007

The solo cellist on this recording is Gabriella Swallow



Don - a Cello Concerto (2006) - Gabriella Swallow (cello)

Three Miniatures of Ynys Lawd.
I. High Tide
II. Spring Tide
III. EbbTide

Three Miniatures Of Ynys Lawd

And the Sun Stood Still [EXTRACT]
- for Symphony Orchestra

Duration: 8’30”

Commissioned and premiered by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Bramwell Tovey at the QEH in December, 2018.

Inspired by the winter solstice and the primal, prehistoric resonance that it holds. Images of bleached, mid-winter landscapes; crystal shafts of frozen light and an intense, bright, burning sun low on the horizon.
The energy within shafts of frozen light is depicted alongside the intense darkness invoking the ancient belief that the winter solstice was a day when dangerous spirits walked the earth. Seeing the sun at its lowest point in the sky made people fear that its strength would never return.
But ultimately the winter solstice brings a feeling of hope and renewal.

And the Sun Stood Still [EXTRACT]

Performed by the Roadrunner Trio, Amsterdam, January 2020.

Slipping Away

Score video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcABgUc03_Q

Piece for bass clarinet and electronics.

Performed by Heather Roche:
https://soundcloud.com/heather_roche

Composed April 2020

"Mono no aware (物の哀れ), literally "the pathos of things", and also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence (無常, mujō), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life."
https://web.archive.org/web/20200529083756/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware

Timestamps:
0:00 
1:25 
2:28 
3:16 
4:15 
4:56 
6:14

Bandcamp

'Mono No Aware' for bass clarinet and electronics (2020)

Five Illusions - for Orchestra (2014)
1. Maze
2. Lake
3. Towers
4. Nocturne
5. Puzzle

This study version uses Note Performer.

Programme Note:
The birth of this score has taken about thirty years. The first four pieces in this set are a reworking of a set of pieces for piano duo that I completed in the early 1980s. However, I always wanted to create orchestral versions of these pieces, feeling their range of colours ideally suited to such large forces. The reworking became a new compositional journey too as the music went through much serious and substantial change, and a final movement was created, making an arch shape design which felt right. I knew that this work should begin high and relentlessly tumble to the depths, yet remain optimistic and firmly driven. The creation of this piece happened so easily and became a total pleasure. The titles of the five movements are suggestions only, aimed at focusing thoughts, just as Debussy’s titles for his piano preludes do. However, the overall title ‘Illusions’ was easy to reach. These are illusions in every sense – surreal and dreamlike images that I enjoy inhabiting. The work is dedicated to my wife, Giuliana, who inspired me to create these orchestral pieces. It then became the inspiration to a larger scale work, a one act opera based loosely on the story 'La Belle et la Bête'. 
© Paul Max Edlin 2014

Five Illusions - for full orchestra (2014)

www.noahmax.net
‘All focused intensity and chaotic curls, long pauses and fast-talking, the composer, conductor, artist and poet is a fizzing creative fuse’  The Sunday Times

British-Austrian composer Noah Max’s output spans opera, orchestral and chamber music. In 2021 his string trio Sojourn won The Clements Prize and was performed by members of the Piatti Quartet at Conway Hall. His music has been performed at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room in London, as well as Vienna’s Musikverein, Altalena Festival in Budapest, Uilenburgersjoel Synagogue in Amsterdam and the Paderewski Academy in Poland. 

Max recently spent five years bringing his debut opera A Child In Striped Pyjamas to the stage, culminating in a sold-out premiere production at London’s Cockpit Theatre in January 2023. The opera was lauded by critics as 'emotionally ambitious and vocally eloquent' (The Telegraph) and 'marvellously scored… a remarkable achievement for a young composer' (The Arts Desk). Max was interviewed about the opera by The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, with excerpts from the piece also broadcast on RTÉ Radio. Further revivals of the production are planned for 2023/24 and beyond.

Max’s debut album Songs of Loneliness was released on Toccata Classics in 2022; this year he returns to the recording studio with the Tippett Quartet and Sir Michael Morpurgo. He is Composer-in-Residence at Thaxted Festival, where his Quartet No.2 was premiered by the Tippett Quartet in July 2023; the festival has since commissioned Symphony No.1 to be premiered by the London Mozart Players on 21 June 2024. Other upcoming projects include the world premiere of the cello concerto AXIOM on 26 June 2024 as part of Proms at St. Jude’s, performed by Echo Ensemble and conducted by Max. Echo Ensemble also gives a performance of Max’s Phantasy Quintet at Thaxted Festival on 30 June 2024.

With a creative life that embraces music and painting, poetry and cinema, Max enjoys illuminating the relationships between different mediums. As a conductor he has assisted Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo at the BBC Proms and conducted Endymion Ensemble at Wigmore Hall. Max’s artworks have displayed at the National Portrait Gallery. His columns have been printed in The Irish Times, The Strad and The Jewish Chronicle; he has contributed to BBC Music Magazine and has been interviewed for Classical Music, Opera Today and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.

'Emotionally ambitious and vocally eloquent' The Telegraph

‘Sonorities with much spiky interlacing, coalescing intermittently into more humane consonances’ ★ ★ ★ ★  London Evening Standard

‘A high degree of textural inventiveness… marvellously scored… Max is in the early stages of a notable career’ ★ ★ ★ ★  The Arts Desk

Rain for baritone and piano, Op.48 | Noah Max, 2023 (World Premiere)

Noah Max

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