Shadowtime: the CD

[from the NMC announcement]

NMC is proud to announce the release of Brian Ferneyhough's opera Shadowtime, setting Charles Bernstein's poetic and complex libretto of seminal 20th-century philosopher Walter Benjamin's last days and a phantasmagorical descent to the underworld.

Recorded in July 2005, in  collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and the English National Opera (ENO), Shadowtime is released on NMC on 3rd April 2006, performed by outstanding contemporary music specialists Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam, and conducted by Jurjen Hempel. Acclaimed guitarist Mats Scheidegger features in the opera's Scene II, Les Froissements d'Ailes de Gabriel (The Rustling of Gabriel's Wings), while the combined role of pianist and reciter is taken by Nicolas Hodges.

Reviews of the 2005 London performance:
“…Wonderful sounds,musical moves that tell, technical exigence turned to eloquence: I listened spellbound."       
Andrew Porter, Times Literary Supplement

"Bernstein's text makes oblique manoeuvres round the themes of Benjamin's work, and Ferneyhough sets them to complex yet frequently beautiful music, a mixture of tough and tender modernism." 
The Observer

Read Fabrice Fitch's introduction to NMC recording
Synopsis
Performers & credits

NMC D123

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Brian Ferneyhough's vision of a philosopher in the Underworld

Described as a "thought opera", Brian Ferneyhough's Shadowtime sets Charles Bernstein's inventive and complex libretto based on the work, life and imagined death of philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin: it includes a movement for a speaking pianist - Opus Contra Naturam, the opera's fourth scene - a guitar concerto (Scene II) and ends in an ethereal haze of voices and electronics, Stelae for Failed Time.

Shadowtime was recorded in collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and English National Opera at the London Coliseum production in July 2005; this release has been made possible by funding from Stanford University, the Holst Foundation and by the generosity of the artists involved:

Nicolas Hodges, piano/ reciter
Mats Scheidegger, guitar
Jurjen Hempel, conductor
Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart
Nieuw Ensemble

Shadowtime web site
Synopsis
Reviews

Tracklist

Total Time: 2'06'44

Disc 1
1 Nicolas Hodges, piano/ Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Jurjen Hempel, conductor Scene I: New Angels/ Transient Failures (Prologue) 20'39 Listen (Real Audio)
2 Mats Scheidegger, guitar/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Jurjen Hempel, conductor Scene II: Les Froissements d'Ailes de Gabriel (First Barrier) 17'23 Listen (Real Audio)
3 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: The Doctrine of Similarity (13 Canons): Amphibolies I (Walk Slowly) 2'12 Listen (Real Audio)
4 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Dust to Dusk 1'25 Listen (Real Audio)
5 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Cannot Cross 2'45 Listen (Real Audio)
6 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Indissolubility (Motetus absconditus) 2'10 Listen (Real Audio)
7 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Amphibolies II (Noon) 4'30 Listen (Real Audio)
8 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: In the Dark (But Even Fire Is Light) 2'07 Listen (Real Audio)
9 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Sometimes 2'32 Listen (Real Audio)
10 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Anagrammatica 0'34 Listen (Real Audio)
11 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: dew and die 1'40 Listen (Real Audio)
12 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Schein 1'20 Listen (Real Audio)
13 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Dusts to Dusks 2'21 Listen (Real Audio)
14 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Amphibolies III (Pricks) 1'25 Listen (Real Audio)
15 NVS/ Nieuw Ens./ Hempel Scene III: Salute 1'31 Listen (Real Audio)
Disc 2
1 Nicolas Hodges, piano & narration Scene IV: Opus Contra Naturam (Descent of Benjamin into the Underworld): I - Untitled 2'27 Listen (Real Audio)
2 Nicolas Hodges Scene IV: Opus Contra Naturam: II - Katabasis 11'26 Listen (Real Audio)
3 Nicolas Hodges Scene IV: Opus Contra Naturam: III - Kataplexy 2'53 Listen (Real Audio)
4 Nieuw Ensemble/ Jurjen Hempel, conductor Scene V: Pools of Darkness (11 Interrogations): Three Giant Mouths 2'14 Listen (Real Audio)
5 Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Headless Ghoul 1'40 Listen (Real Audio)
6 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Karl Marx and Groucho Marx, with Kerberus 2'07 Listen (Real Audio)
7 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Pope Pius XII 1'03 Listen (Real Audio)
8 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Joan of Arc 1'32 Listen (Real Audio)
9 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Baal Shem Tov Disguised as Vampire 2'21 Listen (Real Audio)
10 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Adolf Hitler 1'22 Listen (Real Audio)
11 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Albert Einstein 1'37 Listen (Real Audio)
12 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Border Guard 0'56 Listen (Real Audio)
13 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Four Furies 1'30 Listen (Real Audio)
14 NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene V: Golem 1'42 Listen (Real Audio)
15 Hodges/ NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene VI: Seven Tableaux Vivants Representing the Angel of History as Melancholia (Second Barrier): Laurel's Eyes (after Heine's 1'31 Listen (Real Audio)
16 Hodges/ NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene VI: Tensions 1'08 Listen (Real Audio)
17 Hodges/ NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene VI: Hashish in Marseilles 1'22 Listen (Real Audio)
18 Hodges/ NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene VI: After Heine's 1'27 Listen (Real Audio)
19 Hodges/ NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene VI: One and a Half Truths 1'42 Listen (Real Audio)
20 Hodges/ NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene VI: Can'ts 1'01 Listen (Real Audio)
21 Hodges/ NVS/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Hempel Scene VI: Madame Moiselle and Mr. Moiselle 5'06 Listen (Real Audio)
22 Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart/ Nieuw Ensemble/ Jurjen Hempel, conductor 22 Scene VII: Stelae for Failed Time (Solo for Melancholia as the 13'43 Listen (Real Audio)

Libretto available from Green Integer

Shadowtime web site