Airs from Another Planet Hebrides Ensemble

• Judith Weir (b. 1954): Nuits d’Afrique:
• 1 Nuits d’Afrique: I. Berceuse 03:43
• 2 Nuits d’Afrique: II. Le tam-tam 03:07
• 3 Nuits d’Afrique: III. Crocodile 04:30
• 4 Nuits d’Afrique: IV. Le village 04:15
• 3 Chorales:
• 5 3 Chorales: No. 1, Angels Bending Near the Earth 03:26
• 6 3 Chorales: No. 2, In Death's Dark Vale 04:51
• 7 3 Chorales: No. 3, O Sapientia 06:12
• Judith Weir:
• 8 O Viridissima 04:19
• Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album (Version for String Trio):
• 9 Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album (Version for String Trio): No. 1, Salute 02:37
• 10 Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album (Version for String Trio): No. 2, Nocturne 01:35
• 11 Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album (Version for String Trio): No. 3, Lament 02:41
• Judith Weir:
• 12 Day Break Shadows Flee 08:39
• Really?:
• 13 Really?: No. 1, Incidents in Traffic 02:20
• 14 Really?: No. 2, The Expansion of Porridge 04:20
• 15 Really?: No. 3, What Is Eternity? 03:55
• Airs from Another Planet:
• 16 Airs from Another Planet: No. 1, Strathspey & Reel 03:19
• 17 Airs from Another Planet: No. 2, Traditional Air 03:33
• 18 Airs from Another Planet: No. 3, Jig 02:34
• 19 Airs from Another Planet: No. 4, Bagpipe Air, with Drones 03:06
• Total Runtime 01:13:02

Info for Airs from Another Planet

This survey of Judith Weir’s often quirky and always engaging music displays some of the concerns that unite her writing for voice and for instruments: storytelling and the gap between truth and fiction; invention and fantasy; the lessons that can be learned from other times and other cultures.

Communication between generations, continents and women lies at the heart of Nuits d’Afrique, conceived as a companion piece to Maurice Ravel’s Chansons madécasses. Its dedicatee, Ailish Tynan, joins the outstanding Hebrides Ensemble players here and in Really?, a resonant sequence of folk-tales set in an idiosyncratic mixture of speech and song.

The hymns of the medieval Rhenish saint, poet and composer Hildegard of Bingen underlie two recent chamber pieces, while the early Airs from another Planet imagines how Scottish folk music might sound after several generations of evolution in outer space.

"The master of the Queen’s music’s witty, economical art comes over touchingly in this seven-work sample." (Sunday Times)

Ailish Tynan, soprano
Hebrides Ensemble

Hebrides Ensemble
With programmes that are diverse, imaginative and inspiring, Hebrides Ensemble has established itself as one of the foremost chamber music collectives in the UK. Cofounded and led by its artistic director, the cellist and conductor William Conway, the Ensemble is renowned for its fresh and intelligent approach to programming, which places contemporary music at the heart of a diverse range of repertoire.

The Ensemble’s flexibility is its strength. It draws its performers from a pool of the most outstanding musicians in the UK and beyond, ensuring the exceptional performance standards for which it has become renowned. This is an international ensemble with its roots in Scottish culture, a collective committed to supporting the next generation of performers and composers, particularly those with links to Scotland. In recent years it has commissioned and premiered new works from composers including Sally Beamish, Hafliði Hallgrímsson, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir James MacMillan, Alasdair Nicolson, Alasdair Spratt, William Sweeney and Martin Suckling.

In 2015 the Ensemble broke new ground by becoming the first professional ensemble to simultaneously connect musicians in Edinburgh to London and Italy in real time. As Hebrides Ensemble celebrates its twenty-fifth birthday in 2016, it launches the next phase of its pioneering digital strategy, which will allow audiences around the world to be part of every performance the Ensemble gives, using live streaming, Twitter feeds and cutting-edge digital technology.

Among other accolades, Hebrides Ensemble’s outstanding achievements were acknowledged by the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in 2009, with a nomination in the Chamber Music category.

Booklet for Airs from Another Planet