'Gloria' with Karl Jenkins

[Jillian]

Jenkins' Gloria premiere at Albert Hall

Thursday, 3 June 2010 10:08



Jenkins’ new choral work Gloria will be premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 11 July and a CD of the performance released on the night.

It will be the first time a world premiere has been recorded live and the recording sold immediately following the performance.

The Really Big Chorus, English Festival Orchestra and student vocal soloists conducted by Brian Kay will premiere Gloria and the recording, on Abbey Road Live, will be for sale on the night of the concert only, exclusively to the performers and audience.

On 12 July, the day after the premiere, EMI Classics will release a studio recording of Gloria, paired with Jenkins’ Te Deum, with Jenkins himself conducting the National Youth Chorus of Great Britain, the London Symphony Orchestra and soprano Hayley Westenra.

Hayley Westenra’s debut album Pure featured Jenkins’ Benedictus. She comments on the forthcoming release: “Karl's work is so rewarding to sing as he writes such dynamic and beautiful melodies for the voice, and I jumped at the chance to not only perform his music again, but to actually record his Gloria with Karl himself directing."

Jenkins’ five-movement work Gloria takes as its main text the Latin version of the hymn of praise to God from the traditional Christian Mass, whose first line is 'Gloria in excelsis Deo' (Glory to God in the Highest). Jenkins has also included other passages from the Bible, and in between movements he has “selected readings from various ancient religions, each expressing their own concept of the divine or a deity. The detachment of Buddhism, and the paradoxes of Taoism are both alternative ways of perceiving ultimate reality, and they therefore stand as a kind of counterpoint to the Abrahamic religions”.

www.classicfm.co.uk/music/music-news-and-features/jenkins-gloria-premiere-albert-hall/

www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/singday/default.aspx

[mihizawi]

Sounds a very interesting concept, both the piece itself and the way it is released, I can't wait to hear how it sounds on Hayley's voice.

Michal

[Jillian]

Hi everyone,

Hayley confirmed the 'Gloria' release with a few tweets.

I look forward to everyone hearing Karl Jenkins' 'Gloria' -it's beautiful -he's a fantastic composer & it was a privilege to be involved.

Not sure whether it is going to be an International release -- although considering Karl Jenkins' widespread popularity, it's very likely it will be! Something to look forward to! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[joanne]

Five movements sounds mighty long haha; I wonder how much of it Hayley will be singing to. Hope it's a fair bit! Or more Thanks for posting this, Jillian!

cheers,
Joanne

(Edit: I just realised this is quite a special post for me, numerically and otherwise )

[Jillian]

Hi Joanne,

Congratulations on 100 posts!

In relation to the five movements ... I'm musically impaired.. how long is that?

Cheers,
Jillian

[mihizawi]

Jun 3, 2010 12:41:35 GMT Jillian said:

Hi Joanne,

Congratulations on 100 posts!

In relation to the five movements ... I'm musically impaired.. how long is that?

Cheers,
Jillian

Congrats too from me, Joanne.

And, Jillian, the length of the movements in Classical music varies so much we can't really tell how long it can be. A classic Symphony, before Beethoven, has 4 movements and is usually 20-30 minutes long as a whole. But then again, Beethoven's nynth symphony is around one hour long, even if it keeps having four movements (and from then, many romantic symphonies tend to be longer than classic ones). Then again, there's a piano and cello sonata composed by Chopin that I heard few days ago and it had 4 movements, the firstone being as long as the three other (more or less 15-20 minutes the first, I thinK). So, you see, we can't really tell how long is that. It could be 20 minutes or it could be over one hour. xD...

Michal

[Jillian]

Jun 3, 2010 13:09:24 GMT mihizawi said:

Jun 3, 2010 12:41:35 GMT Jillian said:

Hi Joanne,

Congratulations on 100 posts!

In relation to the five movements ... I'm musically impaired.. how long is that?

Cheers,
Jillian

Congrats too from me, Joanne.

And, Jillian, the length of the movements in Classical music varies so much we can't really tell how long it can be. A classic Symphony, before Beethoven, has 4 movements and is usually 20-30 minutes long as a whole. But then again, Beethoven's nynth symphony is around one hour long, even if it keeps having four movements (and from then, many romantic symphonies tend to be longer than classic ones). Then again, there's a piano and cello sonata composed by Chopin that I heard few days ago and it had 4 movements, the firstone being as long as the three other (more or less 15-20 minutes the first, I thinK). So, you see, we can't really tell how long is that. It could be 20 minutes or it could be over one hour. xD...

Michal

Seriously? LOL I may need to pack a thermos of tea and some sandwiches in order to listen to it then!

[Dave]

Thanks for posting this Jillian, excellent! So now we know about that mystery Hayley recording recently!

It doesn't mention Hayley for the live performance though. Interesting!

For members who don't know about Karl Jenkins, he is a long-standing Welsh composer of modern classical music with many hits in the UK classical charts, probably the most famous being "The Armed Man - A Mass for Peace" which has never been high up in the pop charts but has been selling continually in the classical charts for a decade in the UK. Its total sales are now well over 100,000 copies which is remarkable for a true classical album.

He started his career as a Jazz and Rock musician and was a member of the prog-rock band Soft Machine in the early 1970s, releasing his first classical album Adiemus in the mid 1990s. He is a solid part of the UK music establishment and Hayley's renewed involvement (following Benedictus in 2003) can only help to raise her status too.

Oh, and congratulations Joanne on achieving your century!

Cheers, Dave

[Richard]

Hello folks!

I'll certainly buy this album. I like most of Karl Jenkins' music, and I'm wondering if this will be a modern setting of the well-known work by Vivaldi.

Richard

[joanne]

Hi

Thanks, guys! Haha it's been really fun being on HWI these past 2 months. I probably would've joined earlier had I known haha

Jun 3, 2010 13:19:59 GMT Dave said:

It doesn't mention Hayley for the live performance though. Interesting!

Cheers, Dave

Funny about that.. It would be strange if someone else performed live though, it'd be like stealing Hayley's thunder. Sort of. Or the other way round. Well both ways, really Hope the reporter just figured it was redundant to repeat him/herself on who'd be performing live.

cheers,
Joanne

[mihizawi]

I actually understand from the text that the live artists will be completely different from those on the studio recording. The choir, the orchestra... and also it says there will be some "student vocal soloists", so I guess it's them who will do Hayley's part. But who knows... could be the other way.

Michal

[Richard]

I've written a short news item about this on our new website. I've quoted a couple of paragraphs from Classic FM and posted a link to the full article.

Congratulations on your century, Joanne!

Richard

[Mark]

Hi everyone

I spotted Hayleys tweets about this earlier today. It sounds very exciting and I cant wait to hear it. Karl Jenkins of course is now also one of Bedlam's artists.

Best wishes

Mark

[grant]

Hi Dave and Mark

More great news! Definitely another one to add to the collection. At the moment, neither Amazon or HMV have it listed but I'm sure it will be available for pre-order very soon.

Best wishes
Grant

[Libby]

Is "Gloria" a piece already in existence, or is it Karl's own composition? I've heard of "Gloria" pieces before, and I'm just wondering if this is something already done before, or something completely new.

I'm looking forward to hearing Hayley's part. When she tweeted about it a while back, she said it was some "truly beautiful music". I hope it's more than one song.

Wasn't Karl involved in Music of the Spheres? I thought I remembered him in that "preview" on youtube, where they would show Hayley recording "On My Heart".