Airs from another Planet: Chamber music and songs by Judith Weir

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This exquisite collection of chamber works offers a bold and beautiful journey of imagination … Beautifully performed throughout, this is a disc resplendent with imagination and refreshingly... — BBC Music Magazine, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 25th Oct 2019
Catalogue No: DCD34228
Label: Delphian
Length: 73 minutes

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Delphian

Special offer ends: 08/05/2024

This release includes a digital booklet

Delphian

Special offer ends: 08/05/2024

Weir: Nuits d’Afrique

Work length15:35

$4.00

$5.60

$7.00

Ailish Tynan
Hebrides Ensemble

I. Berceuse

Track length3:43

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

II. Le tam-tam

Track length3:07

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

III. Crocodile

Track length4:30

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

IV. Le village

Track length4:15

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Weir: Three Chorales for cello and piano

Work length14:29

$3.00

$4.20

$5.25

William Conway, James Willshire

No. 1, Angels Bending Near the Earth

Track length3:26

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 2, In Death's Dark Vale

Track length4:51

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 3, O Sapientia

Track length6:12

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Weir: O Viridissima

Work length4:19

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Zoë Beyers, William Conway, James Willshire

Weir: Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album

Work length6:53

$3.00

$4.20

$5.25

Zoë Beyers, William Conway, James Willshire

No. 1, Salute

Track length2:37

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 2, Nocturne

Track length1:35

$1.00

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No. 3, Lament

Track length2:41

$1.00

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Weir: Day Break Shadows Flee

Work length8:39

$2.00

$2.10

$3.50

James Willshire

Weir: Really?

Work length10:35

$3.00

$4.20

$5.25

Ailish Tynan
Hebrides Ensemble

No. 1, Incidents in Traffic

Track length2:20

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 2, The Expansion of Porridge

Track length4:20

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 3, What Is Eternity?

Track length3:55

$1.00

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$1.75

Weir: Airs from Another Planet

Work length12:32

$4.00

$5.60

$7.00

Hebrides Ensemble

No. 1, Strathspey & Reel

Track length3:19

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 2, Traditional Air

Track length3:33

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 3, Jig

Track length2:34

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 4, Bagpipe Air, with Drones

Track length3:06

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

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Interview, Judith Weir on Airs from Another Planet

30th October 2019

David talks to the composer about the new album of her vocal and instrumental works, just released on Delphian and encompassing a wide range of styles and influences.

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.

Reviews

This exquisite collection of chamber works offers a bold and beautiful journey of imagination … Beautifully performed throughout, this is a disc resplendent with imagination and refreshingly alive to the power of music to tell stories.

May/June 2020

...this is a composer who also refuses to be pigeonholed into any easy description, and I salute that. All the music is beautifully performed, and the sonics are great. If you don’t know this composer, this is a fine introduction.

Ailish Tynan, the singer at the premiere, and flute, cello and piano from Hebrides Ensemble have been rewarded with one of the most enjoyable song-cycles of recent years … all pieces on this disc are vintage Weir, so economical in their acuity, and sparklingly performed.

April 2020

The talents of the players of the Hebrides Ensemble shine here; their performance is excellent, as are the vocal talents, whether sung or spoken, of Ailish Tynan. Add to this the superb acoustic and recorded sound and you have a first-rate recording, which, if you don’t know Judith Weir’s colourful music yet, would serve as a perfect introduction.

29th September 2019

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

Weir's sounds themselves are often guilelessly bright and simple, though with a dark undertow that seems to issue from some ancient folk tap-root … the performances by Irish soprano Ailish Tynan and Hebrides Ensemble have exactly the right razor-sharp purity and knowing innocence. Thanks to them, the music’s subtle power to move, hidden at first under a dancing surface, gradually reveals itself.

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Interview, Judith Weir on Airs from Another Planet

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