There are Things to be Said Tailleferre Ensemble

• Germain Tailleferre (1892 - 1983): Sonate Champêtre:
• 1 Tailleferre: Sonate Champêtre: I. Allegro moderato 03:29
• 2 Tailleferre: Sonate Champêtre: II. Andantino 05:15
• 3 Tailleferre: Sonate Champêtre: III. Allegro Vivace - Gaiement 02:06
• Ingrid Stölzel (b. 1971): There Are Things to be Said:
• 4 Stölzel: There Are Things to be Said 09:03
• Bill Douglas (b. 1944): Three Lyrical Pieces:
• 5 Douglas: Three Lyrical Pieces: I. Wings of the Wind 02:57
• 6 Douglas: Three Lyrical Pieces: II. The Hills of Glencar 02:07
• 7 Douglas: Three Lyrical Pieces: III. Autumn Song 02:24
• Jenni Brandon (b. 1977): Metamorphosis:
• 8 Brandon: Metamorphosis 12:34
• Rhian Samuel (b. 1944): Little Duos:
• 9 Samuel: Little Duos: I. Morning Glow 03:41
• 10 Samuel: Little Duos: II. Whispers 01:45
• 11 Samuel: Little Duos: III. Sentries 03:20
• Cecilia McDowall (b. 1951): Century Dances:
• 12 McDowall: Century Dances: I. Allemande 03:04
• 13 McDowall: Century Dances: II. Menuet - Ghost Dance 01:37
• 14 McDowall: Century Dances: III. Mazurka 02:26
• 15 McDowall: Century Dances: IV. Tango 02:37
• 16 McDowall: Century Dances: V. Last Dance 02:23
• Melchior Hoffmann (1495 - 1543): Trio Sonata in G Minor:
• 17 Hoffmann: Trio Sonata in G Minor: I. Adagio 01:04
• 18 Hoffmann: Trio Sonata in G Minor: II. Allegro 01:17
• 19 Hoffmann: Trio Sonata in G Minor: III. Adagio 02:34
• 20 Hoffmann: Trio Sonata in G Minor: IV. Vivace 01:36
• Julius Röntgen (1855 - 1932): Trio Sonata:
• 21 Röntgen: Trio Sonata: I. Allegretto con spirito 04:16
• 22 Röntgen: Trio Sonata: II. Poco andante, quasi una fantasia 05:27
• 23 Röntgen: Trio Sonata: III. Allegretto 04:02
• Total Runtime 01:21:04

Info for There are Things to be Said

Co-founded in 2019 by oboists Nicola Hands and Penelope Smith, Tailleferre Ensemble has issued an exemplary debut with There are Things to be Said, an eighty-minute collection that in the old days would make for a perfect double-vinyl release. Many things recommend the collection, from superb musicianship to an inspired and varied set-list. While the principal aim of this UK-based chamber outfit is to promote women in music, the recording includes female and male composers, and living as well as earlier ones too. Adding to the release's appeal, arrangements change throughout, with one piece performed by, say, two oboes and bassoon and another flute, oboe, and piano. That makes the presentation all the more stimulating.

The group, fleshed out by flautists Nicola Crowe and Emma Halnan, clarinetists Jennifer Dunsmore and Helen Pierce, bassoonist Amy Thompson, and pianist Lana Bode, named itself after Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), who studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire and was the sole female member of the Paris-based group popularly known as “Les Six.” Fittingly, the release opens with Sonate Champêtre, which she wrote in 1972 and appears here in recorded form for the first time. Another première is Little Duos, dedicated by composer Rhian Samuel to the group's co-founders. The album takes its name, however, from Ingrid Stölzel's nine-minute title work that, drawing for inspiration from a poem by the late American poet Cid Corman, deals with life's struggles but also perseverance, hope, and resilience. Needless to say, all of the musicians bring to the group project extensive training and professional experience.

Scored for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and piano, Sonate Champêtre inaugurates the release on a rather neoclassical note, its light, breezy tone reflective of the circumstances under which it was created: during a summer holiday Tailleferre enjoyed in Brittany with her granddaughter and pets at the residence of a friend, fellow composer Henri Sauget. The pastoral setting's evoked in the lively first movement, the second exudes a lyrical air, and the rambunctious third lifts the spirits. Stölzer's There Are Things to be Said reinstates the contemplative character of the first work's central movement, progressing as it does from a brooding intro to an intense self-examination that's probing, pensive, and poetic and executed with scrupulous sensitivity by Crowe, Smith, and Bode.

Instantly engaging is Three Lyrical Pieces by bassoonist-pianist-composer Bill Douglas for its pastoral beauty and lyrical melodicism; that the material couples bassoonist Thompson with the ensemble's oboists only adds to the material's alluring quality. Inspired like much of the composer's work by natural landscapes, the work advances from the soothing “Wings of the Wind” to the poignant ache and affirmative embrace of “The Hills of Glencar” and “Autumn Song,” respectively. Like Stölzer's setting, Jenni Brandon's Metamorphosis is in a single movement, though nine sections are identified and whose titles, all synonyms for the word “metamorphosis,” reference stages of evolution. Performed by Bode, Hands, and Smith, Brandon's intoxicating material sings a song of adventure and self-discovery through the magnificent intertwining of the oboes. At twelve-and-a-half minutes, the work affords ample opportunity for exploration and provides a splendid showcase for the three players.

Pairing with Smith on Samuel's Little Duos, Hands exchanges oboe for cor anglais in a work that cedes the stage entirely to the ensemble co-founders. As expected, the two play off against each other spectacularly in all three parts, be it “Morning Glow,” where the two back each other's lead lines with drones when not voicing in unison or entangling acrobatically, or “Sentries,” whose competitive phrasings mirror the annual power struggle enacted between male pheasants outside the composer's mid-Wales home in the spring. Elsewhere, Ceclia McDowall's well-represented by Century Dances, which sees oboe, clarinet, and bassoon fluidly working through five exuberant dances of contrasting character, from a graceful “Allemande” and nimble “Mazurka” to a dark and sensual “Tango” and bluesy and funky “Last Dance.”

The ensemble caps the release with earlier compositions by German Baroque composer Melchior Hoffmann (1679-1715) and German-Dutch composer Julius Röntgen (1855-1932), who was born in Leipzig but later settled in Holland and founded the Amsterdam Conservatory. Hoffmann's four-part Trio Sonata in C minor moves quickly from an elegantly lilting opening adagio to a buoyant allegro, an even more enrapturing second adagio, and vivacious conclusion. Written in 1917 when Röntgen was living in Amsterdam, his Trio for Flute, Oboe and Bassoon in G Major, Op. 86 ends the release strongly with three substantial movements, from staccato phrases that intersect, alternate, and align in the “Allegro con spirito” to the contrapuntal elegance of the expressive “Poco Andante: Quasi Una Fantasia”' and high-spirited “Allegretto.”

Tailleferre Ensemble performs the material exquisitely from start to finish, with each of the eight compositions superbly realized. The beauty and precision of the musicians' playing and their sensitivity to dynamics all help to distinguish this exceptional debut. The group's curatorial instincts also served them well as the works they chose allow them to tackle a broad range of styles and moods. (textura.org)

"The Tailleferre Ensemble excels in subtlety... Their performances contain all musical pastel shades, which together form one lovely colored palette. This is partly due to the various instrumentations that provide transparency and clarity, but certainly also due to the excellent interplay, the beautiful and well-groomed intonation and the lively appearance. ... The Ensemble switches style and instrumentation with ease and gives each composition the warm intention that it deserves." (Mattie Poels, Music Frames)

"Enjoyable and thoughtfully-programmed." (Kate Wakeling, BBC Music Magazine)

The Tailleferre Ensemble:
Emma Halnan, flute
Nicola Crowe, flute
Nicola Hands, oboe, cor anglais
Penelope Smith, oboe, cor anglais
Jennifer Dunsmore, clarinet
Helen Pierce, clarinet
Amy Thompson, bassoon
Lana Bode, piano

The Tailleferre Ensemble
Devoted to promoting women in classical music, the Tailleferre Ensemble is a UK- based chamber collective founded by oboists Nicola Hands and Penelope Smith. Since its inception in 2019 the group has gone from strength to strength. The ensemble’s work encompasses diverse instrumentation, time periods, and genres, with a particular onus on promoting underrepresented and underappreciated works and composers, both historical and contemporary. Their playing has been praised for its ‘extensive palette of timbres’.

In February 2023 the ensemble released their debut album There are Things to be Said, which reviewers praised for their ‘superb musicianship’ and ‘effortless’ performance. Textura magazine celebrated it as an ‘exceptional debut’ on account of ‘the beauty and precision of the musicians’ playing and their sensitivity to dynamics.’ The ensemble has enjoyed airtime on radio stations across Europe and Canada, and is developing an ongoing relationship with BBC Radio 3. They are especially proud to have ongoing collaborations with numerous contemporary composers, many of whom have dedicated new works to them, including Ingrid Stölzel, Rhian Samuel, Sally Wave, Jonathan Heeley, and Dana Joras.

Recently the ensemble has performed at London’s Conway Hall and St. John’s Smith Square, and are repeat artists for the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival and Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society. They regularly perform in recital series around the UK, including at St. James Piccadilly, Aylesbury Lunchtime Concerts, Music-at-Hill, St. John’s ARC, and Brighton’s Chapel Royal. The ensemble has also collaborated with Façade Ensemble and the South Florida Chamber Ensemble.

Individual members’ own playing experience includes with orchestras such as Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aurora Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Wexford Festival Opera orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, as well as venues such as the National Theatre, Royal Opera House, London Coliseum, Wilderness Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, National Portrait Gallery, and Wigmore Hall, and recording at Abbey Road Studios.

The Tailleferre Ensemble are Musicians in Residence at St. John’s Church, Notting Hill.

This album contains no booklet.