LIFE Huw Watkins, Kerenza Peacock, Benjamin Baker, Royal Philharmonic Orchestar & Julian Kershaw

• Oliver Davis (b. 1972): Life:
• 1 Davis: Life: I 03:15
• 2 Davis: Life: II 02:20
• 3 Davis: Life: III 03:25
• Biorhythms:
• 4 Davis: Biorhythms: I 03:28
• 5 Davis: Biorhythms: II 03:08
• Veil:
• 6 Davis: Veil 04:01
• Reflection:
• 7 Davis: Reflection 02:14
• Pieces of Wood:
• 8 Davis: Pieces of Wood: I 02:41
• 9 Davis: Pieces of Wood: II 02:38
• 10 Davis: Pieces of Wood: III 02:48
• Life Cycle:
• 11 Davis: Life Cycle 12:57
• Mortal:
• 12 Davis: Mortal 02:49
• After Life:
• 13 Davis: After Life 03:23
• Life Epilogue:
• 14 Davis: Life Epilogue 01:32
• Total Runtime 50:39

Info for LIFE

A delectable fricasse of voracious ear worms from the pen of Oliver Davis—this time on themes celebrating life in all its stages, and variously showcasing the violins of Kerenza Peacock and Benjamin Baker and the piano of Huw Watkins. Julian Kershaw conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra thoughout.

My initial inspiration for this album came from composing Life cycle for violin and strings, with all the works that followed playing on the theme of life.

For the first movement of Life for solo piano and strings, I have played with alternating the time signature between 6/8 and a 3/4 waltz. The 6/8 sections are distinct in having a minor, slightly intense feel, as opposed to the more joyous 3/4 sections. The second movement was worked up from a short improvisation I wrote a few weeks prior to entering Air Studios to record this album. Its simplicity gives this movement an almost childlike quality. The last movement hints at the waltz feel of the first movement and sees the introduction of additional percussion instruments towards its climactic ending.

Biorhythms can be best defined as the cyclic pattern of emotional or physical activity that occurs throughout our lives. Both movements of this piece for solo violin and strings play on this idea through the use of cyclical patterns in the music. However, these aren’t played by either the soloist or string orchestra that accompanies them; instead, I created two additional solo violin parts that play these cyclic patterns, and often echo each other. In the first movement, the solo violin and orchestral parts dart in and out of the rhythms of these cyclic patterns. With the second movement, the solo violin and orchestral parts have a more sustained feel against the arpeggiated additional solo violin parts, joined here by a solo cello. ...

Huw Watkins, piano
Kerenza Peacock, Violin
Benjamin Baker, Violin
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Julian Kershaw, Conductor

Huw Watkins
was born in Wales in 1976. He studied piano with Peter Lawson at Chetham’s School of Music, and composition with Robin Holloway, Alexander Goehr, and Julian Anderson at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. In 2001, he was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, and he has taught composition at both the RCM and the Royal Academy of Music.

Watkins’s growing body of orchestral works includes the widely acclaimed Violin Concerto (2010) and two commissions from the London Symphony Orchestra: London Concerto (2005) and the Flute Concerto (2013). His longstanding relationship with BBCNOW has resulted in a number of works, including a Piano Concerto (2002) and a Double Concerto (2005). More recently, as Composer in Association (2015-2019), Watkins wrote a Cello Concerto (2016) for his brother, cellist Paul Watkins, and The Moon (2019) for chorus and orchestra. Watkins has written two symphonies for the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, the second of which won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for classical music in 2022.

A wealth of chamber music is central to Watkins’ output, complementing his parallel career as a pianist. Long-time supporters, the Nash Ensemble have commissioned several works, and he has written string quartets for the Belcea, Carducci and Calidore quartets. Among works for his brother, Paul Watkins is Blue Shadows Fall (2012-13), commissioned by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, who also co-commissioned Watkins’ Piano Quintet (2018) with Wigmore Hall.

Watkins’ vocal works include In my craft or sullen art (2007) for tenor and string quartet and Five Larkin Songs (2009-10) for soprano and piano, which won a British Composer Award. In 2017, Watkins was commissioned by King’s College, Cambridge, to write a carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

As pianist, Watkins has appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, and the London Sinfonietta, and performs throughout Europe and North America as soloist and chamber musician. Many composers have written concertos for him, including Philip Cashian, Tansy Davies and Helen Grime. He records for labels such as Signum, Chandos and BIS with regular collaborators Tamsin Waley Cohen, Ruby Hughes and Adam Walker. Watkins was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to music.

Kerenza Peacock
is a musical wanderer—equally at home playing classical works by Vivaldi and Mozart as she is performing new works by contemporary composers like Oliver Davis or letting her hair down playing fiddle with Anglo-American Bluegrass band The Coal Porters.

Kerenza studied violin at the Royal Academy of Music with Howard Davis. Kerenza has recorded many classical solo and chamber discs, all receiving 5 star reviews. Her debut solo disc was the world premiere recording of the Holbrooke Violin Concerto for the Naxos record label, praised in Gramophone magazine for her 'lithe, elegant violin-playing and her easy conquest of the virtuoso demands'.

Kerenza was leader of the Pavao Quartet for 15 years, recording five albums and touring the world. Their disc of Elgar and Bax Quartets (‘an ensemble of real depth and musical distinction’ Classic FM Magazine), was followed by their ‘Dreaming’ CD, which was described as ‘Chamber music for a new century’ on Radio 2. Kerenza played on Eric Whitacre’s album ‘Light and Gold’, which reached No 1 in the Classical Charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and won a Grammy Award in 2012. Her extensive experience in the recording studio has led to her recording for film and television programmes.

You are equally likely to hear her playing on Radio One as you are on Classic FM or Radio Three. She has performed with many artists including Sir Paul McCartney and Kanye West. At one point she was playing on all top 3 albums in the the Pop Charts, as well as the Classical No 1. In 2016, she led the orchestra on Adele’s world tour.

Kerenza has recently been appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for having made 'a significant contribution to the music industry'.

Julian Kershaw
won a scholarship at the age of 13 to study at the Royal College of Music where he graduated with honours, studying Bassoon, Piano, Composition (with Oliver Knussen) and Conducting. After playing as a professional bassoonist for a few years he went on to pursue a career in writing music. Julian is now an experienced arranger, orchestrator, composer and conductor working in film, TV, albums and live music. His many film orchestral and arrangement credits include Notting Hill, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, The Little Mermaid and recently Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. His TV credits for arrangements and orchestration include Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Life, and Frozen Planet.

Julian’s versatility has also led him to work as an arranger for many leading artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Richard Ashcroft, Elvis Costello, Kasabian, Nigel Kennedy, Vanessa-Mae, Lesley Garrett and Kasabian.

Perhaps most notably, Julian did the arrangement of “She” featured on the film Notting Hill, sung by Elvis Costello.

As a conductor he has worked with many of London’s leading orchestras and has conducted dozens of film scores. He has toured as conductor with Nigel Kennedy, conducted the first ever BBC Electric Prom with Kasabian and appears as the circus conductor in Tim Burton’s film Dumbo.

Booklet for LIFE