BBC -Concert Orchestra - Appointments

On Wednesday 16 February, the BBC Concert Orchestra performed Anne Dudley's final commission for them, Northern Lights. After three years and several new works, we look back on Anne's work.

Anne was appointed as the BBC CO's first Composer in Association in January 2002 with a brief to compose one new work for the Orchestra each year. With her background in film composition and arranging for pop musicians as well as a convential classical training, Anne was an ideal choice for the BBC CO.

Read Anne's biography here.

"I've done a lot of things I wouldn't have anticipated," says Anne, "the Club Classical concerts are a particular highlight. I've composed many pieces and taken on the challenge of 'concert' music as opposed to film music. In doing so I've learnt a lot about structure and pacing - not to mention feeling confident to explore more daring orchestration techniques."

"It's been a really rewarding experience to get to know so many of the musicians. They are not just amazing as individuals but are able to coalesce as a unit and pull out all the stops when it really matters."

"It's been a pleasure to work with this splendid team. I'm sure we'll work together again before too long and I'm already looking forward to it."

Andrew Connolly, General Manager of the BBC CO says, "Anne's appointment predated my own arrival at the Concert Orchestra and when we recorded her score for an IMAX version of "The Human Body" I didn't realise that this was in fact the first time the orchestra had met its inaugural Composer in Association, so the relationship started without public fanfare but instead a day in the recording studio getting down to the business of making Anne's music come to life.

The arrival of each of her orchestral works for us were met with great anticipation by our players - the fact that Anne knew the questions to ask of them in order to achieve the best soundworld for her conceptions was particularly satisfying. Beyond the concert hall - none of us could have predicted the fun and excitement of the Club Classical Brixton Academy and Kenwood concerts and the resulting EMI CD of the project. I was especially delighted that it was possible to work with Anne on our Film Composers Learning Project - the concert at Hammersmith Town Hall was a very special occasion indeed and greatly enhanced by her input to the students during the process and the very presence of an Oscar winning film composer in the audience!

We plan to programme Anne's pieces in future BBC CO concerts as her music has now become part of the fabric of the orchestra - but also I'm sure that in the future we will collaborate again in any one of the areas the association explored over the last three years."

Music and Silence
Premiere - 18 September 2002, Royal Festival Hall
Written for the 50th anniversary of the BBC Concert Orchestra

The music is based on Rose Tremain's novel, Music and Silence. Ever since her first reading of the book, Anne found the musical potential in it irresistible. The novel centres around Peter Clare, a young lutenist in the court of King Christian IV or Denmark whose predecessor is none other than John Dowland. Three of the movements of Anne's piece make use of the opening bars of Dowland's lute-song 'Go, Crystal Tears'.

Club Classical
Premiere - 16 October 2002, Royal Festival Hall
Subsequent performances - 1 February 2003, Brixton Academy; 10 July 2004, Kenwood Open Air Bowl
Recording - Seriously Chilled, EMI 5 57551 2

"The pitch was that CDs with the word 'chill' in the title sell by the bucket-load, so we thought we'd come at it from a different angle" says Anne. "Instead of jazzing up the classics, we'd create cool versions of chart-toppers for orchestra. I transcribed guitar riffs and rearranged things so that we have the epic quality of a symphony orchestra combined with the drum and bass beat of the club sound."

The result is an eclectic mix of the best club anthems to emerge in the last few years, some film tracks and orchestral classics in intricate and inspiring arrangements, delivered with power and texture by an 80-piece orchestra. Music from artists such as Moby, Kinobe, Goldfrapp, Roger Sanchez and Deep Forest sit alongside classics from Handel, Mussorgsky and Fauré. One melody segues seamlessly into the next, creating sequences that are a mystery journey through delicate melodies, laid-back grooves and upbeat dance tunes leading to thrilling climaxes. Anne delights in presenting this music in unexpected ways, taking pre-conceived ideas of what constitutes 'classical' and 'club' music and turning them into something to make you think again.

Club Classical had its first outing in October 2002 at the Royal Festival Hall. It was met with such great enthusiasm that it was decided to do the concert again, but this time in the far more ambitious surroundings of the legendary rock venue Brixton Academy. It was a bold and daring move, but one which ultimately paid off, as an almost capacity crowd of Brixton's finest Saturday night crowd cheered and chilled to the sounds of a live symphony orchestra for perhaps the first time in musical history.

Demand for Anne's music was such that EMI Classics released the album Seriously Chilled in August 2003, which featured much of the music from the first two concerts plus some newly recorded tracks. The album charted at No.6 in the classical charts following its release.

The Kenwood arena allowed us to bring the music into the open air. Despite the dreadful British summer, a capacity crowd enjoyed the music sitting on the grass with a picnic, rounded off with Kenwood's famous firework finale.

A Winter Solstice
Premiere - 17 December 2003, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Subsequent performance - 2 December 2004, Chichester Festival Theatre

Everybody needs some sort of celebration during the darkest, dreariest days of the year. Many carols is the birth of Christ to symbolise the beginning of new life; as the shortest day is passed, the season has turned and spring cannoy be far behind.

Hoar Frost - an evocation of frosty mornings
The Darkerst Midnight - we plunge deeper into winter
Cold December - based on a traditional Catalan carol
Change Ringing - the familiar yet stirring sound of bells ringing in the new year

Sound on Film: Premieres
25 March 2004, Hammersmith Town Hall

Anne spent a month coaching MMus film composition students at the London College of Music and Media, using her expertise and practical experience in the genre to help the students hone their own skills.

Each composed a short orchestral soundtrack to student animations, which were performed live by the BBC CO at Hammersmith Town Hall.

London Flourishes
Premiere - 5 November 2004, Royal Festival Hall

Anne says, "One of the inspirations for London Flourishes was Peter Ackroyd's marvellous book and TV documentary about London. I was struck by the freneticism of his portrayal, and by his description of the city as having brutal energy and an ability to continually renew itself. A second impulse came from looking through a collection of old London cries. I decided to build my festival [Listen Up, National Festival of Orchestras, of which the concert was the finale] fanfare on the opening musical phrase of the 'Kentish Cherries' cry from the famous Otley collection."

Northern Lights
Premiere - 16 February 2005, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Anne says, "I have a long held ambition to see the Aurora Borealis - the 'Northern Lights' and to this end I took the family off to the far north of Norway last February.

This piece depicts a night spent on a frozen lake waiting for the lights to appear. After an exhilarating day of dog sledging we ventured out into the freezing night. At first it seemed as if nothing much was going to happen - it was incredibly quiet, cold, still and dark. Then gradually out of the blackness a few glimmers of colour began to appear. In my piece the "cold" string chords are interrupted by a flourish on the harp and celesta and tremolos appear throughout the violin section. Back on the lake the sky began to clear and a constant yellowish light appeared. The melody which emerges on the violins and flute is the traditional Norwegian folk song Blå Tonar Fra Lom. The colours began to develop and the lights started to form patterns in the sky. The folk song becomes more ornamented and becomes a lively dance movement. Not for long though - it seemed as if it might be over as soon as it had begun and the colours faded and almost disappeared. But it wasn't finished yet: a new pattern appeared, single colours flitted across the sky interweaving like the lines in a fugue. For a short while a vivid and complex pattern filled the sky. And then - darkness once again. But, ambition fulfilled, this was a darkness transformed - just as cold and still as before but now full of potential.

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