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- Jonathan Dove
The Passing of the Year (2000)
- Peters Edition Limited (World)
Original version commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus. New version for double chorus, two pianos and percussion, commissioned for the 200th anniversary of Edition Peters. Original version first performed 18 March 2000, Barbican Centre, London Symphony Chorus conducted by Stephen Westrop.
- chch; pf
- chch; 4perc/2pf
- chch
- 20 min
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emily Dickinson, George Peele, Thomas Nashe and William Blake
- English
Programme Note
© DOVE The Passing of the Year (gramophone.co.uk):
The major work on the disc, composed in memory of the composer’s mother, is The Passing of the Year (2000). This sets seven texts, including poetry by Blake, Dickinson and Tennyson, the latter’s ‘Ring out, wild bells’ being given a suitably wintry treatment. The combination of double chorus and piano (with Christopher Cromar providing solidly satisfying support) offers a wealth of textural and dramatic possibilities, most – if not all – of which are eagerly grasped by the composer. There are a few rough edges, including one major discomfort caused by a lapse in intonation, put into sharp relief by the fixed pitch of the piano, which could have benefited from another take. However, this is a major work which deserves to become a choral repertory mainstay.