Women's voices / UK

Four British female composers from different generations and with highly diverse styles: English conductor Jamie Phillips unites top-notch, energetic female power in "Women's Voices/UK." This is especially true of the youngest composer, Laura Bowler. Described in the media as a "provocative, triple-threatening composer-performer," she is considered a "rising star" in the scene. Her work is multidisciplinary, socially critical, and typically expansive.

This caused a stir at the 2024 Donaueschingen Music Festival. Bowler has written a new work for the Basel Sinfonietta featuring percussion, piano, and solo performance, in which she also performs. Helen Grime, on the other hand, is also active as an oboist. In "River," premiered by Kent Nagano in 2023, she musically depicts key characteristics of rivers: their energy and power as well as their tranquility and contemplation.

“As the piece evolves, the material explodes and takes many new directions.” This also applies to Anna Clyne. In “This Midnight Hour” from 2015, a mysterious atmosphere, frothy fury, rapturous lyricism, and forward-driving energy converge. The work reflects two poems by Juan Ramón Mantecón and Charles Baudelaire.

Grace Williams, a "grande dame" of contemporary Welsh music who died in 1977, is also represented. Today she is somewhat unjustly forgotten, but Benjamin Britten also considered his friend one of the outstanding voices of the time. Her music thrives on lyricism and declamation. Her mature creative period began with "Penillion" from 1955, characterized by a distinctly individual expressiveness and a distinctly Welsh character.