Hyperion Records

Howard Skempton’s Three Songs for Jennie were commissioned by Bromsgrove Concerts in honour of their retiring Chairwoman, Jennie McGregor-Smith. The first performance was given by James Gilchrist and Alison Nicholls on 11 March 2005 at the Spadesbourne Hall, Bromsgrove.

Howard Skempton has written: ‘The three songs are settings of poems by Geoffrey Hill, Molly Holden and A E Housman. The aim is always clarity and directness and, even where the music is suitably chromatic (The Triumph of Love), the harp-writing avoids pedal changes. The Syllables of Summer Birds by Molly Holden (1927–1981), whose life was coloured and cut short by multiple sclerosis, is poignantly lyrical, while the Housman is arguably an all-too-familiar lyric, but still refreshing in this new context.’

from notes by Alison Nicholls © 2008