91Èȱ¬

The music of Mark-Anthony Turnage, one of the most admired British composers of his generation, is celebrated in a Portrait concert by the 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra, on Saturday 18 April at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow.

Featuring the world premiere of Turnage's Five Views Of A Mouth, written especially for the 91Èȱ¬ SSO and its Chief Conductor, Ilan Volkov, it was composed specifically for performance in the atmospheric surroundings of the Old Fruitmarket.

This new work is based on Samuel Beckett's seminal monologue, Not I. Five Views Of A Mouth is a set of five etudes commissioned by 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 for the 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Scored for amplified solo flute and orchestra, the soloist is German flautist, Dietmar Wiesner. As well as alluding to the flute's mode of playing, the title refers to the central character in Samuel Beckett's melodramatic monologue, Not I, in which a disembodied mouth, spot-lit in the darkness, delivers a high velocity verbal stream of consciousness hinting at memories of past traumas.

In Turnage's concerto, the movement titles refer to the Beckett play and the flute part can be viewed as a non-verbal setting of the text.

The programme also includes Turnage's From All Sides, first staged in 2007 as a dance collaboration in Chicago, which receives its European premiere at this performance.

Also featured is music by one of the most respected figures in British contemporary music, Oliver Knussen, together with composer-in-residence at the Wigmore Hall, Luke Bedford.

Notes to Editors

91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra – Five Views Of A Mouth: A Portrait Of Mark-Anthony Turnage

Saturday 18 April 2009
91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Old Fruitmarket, City Halls, Glasgow, 7.30pm

Turnage – Five Views Of A Mouth (91Èȱ¬ Commission, World Premiere)

Luke Bedford – Outblaze The Sky (Scottish Premiere)

Oliver Knussen – Music For A Puppet Court

Turnage – From All Sides (European Premiere)

Dietmar Wiesner, amplified flute

Ilan Volkov, conductor.

SD3