This piece was commission by Britten Pears Arts for the Chamber Futures course as part of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme (BPYAP) 2023-24 and first performed by Lumas Winds in the Finale concert. Click here to find out more about the courses we offer on the BPYAP https://www.brittenpearsarts.org/take-part/artists/britten-pears-young-artist-programme-2 Performed on Friday 29 March 2024, Britten Studio Matt Jolly: film maker Marcello Palazzo: composer Lumas Winds Beth Stone: flute Rennie Sutherland: clarinet Chris Vettraino: oboe Flo Plane: bassoon Benjamin Hartnell-Booth: horn

This recording is from the premiere, on the 15th December 2023, conducted by the composer. The programme note from the first performance reads as follows: This evening marks the premiere of Marcello Palazzo’s piece for classical-sized orchestra, Trails. Inspired by Edvard Munch’s painting New Snow in the Avenue, the music seeks to explore sounds that emerge from the rich colours and enchanting shapes of Munch’s snowy scene. On its surface, the painting depicts two children, embarking on a path that leads further into the forest. We are drawn into the distance, eagerly anticipating the envelope of trees and flecks that fold us in wonder. However, looking deeply into the future, one notes how the way ebbs, murky and unformed. In this exciting and unsettling picture, we only have each other as a point of stability. Adjacent to the tunnel vision of what we want is a life that is demonstrably not ours, but periodically prompts us to value the human contact that thaws the lonely road. The warmth we search for is often found right next to us, not in the path, but the people. This small act of rebellion carves a story into our life, allowing us to find meaning out of confusion – a sound out of silence. Palazzo’s music takes our two protagonists and ties them together through a number of duets, sewn from variations of a single chord. Pushing through a brambled curtain or circling above an icy carpet, these duets seek each other, often meeting but sometimes parting; see if you can spot each of them – which part of the journey have our protagonists reached? Palazzo was drawn to this painting having once lived at the top of such an avenue in the North-East of England, where, as you can imagine, it often snowed. Marcello Palazzo

This piece was written on the Composition and Performance Course in 2022 and performed in the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2023. The Composition and Performance Course is part of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. More information here: https://brittenpearsarts.org/take-part/artists/britten-pears-young-artist-programme Marcello Brindisi: "The initial idea for my piece, Brindisi, was to musically explore a fictitious narrative of a party scene through reference to two drinking songs. The first draft of this piece was written on the Britten Pears Arts residency in November 2022, and offered a more pronounced presence to the drinking songs in their essential form. I subsequently decided to expose the contrast of their harmonic content to a greater extent, encouraging a dichotomous approach to the mood that each song suggested. The result is such that these competing moods become ‘affected’ by each other, and are eventually forced into coexistence, as their harmonic and melodic content become loudly entangled towards the piece’s finale. The title in Italian refers to a ‘toast’, and holds personal significance to my own family’s history. The songs themselves originate from both Italy and the UK." Matt Jolly: filmmaker Jonathan Berman: conductor Claire Booth: vocal tutor Colin Matthews: composition mentor Otis Enokido-Lineham: assistant conductor Philip Dutton: composer Beatrice Ferreira: composer Sun Keting: composer Marcello Palazzo: composer Marcus Rock: composer Sasha Scott: composer McKenzie Warriner: soprano Katie Macdonald: mezzo-soprano Phoebe Rayner: mezzo-soprano Elicia Neo: violin Tiago Soares: Silva violin Miguel Sobrinho: viola Alasdair Morton-Teng: cello Richard English: bass Hannah Gillingham: flute Tommy Hill: oboe Raymond Brien: clarinet Emily Newman: bassoon George Strivens: horn Tom Kearsey: trumpet Kalun Leung: trombone Tom Hall: percussion Lise Vandersmissen: harp Rob Hao: piano / celeste David Palmer: piano /celeste / harmonium