Jennifer Johnston CD Release
Last year, I was very pleased to be asked by the mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston (a fellow Scouser) to contribute two items to her debut disc, a tribute to our home city featuring music written by composers born and/or based in Liverpool. The first is an arrangement of The Leaving of Liverpool, the best known version of which is probably that recorded by The Pogues. The second is an original piece - a setting of Roger McGough's The Gateway to the Atlantic, inscribed upon the wall of the Museum of Liverpool.
The CD will be released on Friday, 27th September and can be pre-ordered here. A full press release follows:
A LOVE LETTER TO LIVERPOOL
Rubicon Classics RCD1044
Release date 27th September 2019, available on Spotify, Apple Music and Presto Classical
The long-awaited debut solo album of one of the UK’s brightest classical music stars, A Love Letter To Liverpool is Jennifer Johnston’s heartfelt tribute to her home city. She is Artist In Residence with the world-renowned Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, who appear on the disc alongside their Choir, the Liverpool Phil Youth Company, and Alisdair Hogarth, one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation. The disc was recorded at the Friary and the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, and will be released by Rubicon Classics.
All profits from the album will be donated equally to two outstanding charitable organisations: Alder Hey Children’s Charity supports the work of one of the world’s leading specialist children’s hospitals, and money raised by the album will contribute to the construction of a critically important in-patient mental health unit for under-13’s; and the Liverpool Phil’s Youth Company, which encourages the development of the next generation of young musicians and composers from across Merseyside. Jennifer is especially proud that this album contains the works of seven of the Liverpool Phil’s young composers, all of whom are at the beginning of their careers.
The Liverpool Phil gave Jennifer her first taste of world-class classical music when she joined their choir at the tender age of 15, and so she has come full circle, back to where she started a quarter of a century ago. What a journey it has been. She has travelled the globe and experienced many wonderful places, yet she loves nowhere more than Liverpool: the gateway to the Atlantic, her native land, her beloved city, her home.
CREDITS:
Jennifer Johnston - mezzo soprano
Alisdair Hogarth - piano
Matthew Cosgrove - Rubicon Classics
Andrew Cornall - producer
Philip Siney - sound engineer
Ian Watson - editor
Ian Tracey - conductor
Marina Staneva - piano
Ruby Johnston Thomas - treble
Helena Cooke - photography
Martin Cooke - fundraising
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir
Liverpool Phil Youth Company
Steinway & Sons
TRACKLIST:
In My Liverpool Home - Pete McGovern arr. Carmel Smickersgill
Amazing Grace - John Newton arr. Armand Rabot (Liverpool Phil Youth Company)
My Native Land - Charles Ives
Song To The Seals - Granville Bantock
I Saw Three Ships - traditional arr. Grace Evangeline Mason
Sea Fever - John Ireland
The Estuary - Michael Head
The Gateway To The Atlantic - Richard Miller (McGough)
Homeward Bound - traditional sea shanty arr. Marco Galvani
Liverpool Lullaby - Stan Kelly arr. Bethan Morgan-Williams
Johnny Todd - traditional arr. Armand Rabot
What Will They Tell Me Tonight? - Mark Simpson
Madam And Her Madam - Stephen Hough
The World You’re Coming Into - McCartney/Davis
Blackbird - Lennon/McCartney arr. Alisdair Hogarth
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square - Maschwitz/Sherwin arr. Joshua Quinlan
Danny Boy - Frederic Weatherley arr. Stephen Hough
The Last Rose of Summer - Thomas Moore arr. Benjamin Britten
The Leaving Of Liverpool - traditional arr. Richard Miller
All Our Different Voices - Tim Jackson (Liverpool Phil Youth Company)
You’ll Never Walk Alone - Rogers and Hammerstein (RLPO and RLPC, conducted by Ian Tracey)