Instrumentation

2 ob.2 cl.2 bsn.2 hn

Availability

Score 057151619X and parts 0571564348 on sale

Programme Notes

Jonathan Dove Figures in the Garden For their 1991 Mozart bicentenary celebrations, Glyndebourne commissioned five composers to write wind serenades. Each serenade was to be musically connected in some way with one of Mozart’s operas, and to be played outdoors before the performance of the opera. I was asked to compose a piece to precede The Marriage of Figaro. Although Mozart’s comic masterpiece needs no introduction, musically or otherwise, I was attracted by the aptness of playing a serenade in the garden before performances of an opera whose last act is set in a garden, and which itself includes a number of serenades: Voi che spaete, Deh vieni, non tardar, and Suzanna and the countess’ letter-writing duet Canzonetta su sull ‘aria’. I had the idea that with all the performances of The Marriage of Figaro that had taken place at Glyndebourne, sounds from the opera had in some way impregnated the garden: snatches of recitative, musical figures, instrumental colours. I didn’t want to overwork Mozart’s tunes – it would be disastrous if the audience were tired of them before the opera had even begun – but each movement of Figures in the Garden is developed from a musical idea in the opera. Here and there an alternative scenario emerges: Suzanna sings her aria in the rain (because it’s an English garden), and Figaro and Suzanna finally enjoy a moment of shared tranquillity that is denied them in the opera. Jonathan Dove

Figures in the Garden

John Innes Centre (Norwich, United Kingdom)

Nicholas Daniel/Haffner Ensemble

Figures in the Garden

St John's Smith Square (London, United Kingdom)

Southbank Sinfonia

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Figures in the Garden

Cadogan Hall (London, United Kingdom)

Affinity Chamber Orchestra/Jack Apperley

Figures in the Garden

LSO St Luke's (London, United Kingdom)

LSO Wind Ensemble/London Symphony Orchestra/Nicolo Foron

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Figures in the Garden

choreographic performance

Waterperry Lily Pond, Waterperry House (Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom)

Students of Trinity Laban Conservatoire/Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra