Instrumentation

2 picc.1.2(I+II=ca).1.bcl(=Ebcl).1.cbsn - 4220 - perc(2): 2 hi-hat/susp.cym/2 clashed cym/2 tam-t/4 wdbl/logdrums/tapan/2 guero/12 tom-t/2 BD/lions roar - harp (with amplification) - strings

Availability

Score and parts for hire

Programme Notes

Commissioned jointly by the BBC and the Britten Sinfonia. 'Double Mercury' takes inspiration from Ovid and is about transformations and metamorphoses. There is a double meaning: on the one hand, Mercury the God changed between old and young and on the other, mercury as an element is a chemical agent to stimulate change.

© John Woolrich

Reviews

John Woolrich's Double Mercury received its premiere performance by the Britten Sinfonia, who had commissioned it jointly with the BBC, at a late-night prom on 26 August. In keeping with one of the themes of this summer's Proms, the work was programmatically related to Greek myths, in this case as recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. Unlike a number of Woolrich's works, whose texture can be on the minimal side, Double Mercury consisted of music which was florid and active. The program listed seven sections, each representing a story from Ovid… There was a lively, attractive and constantly engaging musical narrative of considerable substance, realised with enormous energy and skill. Rodney Lister, Tempo vol 58 no 227 ‘The composer certainly has a flair for striking lapidary sound images, and he has a precise ear. The wind scoring in Double Mercury is both daring and utterly convincing, even when it stretches the players to their limits. And there is never any over-scoring; the ideas inhabit their own space, and across them flow long musical lines which transport them, often at high speed, from A to Z (wherever that may be).’ Stephen Walsh, The Independent, 2 September 2003 ‘The 20 minutes of the score pass often and abruptly from gross comedy to heartfelt laments – beautiful writing for duetting cors anglais – to weighty ruminations. I thought it extraordinarily successful. Neither backward-looking nor avant-garde, but pure Woolrich: deceptively simple, bold, quirky, effective.’ David Murray, Financial Times, 29 August 2003 ‘The title comes from alchemy rather than mythology, and refers to the way in which the musical material of this seamlessly developing piece is being constantly transformed. The same process creates a series of miniature tone poems depicting episodes from Ovid’s metamorphoses: King Picus’ transformation into a woodpecker, the story of Echo and Narcissus, Actaeon torn to pieces and so on. Double Mercury makes a compelling structure, crammed with detail – nagging rhythms, snaking, raw-edged melodies – and a final section, that functions as an epiphany and a telescoped and reordered recapitulation, too.’ Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 30 August 2003 ‘John Woolrich’s equally impressive Double Mercury… Here, the musical ideas came first, the literary clothing – tales from Metamorphoses by Ovid – second. Woolrich loves incident and colour, and there’s plenty of both in this work: braying, screaming horns, lion’s roar (an instrument whose name exactly describes its sound), a climactic duel of percussion, as well as lyrical elements like the lovely cor anglais solo allied to Niobe’s lament. After the tales are told, the music undoes and reorders itself, ending in a feeling of potent, poetic questioning. What’s the next transformation?’ Stephen Pettitt, Evening Standard, 28 August 2003

Double Mercury

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins

Double Mercury

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

BBC Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins

Double Mercury

Concert Hall, BBC Broadcasting House (Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins

Double Mercury

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

Britten Sinfonia/Nicholas Cleobury

Double Mercury

Royal Albert Hall (London, United Kingdom)

Britten Sinfonia/Nicholas Cleobury