WHAT OUR AUDIENCE THINK

Comments following 'Out of the Darkness' March 2009 performances

@Dear Julian,

Many thanks for the opportunity to listen to the pre-release CD of your remarkable composition called ‘Out of the Darkness’.

As my daughter, Sarah, has told you, anything that touches on the horror of Auschwitz touches me personally as my uncle, Robert bell, was sent there quite improperly as a prisoner-of-war, to work at the I. G. Farben factory as a slave labourer.

He survived Auschwitz, Gertrud Kolmar did not, but her poetry is there to speak for her and thank you for introducing it to me. Though written in the thirties, it seems to foresee the future and speaks for all time.

Your wonderful music, the perfection of delivery by the singers, for me, lifts the spirit and I was fascinated by the Tango and Bossa Nova influences. As you say, in a strange way it all seems ironically appropriate, a kind of counterpoint to the essential darkness of the poetry, a symbol, perhaps, of the human spirit refusing to be broken.

I’m not surprised the cantata was received so warmly at Winchester Cathedral. ‘Out of the Darkness’ is unique, completely remarkable in every way. Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen to it.

Best of good wishes,

From Harry Patterson (aka Jack Higgins, author)

"Hi

Really enjoying your CD, very meaty stuff, excellent choral writing, nice interplay between choir and soloist, Mel in fine fettle

Prologue - brilliant! The River - gorgeous!

Well done, amazing achievement

The Bryars piece is really nice too

Best" (by Orlando Goth - Composer)

“I really felt that I was bearing witness – listening to the pain and the beauty. Exquisite”

“I am so glad to have borne witness to the birth of this beautiful series of pieces delivered with such passion by all the performers and in the exquisite and ancient setting that is Winchester cathedral. What a privilege that my soul was able to hear such music...

I feel deeply honoured and delighted that you asked me to help manifest such a sparkling example of your true talent as a composer. The whole experience has touched me to the core. I sense that Gertrud would be rejoicing that her work is brought back to life through your tender interpretation of the essence of her timeless themes”.

“…. Just wanted to say how amazing the whole evening was. I was completely blown away by your composition. Really really moved by it. Thank you so much. It was a gift to us all.”

“Wow! That was amazing. What a triumph. Exquisite and spellbinding”

“Julian - I was not one of the people who stood or applauded energetically

last night. I needed to be very quiet. Such a powerful, beautiful, telling

piece. I knew the poem anyway, having met it before we ever talked in

Salisbury, & Howard had told me just a little of the music, but of course,

actually left it to speak for itself. Which it most certainly did - &

remains 'speaking' in my brain & heart this morning. Thank you.”

“Your music is still haunting me! A strange, but somehow familiar landscape. Like something I’d always known. In the same way that truth is always there but somehow gets obscured. Beautiful!”

“Dear Julian,

I don’t know quite where to begin this letter.

firstly with congratulations, Yes, that has to come first – this concert is an astounding achievement, one of the musical events of my life. To begin at the beginning, the dignity and commitment of all performers was outstanding. A sense of noble occasion was with us all from the very start. This is a magical and life enhancing sense. Each music graces every other under such a blessing, enhancing, revealing, deepening the connection to the central theme – out of the darkness. As for the Byrd, it is a great masterpiece. I’m lucky enough to have sung it many times and it holds a really special place for me. The Agnus will be on my desert island, in due course. The cello pieces were revelatory and most beautifully played.

Out of the Darkness resonated in me like the surge and echo which occurs in those huge Japanese temple bells, a great doyingggg which just goes on and on. For me it goes to the very roots of my sense of ‘what it is to be European’. I feel we need to stare at the experience of the camps, and all that led up to this, as unflinchingly as we can. I feel a need to become part of this history, not simply a critic of the bits I don’t like. This isn’t because I want to be ‘good’ or ‘clever’ or even ‘English’ (i.e. someone who was ‘on the right side’) but because I cannot but sense that, although our European culture makes claims upon civilizated notions, it won’t get back onto the shortlist for civilized behaviour until it drinks long and deep of the sorry fact that almost 100 million people , men, women, children, in Europe have died violent or premature deaths in the last 100 years. Underneath this awfulness is a further awfulness in relation to our cruelty to all the animals, land

 scapes, plants and environment that we have collectively inflicted through our nationalistic, warlike and aggressive mindsets. This is a legacy which is most perfectly breathtaking, yet I still don’t believe that (as Europeans) have collectively taken it in. Nor do I believe that we have properly understood the vortex of trauma which I believe we still suffer from, and which still haunts the collective unconscious here.

In order to honour the legacy of Bach, Shakespeare, Monet to name only 3, not to mention the un-named artists of highest order who built the cathedrals, as Europeans we need to find values which genuinely show signs of having understood the lessons that the past could have been teaching us, had we not willfully gone another way (I’m talking collective here, not individual) and followed the pomp and delusion of the military industrial maniacs who deluded so many generations.