Ensemble Modern Media release a new album featuring four works by George Benjamin, performed by Ensemble Modern resp. the Ensemble Modern Orchestra and the soprano Anna Prohaska. A Mind of Winter, At First Light, Palimpsests and the arrangements of The Art of Fugue are all live recordings made between 2019 and 2023 at Berlin’s Philharmonie, Cologne’s Philharmonie and the Alte Oper Frankfurt under the baton of Sir George Benjamin.

As a composer and conductor, Sir George Benjamin has for decades unwaveringly followed his own path, characterised by mutually enriching activities on stage and behind the desk. His collaboration and friendship with Ensemble Modern spans more than three decades. He most recently conducted a tour of Ensemble Modern and the full-size symphonic Ensemble Modern Orchestra with Anna Prohaska in September 2023, including various programmes in Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam and London. That same year, he also won the renowned Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

The compositions form a cross-section of Benjamin’s oeuvre, beginning with the early work for soprano and orchestra A Mind of Winter (1981), based on the poem ‘The Snow Man’ (1921) by Wallace Stevens. The solo part was sung by Anna Prohaska.

At First Light (1982) was also inspired by a landscape, in this case William Turner’s painting ‘Norham Castle, Sunrise’ (1845).

The Palimpsests (1998-2002) reveal Benjamin’s fascination with the specific superimpositions found in medieval parchment manuscripts.

Finally, with his ensemble arrangements of two pieces from The Art of Fugue (2007), Benjamin brings Johann Sebastian Bach’s polyphonic structures to light, primarily through the timbres of the horns and strings, and transfers their musical spirit to the present day.

The album was produced in collaboration with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the Hessischer Rundfunk.