Kenneth Hesketh: Wunderkammer (konzert) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Christoph-Mathias Mueller, conductor ENSEMBLE 10/10 Clark Rundell, conductor NMC D186 • Described by Tempo magazine as '…a composer who both has something to say and the means to say it', Kenneth Hesketh began composing whilst a chorister at Liverpool Cathedral, later studying at the Royal College of Music.   He attended Tanglewood in 1995 where he studied with Henri Dutilleux and was subsequently awarded a scholarship from the Toepfer Foundation at the behest of Sir Simon Rattle.   He is now a professor at the Royal College of Music and honorary professor at Liverpool University. • '[Hesketh's] harmonic language is fluid, and there is that sense of the music surging up from a seething cauldron, and at times erupting with sparks and bursts of instrumental colour.   It was characteristic of Hesketh's keen ear, however, that the music, for all its complexity, sounded lucid.' Daily Telegraph (on Graven Image) • 'At God speeded summer's end showed a musicianly aptitude for knowing just when to relax tension and when to tighten the screw again.   This was emphatically not one of those noisy exercises in orchestration going nowhere.   It knew exactly where it was going and got there.' Sunday Telegraph • Forthcoming performances: A new work for dance, Forms entangled, shapes collided, commissioned by ensemble Psappha and Phoenix Dance Theatre, Leeds, through the support of The Royal Philharmonic Society Drummond Fund, will tour nationally from February 2013.   Horae (pro Clara) for solo piano will be premiered at the Cheltenham Festival in 2013 by Clare Hammond. NMCis delighted to be releasing the first full-length CD devoted to the music of Liverpool-born Kenneth Hesketh.   The title work Wunderkammer(konzert) is a three movement chamber concerto which refl ects the character of the wunderkammer, or Cabinet of Curiosities that flourished between the 16th to 18th centuries.   Graven Image is inspired by the medieval Memento Mori, a painting or sculpture which seeks to remind its owner of the brevity of life and At God Speeded Summer's End uses melodic ideas influenced by the structure of Dylan Thomas's poem Prologue.   In Thomas' own words: 'The first and last line rhyme; the second and last but one; and so on and so on.   Why I ackrosticked myself like this, don't ask me.' TRACK LISTING 1. A Rhyme for the Season     4'41     ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA • MUELLER 2. Ein Lichtspiel (after Moholy-Nagy)     11'53     ENSEMBLE 10/10 • RUNDELL 3. Graven Image     14'58     ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA • MUELLER Wunderkammer(konzert)     21'57 4. The Grand Ordo of Hephaestus' Children 9'23 5. Karakuri in the Temple of Athene 6'53 6. Escapements within the Cartesian machine 5'41     ENSEMBLE 10/10 • RUNDELL 7. At God Speeded Summer's End     10'57     ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA • MUELLER NMC Recordings are distributed in Australia by Rockian Trading, P.O.Box 44, Briar Hill, Vic, 3088, Australia Telephone (03) 9432 4149 ~ Facsimile (03) 9444 6879