Michael Stimpson Angry Garden / Silvered Night CD

Michael Stimpson’s The Angry Garden and Silvered Night, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of London Choir, Hilary Davan Wetton, and Mark Bebbington, is now released on CD.
The Angry Garden was composed in collaboration with the poet and author Simon Rae. Originally premiered in 2002 at St John’s Smith Square in support of the World Wildlife Fund, it addresses the sense of environmental degradation that was already apparent then and is only more so now. Taking a longer-term view, the piece views the Earth and human action from a somewhat detached perspective, reflected in the title, which implies that the world has a personality, and one which does not like what is being done to it.

The Angry Garden is accompanied on the CD by a new work, Silvered Night, which had its foundation in the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One. Now developed to form a new piece which is closely related to the traditional concerto form, it is recorded by one of the UK’s most outstanding concert pianist, Mark Bebbington. 

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946 and has been at the forefront of UK music-making ever since, gathering a worldwide audience of more than half a million for its approximately 200 concerts per season. Since its foundation in 1963, the City of London Choir has earned an enviable reputation for its distinctive youthful sound and the quality of its performances. Under the leadership of Hilary Davan Wetton, the choir continues to develop its reputation for English music of the twentieth century. As well as his involvement with CLC, Hilary (who studied conducting with Sir Adrian Boult) has also broadcast frequently for the BBC and Classic FM.

Michael Stimpson, whose music has been described as ‘a joy to hear’ by The Strad, has been composing for thirty years and has had his works commissioned, recorded, and performed by some of the UK’s finest classical musicians including the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Allegri and Maggini String Quartets, Roderick Williams, Philippe Graffin, and Sioned Williams. His work has been performed in UK venues such as the Wigmore Hall and the South Bank, as well as internationally in Europe, the US, and Australia. Michael trained as a scientist in the early 1970s before turning to music. An early performing career was cut short by a life-threatening illness which left him permanently blind.

The production and release of The Angry Garden and Silvered Night is independently produced to minimise environmental impact. The CD is produced without plastic from Breed Media in the UK, while the vinyl, to be available in September 2021 to mark the COP26 conference in Glasgow in November, is produced by Deepgrooves Vinyl Pressing Plant in the Netherlands whose strict Eco-policy ensures that they are ‘the greenest vinyl pressing plant on the planet’.