MUSIC: Karl Jenkins - a very popular modern composer

Feb 29 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Philip Key meets the famous composer writing a specially commissioned piece for the Philharmonic

KARL JENKINS is a rarity, a modern composer who is actually popular. So popular, indeed, that he is regularly in the top ten composers on Classic FM’s Hall of Fame and has even been on Desert Island Discs.

“I don’t really take all that seriously,” he laughs. “The composers are generally the popular types like Mozart and Tchaikovsky and you won’t find Wagner or Mahler there.

“But it is very gratifying, and I am conscious that it is a mark of respect from the public.”

The Welsh-born composer who still carries a delightful Welsh lilt in his voice, is, at 64, at the peak of his powers and writing music every day.

Now his latest work, The Stabat Mater, is to be given its world premiere by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral on March 15.

It is a commissioned piece – as all his works are these days – but one that he was already writing, he admits.

“I have a record deal for EMI Classics, and this was to be my next album so it seemed ideal for the Liverpool date.

“I came up last October to record it with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in the Philharmonic Hall but also recorded parts with a choir in Finland which I have used in the past.

“It was put together like a pop record in some ways with all the bits fitting together like a jigsaw.”

The choice of the Phil – with whom he had never worked before – was a decision between himself and EMI. The Abbey Road recording studio took their mobile equipment to the hall and Jenkins was delighted with the result which is being issued on record to coincide with the Liverpool premiere.

“The Phil has a very high reputation, which is one reason we chose them and I was very impressed by the orchestra.”

Jenkins was born in the Gower village of Penclawdd, where his father was a music teacher and organist in the chapel.

It was his late father whom he credits with introducing him to music and classical music in particular, helping him with piano studies. He played oboe in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and studied music at University College, Cardiff and the Royal Academy of Music.

It was not the classical world that initially interested him, but the jazz world where he was a regular poll winner on the sax and played at London’s Ronnie Scott’s club. He helped form Nucleus, one of the best of the jazz-rock groups and a first prize winner at the Montreux Jazz festival. The band recorded a number of popular albums and also appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in America.

He then spent time with Soft Machine, another much admired jazz-rock outfit that managed the crossover to the rock world even more successfully than Nucleus.

There was also a long time writing music for television commercials, supplying music to order. Clients included Cheltenham and Gloucester, Levi’s and Delta Air Lines.

But the breakthrough into what might be termed serious music came with Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary, an album which combined classical music with ethnic vocals using an invented language and which landed at number one in the classical charts. Other Adiemus albums followed, its particular sound so distinctive that it was also used in television commercials.

He no longer writes music for commercials but is happy enough to adapt completed works for the medium. “I have no worries about that although I would not write for cigarette advertising, for example, although that’s not an issue now.” Commissions have come thick and fast – The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace for the Royal Armouries, Over the Stone for the Royal harpist Catrin Finch and In These Stones Horizons Sing for the opening of the Welsh Millennium Centre.

His Stabat Mater is his own take on a subject popular with composers throughout the centuries.

It is based on a Latin poem from the 13th century, sometimes attributed to Pope Innocent III, but more realistically to Jacapone da Todi and deals with the suffering of Mary during Christ’s Crucifixion.

Typically, Jenkins has not contented himself with a simple Western music style but has used many different texts, including the 7th-century Epic of Gilgamesh, some words in Greek and Aramaic, and lines from a 13th-century Persian mystic poet. And there are some ethnic instruments rarely seen on the classical concert stage adding an evocative sound.

“It is a religious piece but extends beyond that. It is really a work about grief,” Jenkins explains.

It comes in 12 sections and will run around an hour. “Half of it is based on the original hymn and half on ethnic or ancient texts.” It will not be the only new work for Liverpool from Jenkins – he is also working on a Te Deum for the Liverpool Welsh Choral Union due to be performed in October.

He does work to deadlines “and I quite like that – they are very useful and – touch wood – I have not missed one yet.

“I do a little bit of writing every day.”

He does not specialise in jazz any more, but thinks an influence still remains. In some of his works, he does allow a certain amount of improvisation “and I enjoy borrowing from different cultures”.

Much of his work is based on religious works and Jenkins says he is religious, if not a fanatic about it. He is certainly pleased to be premiering his new piece in the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool.

“I have never conducted there before but I have visited one or two times and it is a very impressive building.”

* STABAT Mater has its world premiere at the Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool, on March 1, at 7.30pm. The concert – conducted by Jenkins – will also include two Bach works, Komm, Jesu, Komm BWV 299 and Jesu meine Freude, BWV 227.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk