Karl Jenkins website
http://www.karljenkins.com/
Karl Jenkins was born
in Penclawdd, Gower, Wales. He came
from a musical family and as a teenager
played oboe in the National Youth Orchestra
of Wales. He read music at the University
of Wales, Cardiff then went on to the
Royal Academy of Music. After years
of making a living in jazz, playing
at Ronnie Scott's club and winning first
prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival
he was with the pop group Soft Machine
playing venues such as the 'Proms',
Carnegie Hall and the Newport Rhode
Island Jazz Festival. He became a successful
commercial composer much sought after
in the advertising world. He also landed
Welsh BAFTAs for his music for the TV
series The Celts and Testament.
In 2002 his double harp concerto 'Over
The Stone' was premiered by the then
Royal Harpist, Catrin Finch and Elinor
Bennett accompanied by the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales; now that I
would like to hear. He has written
anthems for UNESCO and for the opening
of the Welsh Assembly.
Adiemus I, Song
of Tears, Song of the Plains
and Cantilena (Cheltenham
and Gloucester commercial) represent
a rapprochement between Fanshawe style
African drumming and clapping and the
Orinoco Flow celticism of Enya.
The breathlessly close-up pop balance
is strong in all these Adiemus tracks.
There’s a shade or ten of Bizet’s Carmen
in Allegrettango - in fact
of the steely Bizet-Shchedrin ballet
music.
Jenkins struggles manfully
to steer clear of the mesmerising fascination
of Rutter’s Pie Jesu. Oddly enough
Rutter is another composer serious enthusiasts
are told to avoid. In Rutter’s case
this is snobbism. I am not sure Jenkins’
Pie Jesu is up to Rutter standards
but it has a soupily sweet consistency
and some nicely contrived velveteen
choral contributions. The Hymn Before
Action from The Armed Man has
stiffer sinews and a theme with cinematic
breadth and resonance. The Benedictus
is the ultimate in soothing and
sweetly sorrowful music, this time with
a calming English pastoral accent.
Palladio is
the diamond music from the de Beers
TV commercial. It’s a fine and stylish
Vivaldian piece with a hint of the hunt
and of breathless excitement. The Lacrimosa
from the Requiem sets mandolin
against an ermine-toned female choir.
The In Paradisum is also from
the Requiem and makes use of
Jenkins’ trademark chugging ostinato
but mixes it cleverly with metallic
harp silver-points. The harp is also
a plangent warm presence in The Exile
Song here sung by a tremulously
severe Bryn Terfel. The Dies Irae
(Requiem) has a gripping
intimidating balefulness - just right
- and perhaps recalling some of the
Mordor battle music by David Shire and
the darker rockbeat-impelled music in
Phantom of the Opera. The Agnus
Dei from The Armed Man rolls
suavely forward in warmth and consolation.
It has about it a slight touch of the
Mike Sammes Singers - just a little
too much saccharine. The changes are
nicely rung with a taut and discreet
brass fanfare. Similar patterning is
used in the Sanctus. Who’s to
criticise? The Armed Man has
done staggeringly well and among living
composers nothing has equalled its air
time on the UK’s Classic FM.
This album should do
well and is first choice for the Jenkins-curious.
It amounts to a Jenkins’ greatest hits
compilation. The insert is virtually
useless. It tells us nothing about Jenkins
and the print is so small and the colour
choices so wrongheaded that the whole
thing is difficult to read. Another
triumph of design over basic competence.
Strange how dismissive
the serious classical world can be of
music like this when Guild’s agreeably
endless mood music series tracks similarly
commercial repertoire. The passage of
years clearly rehabilitates music that
bestrides the popular-classical divide.
This however is not music that strongly
appeals to me. It plumbs few depths
but it is catchy, moving and strangely
memorable and in the right mood lightens
the mood, cools the heated or slows
the fevered pulse.
Rob Barnett
Various artists recorded CTS Studios 1996-2005.
DDD 
