January 15th, 2017 marked the US premiere of KarlJenkins's Cantata Memoria. The 55 minute work was written for the 50th anniversary of the Aberfandisaster (October 21, 1966) when a coal spoil tip enveloped a school and houses in the South Wales village, killing 116 children and 28 adults. Cantata Memoria is a large composition - that includes chorus – both mixed and young voices, baritone and soprano soloists, orchestra with prominent solos for violin, euphonium and harp, and has a libretto by poet Mererid Hopwood.
Music Director John Clare spoke to Jenkins while he was in New York for the premiere at Carnegie Hall (presented by DCINY.org).
Cantata Memoria has been released on Deutsche Grammaphon. Listen for this and other new releases on WBAA Classical and wbaa.org!
"This work is music and a poem. It is not a documentary, nor even a dramatization, but it does include a conflation of ideas and facts that were relevant and by now part of the legacy. The text is multilingual, in English, Welsh and Latin (four texts from the Requiem Mass), while also referencing various other languages for specific words (eg 'why' and ‘light’) in Welsh, English, Swedish, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Dutch and Italian. It is hoped these many languages symbolize how the memorial is at once both specific and universal." - Karl Jenkins
