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- Jonathan Dove
On the Threshold (2022)
(Story, Still Reading Fairy Stories, Warning)- Peters Edition Limited (World)
Commissioned by Plymouth Congregational Church and Philip Brunelle
Programme Note
ON THE THRESHOLD
Poems by Jenny Joseph
1. Story
2. Still reading fairy-stories
3. Warning
These songs were written for mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, and commissioned for her as a gift by Plymouth Congregational Church and Philip Brunelle. She first performed them in 2022.
The poems of Jenny Joseph were a joyful discovery, and I am indebted to another mezzo-soprano, Kitty Whately, for introducing them to me. ‘Warning’ is in the collection of poems that she sometimes includes alongside songs in her recitals, and as soon as I spotted ‘When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple’ I immediately thought it would make a wonderful encore, and hoped to have an opportunity to set it one day.
When I heard Clara Osowski sing, I felt she would relish the playful enchantment and mischief of Joseph’s words. And I somehow sensed she would not be afraid to howl like a wolf.
Jonathan Dove