Richard Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman Elizabeth Watts & Britten Sinfonia

• Richard Blackford (b. 1954): Songs of Nadia Anjuman:
• 1 Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman: I. Turmoil 04:48
• 2 Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman: II. I Wish 02:26
• 3 Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman: III. Memories of Light Blue 03:59
• 4 Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman: IV. Fly Freely 02:21
• 5 Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman: V. Useless 04:38
• Total Runtime 18:12

Info for Richard Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman

Nadia Anjuman (1980-2005) was an Afghan poet writing during a period of turmoil. In 1995, when the Taliban captured Herat, her birthplace, women's liberties were drastically reduced. A gifted student, Nadia faced a future with no hope of education. With other women she attended an underground educational circle, Golden Needle Sewing School. Meeting uder the guise of learning how to sew, the meetings were in fact discussions on literature with Herat professors. While earning her degree in literature she published her first book of poetry. The five poems chosen are wide-ranging and cover extremes of emotion: from love; to delight in being a poet; to despair at her lack of freedom; and even contemplation of suicide.

Elizabeth Watts, Sopran
Britten Sinfonia

Elizabeth Watts
was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and studied archaeology at Sheffield University before studying singing at the Royal College of Music in London. She was awarded an Hon DMus from Sheffield in 2013 and became a Fellow of the RCM in 2017. She is a prolific recording artist, and her recordings include critically acclaimed discs of Lieder by Schubert and Strauss; Mozart arias with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; works by Alessandro Scarlatti with The English Concert, and most recently, Handel Brockes Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music.

This season Elizabeth will sing/direct the Britten Sinfonia on tour in the UK and Spain in a programme including a UK and a world premiere; sing Strauss and Mahler with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko; Messiah with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Valladolid with Richard Egarr; Bruckner Mass No. 3 at the Sage Gateshead with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and their new chief conductor Dinis Sousa and Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner.

Last season she appeared in concert, recital and on the opera stage. A highlight was her role debut as Aspasia in Mitridate at Garsington Opera Festival which prompted Alexandra Coghlan to write in The i Elizabeth Watts is an immaculate Aspasia, stopping time in Act III’s ravishing “Pallid ombre”, while concert appearances included Vaughan Williams with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins; Britten Les Illuminations with the Britten Sinfonia in Santander; Mahler with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth; Beethoven with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Jonathan Nott; Mahler with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko and Poulenc with the Residentie Orkest and Jun Märkl. She also sang First Lady in Die Zauberflöte at the Edinburgh International Festival with Maxim Emelyanychev, Mozart concert arias with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne conducted by Christian Zacharias and gave recitals at Wigmore Hall and Gran Canaria.

Other past concert highlights have included Mahler Symphony No. 4 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Robin Ticciati at the Glyndebourne Festival; Gluck Iphigénie en Tauride with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España with Nathalie Stutzmann; Britten Spring Symphony and Ligeti Le Grand Macabre with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle; Rossini Petite messe solennelle with the LPO and Gustavo Gimeno and Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Sakari Oramo.

Elizabeth’s many appearances at the BBC Proms include Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the BBCSO and Sakari Oramo; Ravel L’enfant et les sortilèges with the LSO and Simon Rattle; Schubert songs with the BBC Philharmonic and John Storgårds and Beethoven arias with the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze.

Opera roles have included Countess Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni and Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for Welsh National Opera; Almirena in Handel Rinaldo for Glyndebourne; Marzelline Fidelio for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and most recently Countess Le nozze di Figaro for English National Opera.

Elizabeth won the 2007 Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition as well as the 2006 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and was awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in February 2011.

Booklet for Richard Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman