Michael Finnissy: Alternative Readings Lotte Betts-Dean, Joseph Havlat, Marsyas Trio

• Michael Finnissy (b. 1946): Alternative Readings - 2002:
• 1 Finnissy: Alternative Readings - 2002: (live version) 07:12
• Oxford in 1817, I (1966-67):
• 2 Finnissy: Oxford in 1817, I (1966-67): I – 01:11
• 3 Finnissy: Oxford in 1817, I (1966-67): II – 01:03
• 4 Finnissy: Oxford in 1817, I (1966-67): III – 01:22
• Botany Bay (1983 / 1989):
• 5 Finnissy: Botany Bay (1983 / 1989) 04:23
• Blessed be I (1992):
• 6 Finnissy: Blessed be I (1992) 02:58
• Blessed be III (1996):
• 7 Finnissy: Blessed be III (1996) 04:09
• Wisdom (2020):
• 8 Finnissy: Wisdom (2020) 21:50
• Salomé I (2003-4):
• 9 Finnissy: Salomé I (2003-4) 03:34
• Salomé II (2003 / 2021):
• 10 Finnissy: Salomé II (2003 / 2021) 03:22
• June (2013):
• 11 Finnissy: June (2013): I – 02:23
• 12 Finnissy: June (2013): II – 03:35
• An den Mond (2021-2):
• 13 Finnissy: An den Mond (2021-2): I – 03:48
• 14 Finnissy: An den Mond (2021-2): II – 05:48
• 15 Finnissy: An den Mond (2021-2): III – 02:35
• Alternative Readings:
• 16 Finnissy: Alternative Readings: (studio version) 07:07
• Total Runtime 01:16:20

Info for Michael Finnissy: Alternative Readings

Throughout his life and music, Finnissy has thought to bring apparently dissimilar things and people together, confronting the problems of social-discourse, power, mysteries and beauty. The common thread that runs through the album is the notion of ‘alternative readings’ in its broadest sense, which culminates in Finnissy’s substantial new work ‘Wisdom’, commissioned by the Marsyas Trio during the lockdown of 2020. This piece explores isolation and ways of dealing decisively and sensibly with solitude and abandonment, while transcending the boundaries and seeking connectivity between continents and cultures. It draws on a multitude of texts ranging from Australian Aboriginal (Nunggubuyu) Dreamtime myths to Shakespeare’s poetry to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.

Métier is the new-music imprint of Divine Art Recordings Group and this will be the fourteenth album in the label’s Finnissy series. Stephen Sutton, CEO of Divine Art, is delighted with this news: “It’s been a few years since our last album devoted to Michael’s music, so we are really pleased about this new project, as Michael is without doubt one of the most outstandingly talented composers of today and we are also excited to welcome the Marsyas Trio to our roster of artists.”

The news of this release is also welcomed by Judith Weir (CBE, Master of the King’s Music) who says: A new release of Michael Finnissy’s work is always welcome news; this is important repertoire. Yet another generation of new, front-rank performers are now championing Finnissy’s music, and this is especially true of Marsyas Trio and the remarkable vocalist, Lotte Betts-Dean.

Lotte Betts-Dean, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Havlat, piano
Marsyas Trio:
Helen Vidovich, flute
Olga Stezhko, piano
Val Welbanks, cello

Lotte Betts-Dean
Praised by The Guardian for her “irrepressible sense of drama and unmissable, urgent musicality”, Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean is passionate about curation and programming, with a broad repertoire that encompasses contemporary music, art song, chamber music, early music, opera, oratorio and non-classical collaborations. Lotte is an Ambassador of Donne, a charitable foundation dedicated to promoting gender equality in the music industry, and in 2022 she was named as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, an honour reserved for alumni who have contributed significantly to the music industry.

Lotte has established herself as a leading interpreter of new music, having given the world premieres of over 30 works and performed at many of the major festivals and venues around the UK, in Australia and internationally. Performance highlights include her debut with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis in Stravinsky Perséphone, Dean Hamlet (State Opera of South Australia) Pirates of Penzance (Opera Holland Park) and Pierrot Lunaire (Manchester Collective), a work she repeats this year in Köln and Brisbane. Recent 21-22 music festival appearances include Festival Musica Sacra Maastricht, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Aldeburgh, Swaledale, Llandeilo and Petworth Festivals, Britten Pears Festival of New, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Festival Llums D’Antiga Barcelona, and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Recent operatic work includes her Spanish debut in Dido and Aeneas (Sorceress) for International Bach Festival Gran Canaria and Theodora (Irene) at Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, and the 22-23 season saw her Swiss debut at Grand Théâtre de Genève in Shlomowitz’ Electric Dreams and at Kings Place with Explore Ensemble. Future plans include a Wigmore Hall recital with Armida Quartet, Gwyl Machynlleth Festival, Linos Festival, Oxford Song, and her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Weinberg’s Die Passagierin (Vlasta).

Lotte has also performed at UK venues including St John’s Smith Square, St Martin in the Fields, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Conway Hall, Wiltshire Music Centre, The Wallace Collection, Handel & Hendrix House, St James’ Palace and Colston Hall Bristol, and other festival appearances include Buxton International Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Barbican Centre Sound Unbound, Glasgow Cathedral Festival, Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival, Lewes Festival of Song, Two Moors Festival, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Gower Festival, Dartington Festival and Tête-à-Tête Opera. Australian festivals and venues include the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, Dark Mofo, Ten Days On The Island, Adelaide Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music and Port Fairy Festival. Prior to moving to the UK, Lotte sang numerous principal roles in predominantly contemporary operas with Sydney Chamber Opera (world premiere of Michael Smetanin’s Mayakovsky) and Victorian Opera (including covering Nancy T’ng in Adam’s Nixon in China) , after debuting with VO as El Trujaman in De Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro while still an undergraduate student.

Alongside pianist Joseph Havlat, Lotte won the 2019 Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform and subsequently gave a recital at the 2019 Oxford Lieder Festival — Lotte has returned to the festival every year since. Together they have performed many wide-reaching programmes of song and new music, including several outings of Messiaen’s largest vocal work Harawi ; a performance recently described by the Irish Times as ‘absorbing…distinctive, pointed and consistently beautiful.’ Other major works performed in 2022/23 include Peter Maxwell Davies’ monodrama The Medium, Ligeti Sippal dobbal nadihegedüvel, Crumb American Songbook IV: Wings of Destiny, Cage Litany of the Whale, Nono La fabrica illuminata, Pärt Stabat Mater, Lamb Parallaxis Forma, and the WP of Brett Dean Madame Ma Bonne Soeur.

Lotte won the 2017 Peter Hulsen Orchestral Song Award, the inaugural 2018 Musician’s Company New Elizabethan Award, and most recently, the 2020 Overseas Prize and the 2020 Audrey Strange Memorial Prize for an outstanding singer at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition. Lotte reached the semi finals of the 2017 Das Lied International Song Competition in Heidelberg as well as the 2017 Wigmore Hall Song Competition alongside pianist Hannah Harnest. While still in Australia, Lotte won several awards and competitions including the Acclaim Awards MCM Prize (2014), the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria (2012), the Mietta Song Competition (runner up, 2012) the National Liederfest (runner up, 2012 and 2017) and several prizes while a student at Melbourne Conservatorium.

Lotte is a regular collaborator with various chamber groups in the UK and Australia, including EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, Explore Ensemble, Ensemble x.y, Ligeti Quartet, Armida Quartet, Marsyas Trio, La Vaghezza Baroque, Rubiks Collective, Dots+Loops Brisbane, The Song Company, Van Diemen’s Band, and previously as Associate Artist with Southbank Sinfonia. She has also performed as soloist with English Chamber Orchestra, Bath Bach Choir. Manchester Collective, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, among others, and non-classical collaborations include recording with Luke Abbott/Jack Wyllie (2023) and tours with DJ Pete Tong (2018) and electronic duo The Presets (2014). Lotte is a Young Artist alumnus of Britten Pears Arts (2022), Musician’s Company (2019), Imogen Cooper Music Trust (2018), City Music Foundation (2017) and the Tait Memorial Trust (2019), as well as Oxford Lieder (2019). She has participated in and led workshops for the composition departments of Oxford University, Southampton University, City University, Guildhall, Royal Academy of Music and the Cornelius Cardew Trust.

Throughout the pandemic, Lotte remained very musically active with online performances, creating over 25 pieces of content, interviews and recitals for several venues, festivals and pop-up organizations including Home Concert Club, Living Room Live, Bitesize Proms, Tait Tuesdays At Home, OperaHarmony, Bishopsgate Institute, OnJam and Gondwana Voices. Selections of the aforementioned content can be found on the video page. She was also featured in one of the first ever post-lockdown live-streamed recitals (with City Music Foundation).

Lotte is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music (MA with Distinction) and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (BMus 2012). She also completed a Fellowship at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in 2014. While at RAM, Lotte was a member of Song Circle and a soloist for the popular Bach Cantata Series, performed in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Bengt Forsberg and Dame Felicity Lott, and was supported by the Josephine Baker Trust. She has also studied in Milan (Accademia Teatro alla Scala), privately in New York, and at the 2016 Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt with Donatienne Michel-Dansac and the Vokalsolisten Stuttgart. Teachers and coaches have included Anna Connolly, Catherine Benson, Audrey Hyland and Caitlin Hulcup, and masterclasses as a Britten Pears Young Artist have included Dame Ann Murray, James Baillieu, Susan Manoff and Roderick Williams.

Her performances have been broadcast on radio around the world including BBC Radio 3, NDR Kultur, RTÉ lyric, ABC Classic FM, and WQXR NY, and she was named one of Limelight Magazine’s Young Classical Stars 2021. She has been featured on several albums, most recently her debut with Delphian Records in collaboration with Stuart MacRae, as well as releases for NAXOS (Philippos Tsalahouris with Dimitris Soukaras) Tall Poppies (Katy Abbott with Ormond Quartet), Ensemble Q Live (Berio Folksongs) and Winter & Winter (Fumio Yasuda Ekecheiria with EXAUDI). Further albums are due for release on Divine Art Metier (with Michael Finnissy, Marsyas Trio and Joseph Havlat) BIS Records (with Brett Dean) Another Timbre (with Explore Ensemble) and Delphian (with Arthur Keegan, James Girling and Ligeti Quartet).

Alongside Australian violinist Bridget O’Donnell-Abbado and the Tait Memorial Trust, Lotte organized and programmed the Australian Bushfire Benefit London at the Royal Academy of Music shortly before the pandemic, involving major Australian artists Simone Young, Stuart Skelton and Amy Dickson. The event raised over £40,000 for the Australian Bushfire Relief effort.

Marsyas Trio
The London-based Marsyas Trio, formed of graduates of the Royal Academy of Music - Australian flautist Helen Vidovich, Canadian cellist Valerie Welbanks and Belarusian pianist Olga Stezhko - is one of the UK's foremost mixed chamber ensembles

For over a decade , the Marsyas Trio has been championing the vast body of repertoire for flute, cello and piano, and instrumental combination which originated in the Classical era with Haydn and Clementi.

The medium continued to evolve in tandem with the progress of instrument making, to the modern day where the musical possibilities have never been greater. The Trio continues to develop this tradition through commissioning, and through our commitment to presenting a balanced range of works by historic and living composers, offering audiences an interesting perspective on gender, societal and political themes.

Recent concert highlights include performances at Kettle’s Yard, Conway Hall, the Red House Aldeburgh for Britten-Pears Arts and a Northern tour, taking in two full-house concerts at Skipton Town Hall and the King’s Hall in Ilkley. The Trio also premiered a family show 'Three Little Mammoths' in Glasgow featuring comedian Janey Godley, with the subsequent performance taking place at the Three Choirs Festival, with Ed Balls as narrator.

The Trio's last album ‘In the Theatre of Air’ (NMC Recordings 2018) debuted at No. 7 on the classical charts and their next CD will be released on the Métier | Divine Art Recordings label in 2024 featuring collaborations with award-winning mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean.

The Trio are passionate cross-art collaborators and educators with a portfolio including multimedia projects with the Smoking Apples puppeteers and filmmaker Julian Hand, and various outreach projects for children and teenagers across the UK.

In 2022-24 the Marsyas Trio will be working regularly at the University of Cambridge, through Artist By-Fellowships at Churchill College.

In 2024 the Trio were appointed as the FUAM Ensemble in Residence at the University of Leeds, chosen out of 100 applications.

The Marsyas Trio takes its name from Greek mythology: inspired by the bold, spirited passion of Marsyas, the celebrated pipe-playing satyr who dared to defeat Apollo in a musical contest.

“Thanks to the sensitive and musical playing of pianist Olga Stezhko…we were able to enjoy the ravishing sound of Helen Vidovich’s flute in its lowest register and the velvet tone of Val Welbanks’ cello, as well as the subtle contrast and interplay between the three instruments. The varied programme showed off to perfection the possibilities of this combination.” — Charles Dobson - Skipton Music, concert review Skipton Town Hall

Booklet for Michael Finnissy: Alternative Readings