Edmund Finnis: Youth Clare Hammond

• Edmund Finnis (b. 1984): Youth:
• 1 Finnis: Youth: I. Bloom 01:16
• 2 Finnis: Youth: II. Spin 01:13
• 3 Finnis: Youth: III. Frankenthaler 03:06
• 4 Finnis: Youth: IV. Stream of Days 01:50
• 5 Finnis: Youth: V. Serried Ridges 01:16
• 6 Finnis: Youth: VI. Coenties Slip 00:58
• 7 Finnis: Youth: VII. Hammershøi Windows 01:36
• 8 Finnis: Youth: VIII. Buren 01:44
• 9 Finnis: Youth: IX. Heath 02:04
• 10 Finnis: Youth: X. Helsinki Patterns 01:06
• Lullaby for Emmeline:
• 11 Finnis: Lullaby for Emmeline 01:37
• Total Runtime 17:46

Info for Edmund Finnis: Youth

Youth presents piano works by contemporary composer Edmund Finnis, performed by Clare Hammond. The EP opens with Youth, a set of brief pieces reminiscing an image, sensation of place, significant encounter or a moment of vivid perception. Each musical image is conveyed as clearly and directly as possible, written for the piano in a focused, uncluttered, personal way.

The EP closes with Lullaby for Emmeline, commissioned by Hammond and her husband on the occasion of their daughter’s birth. Evocative and enchanting, these works share a kinship with some of the most famous piano cycles inspired by childhood experiences, while their magical and ethereally beautiful nature are also characteristic of Finnis’s iridescent musical approach.

“Ed and I initially discussed working together on a new piece when we were students at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. It took us 10 years to find the right opportunity, but was well worth the wait!

This music is relatively simple but seems immediately to touch the heart. It is beautifully evocative, moving, and stays with you long after hearing it. I gave the premiere at Milton Court in the Barbican, have performed it across the UK (including for a BBC Radio 3 live broadcast), and shall be playing it again at the Harrogate International Music Festival on the 24 March 2024. Youth has become a very important piece for me and I feel honoured to have been involved in its creation.”

“It’s a great joy to be able to share this first release of my music for solo piano. Since I was young, the keys of the piano have always been for me a private space in which to think, invent and dream. Many of the sounds and ideas within this collection of short pieces have been in my mind and under my fingers for a long time. They are like memories. I’m indebted to my friend Clare Hammond for the artistry, grace and lucidity she brings to this personal music.” (Clare Hammond)

Clare Hammond, piano

Clare Hammond
Acclaimed as a pianist of “amazing power and panache” (The Telegraph), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances and has developed a “reputation for brilliantly imaginative concert programmes” (BBC Music Magazine, ‘Rising Star’). She recently won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 'Young Artist Award', in recognition of outstanding achievements in 2015. Over the past year Clare has performed at the Barbican Hall, where The Guardian described her as a "dazzling athlete", gave 5 broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and has recorded discs for Sony, BIS and Signum. In 2014, she gave debut performances at 7 festivals across Europe, including the ‘Chopin and his Europe Festival’ in Warsaw.

Highlights in 2016 include her Royal Festival Hall debut with the Philharmonia, and a concerto tour of Poland, to include a newly discovered work by Josef Myslivecek, a mentor of Mozart. Hammond releases her third disc for BIS Records, Horae (pro clara), with solo piano music by Ken Hesketh, in May and returns to the Cheltenham and Presteigne Festivals later in the summer. Over the autumn, she curates three concerts for the BBC at the Belfast International Arts Festival, to be broadcast at a later date as part of the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts series. In future seasons, Clare will make world premiere recordings of two keyboard concertos by Myslivecek with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra for BIS.

Her most recent disc release, ‘Etude’ has received unanimous critical praise for its “unfaltering bravura and conviction” (Gramophone) while the BBC Music Magazine stated that “this array of wizardry is not for the faint hearted”. ‘Etude’, and Hammond’s previous disc of music by Andrzej and Roxanna Panufnik, ‘Reflections’, have been featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ and ‘CD Review’, and on radio in Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the US and Canada.

In 2014, Hammond gave a Panufnik Centenary tour of Poland with a series of recital and concerto performances, under the auspices of the British Council’s ‘Artists’ International Development Fund’. Her debut recital at the ‘Chopin and his Europe Festival’ in Warsaw was recorded for broadcast on Polish Radio. Hammond also co-curated and managed the festival ‘Panufnik 100: a family celebration’ with the Brodsky Quartet at Kings Place in London which was hailed as the “culmination of this year’s Andrzej Panufnik centenary” (The Telegraph).

Contemporary music forms an important part of Hammond’s work. She has given 24 world premieres including those of major works by composers Robert Saxton, Edwin Roxburgh, John McCabe and Arlene Sierra. In 2015, she premiered and recorded concertos for trumpet and piano by Geoffrey Gordon and Toby Young with Simon Desbruslais and the English Symphony Orchestra, to be released on Signum Records.

An active chamber musician, Hammond is a member of the Odysseus Piano Trio alongside violinist Sara Trickey and cellist Gregor Riddell. She has also worked with the Brodsky, Endellion, Badke, Dante and Piatti Quartets and in duos with Henning Kraggerud, Andrew Kennedy, Jennifer Pike, Philippe Graffin and Lawrence Power. In November 2015 she made her film debut as the younger version of Maggie Smith's character, 'Miss Shepherd', in the Alan Bennett film adaptation The Lady in the Van, directed by Nick Hytner.

Hammond completed a BA at Cambridge University, where she obtained a double first in music, and undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and with Professor Rhian Samuel at City University London. She completed a doctorate on twentieth-century left-hand piano concertos in 2012 and is in demand as a speaker, regularly giving presentations for research series at universities across the UK. In 2014 she was paired with French pianist Anne Queffélec on the Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme run by the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Hammond is grateful for the support of the Fidelio Charitable Trust, Help Musicians UK, Stradivari Trust, Ambache Charitable Trust, British Korean Society, Chandos Memorial Trust, Vernon Ellis Foundation, Polish Cultural Institute, RVW Trust, British Council, Arts Council England, John S Cohen Foundation, the Britten-Pears Foundation and the Hinrichsen Foundation.

This album contains no booklet.