Midnight Rain, settings of Edward Thomas for tenor, natural horn, string quartet and keyboard was premiered and recorded at the Oxford May Music Festival this year.
See: http://www.oxfordmaymusic.co.uk/2023-programme Concert 2
The second of two commissions from the London Chamber Orchestra and The Guild of Horn Players, Midnight Rain follows the successful first performance of Inscapes for tenor, natural horn and string orchestra in February 2022 at St John’s Smith Square, London. The London Chamber Orchestra was conducted by Christopher Warren-Green with Toby Spence, tenor and Nicholas Korth, horn.
Inspired by Britten’s Serenade, Inscapes explores further the natural tuning of the horn. The title refers to Gerard Manley Hopkin’s concept of the uniqueness of each component of the natural world, and is both a celebration of it and an elegy to its defilement by humanity.
In 2022 Nicholas was appointed as Composer in Residence with the English Sinfonia. His first work in this role, Jubilare an Enigmatic Fanfare was premiered in the same year.
Mehta Songs for soprano, string quartet and Planet Gong received its third performance this April by members of the English Sinfonia with the wonderful soprano Emma Tring of the BBC Singers.
Nicholas is currently working on Osden, a Sci-Fi themed opera based on a short story by Ursula Le Guin, involving overtone singing and conventional vocal techniques and the resulting rich sonic possibilities. There are plans for the opera to be staged at the Elgiva Theatre in Chesham. He has also become fascinated by the extraordinary Stahlcello devised by the late great overtone singer and musicologist Jan Heinke as well the wondrous sound world of Gongs.