The Burning Road (1996)

Cantata for Based on the story of the 1936 Jarrow March

soprano and baritone soli, chorus and orchestra.

libretto Ben Dunwell

Duration
38 minutes

Commissioning details
Northampton Bach Choir

Additional information
Available on SILKD 6021

Performances
14 July 2007 - The Sage Gateshead
Hertfordshire Chorus
Conductor - David Temple

February 2002 - St Alban's Abbey
Hertfordshire Chorus, London Orchestra de Camera
conductor - David Temple, soloists - Naomi Harvey & Graeme Danby

March 2000 - West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Fairhavens Choir, Durham Singers
conductor - Ralph Woodward, soloists - Naomi Harvey & Graeme Danby

September 1999 - Westminster Central Methodist Hall, London
Crouch End Festival Chorus, National Sinfonia
conductor - David Temple, soloists Maureen Braithwaite & Nicholas Folwell
Coupled with A Child of Our Time

May 1997 - Durham Cathedral
Northampton Bach Choir, Durham Singers, Durham Sinfonia
conductor - David Temple, soloists - Julie Kennard & Glenville Hargreaves
Coupled with Brahms Requiem

October 1996 - Derngate, Northampton
Northampton Bach Choir
conductor - David Temple, soloists - Julie Kennard & Glenville Hargreaves
Coupled with Carmina Burana

Reviews
”I had been sent a full orchestral score and choral score in advance to peruse, but nothing could prepare one for the sheer impact of this tumultuous work”

Jill Barlow/ St Albans Observer / 2002

“...Todd's operatic experience ... gives it enough dramatic clout to draw the listener into the plight, hope and eventual disillusionment of the Marchers.”

David Blewitt/ Opera/ 2000

Silva Classics Recording

“Todd's lyrical and serious language is fully in evidence in The Burning Road. This is only secondarily a political and nostalgic document. First and foremost it is a work of smoking sincerity and bitter heroic determination. A protest work but one that never loses touch with musical values.”

Rob Barnett/ MusicWeb/ 1999

”[The Burning Road's] music is a gift for singing - paying dues to Messiaen, Vaughan Williams, Britten - but alive and energised and packing an emotional punch. Todd is someone who has begun to make a name for himself in community and West End contexts but is still waiting for his moment. It will come. The Burning Road is more than half way there.”

Michael White/ The Independent on Sunday/ 1999

“If today's music can roughly be divided between the fiercely complex and that aiming for a wider appeal, the Durham-born Todd's is firmly of the latter, his technical accomplishments craftily subsumed into the larger dramatic sweep.”

Thomas Hall/ The Journal, Newcastle / 1997