Judith Bingham: some recent works

Judith Bingham is currently one of the most sought-after composers in Britain. Following the breakthrough occasioned by the première in 1993 of her first orchestral work, Chartres (1988), she received commissions from organizations such as the BBC Philharmonic, the Proms, Hereford Three Choirs Festival, the Northern Sinfonia and Westminster Abbey. Although one of her most successful works is undoubtedly her elegiac Piano Trio entitled Chapman's Pool (1997), which has already received over seventy performances, she has produced a series of impressive large-scale compositions which build on the qualities that made Chartres such a triumph. They all possess a heightened sense of atmosphere – usually centred on a specific place – a fine ear for orchestral colour and an ability to create an immediate impact, either through massive pounding tuttis or by means of wraith-like chamber textures. It is especially frustrating that none of Judith Bingham's works for large forces are available on disc: a serious omission I hope will soon be rectified.