Fire Burning in Snow
Fire Burning in Snow is a composition for mezzo-soprano solo and chamber ensemble by the British composer Charlotte Bray. The work was commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group with the support of individual donors in memory of the arts administrator Jack Phipps. It was first performed on June 18, 2013 at the Aldeburgh Festival by mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. The piece is set to three poems by Nicki Jackowska. Bray dedicated the composition to Jackowska and to the memory of the composer Jonathan Harvey. Composition. "Fire Burning in  Snow" has a duration of roughly 11 minutes and is composed in three movements set to the poems of Nicki Jackowska, which Bray described as "a collection portraying lost love and a search for a way forward from this 'place'." The movements are thus titled: Instrumentation. The work is scored for solo mezzo-soprano and a chamber ensemble comprising oboe/cor anglais, B-flat clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, and cello. Reception. Reviewing the world premiere, Fiona Maddocks of "The Guardian" praised "Fire Burning in Snow" and said it "was vividly delivered by mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer, who even wore red  shoes to match a line in Nicki Jackowska's poems." George Loomis of "The New York Times" also lauded the work, writing: Richard Whitehouse of "Gramophone" said the piece "sets poems by Nicki Jackowska whose focusing on lost love elicits a fervent response and the most tenuous of emotional resolutions."