Laurence Osborn’s Lakes, Mists, Bats, Daggers, and Fountains, premiered by the Solem Quartet at Wigmore Hall last year, has been nominated in this year’s Ivors Classical Awards.

Commissioned by Wigmore Hall in 2023 and premiered by the Solem Quartet, Laurence Osborn’s Lakes, Mists, Bats, Daggers, and Fountains has been nominated in the category of ‘Best Small Chamber Ensemble work’ in this year’s Ivor Classical Awards. The Ivors Classical Awards honour the best British, Irish and UK resident composers writing in the areas of contemporary classical and sound art, with 39 finalists having been selected from over 360 works entered for consideration.

Giving insight into the work’s origin, Osborn (b. 1989) writes that ‘this gorgeous parade of images comes from a disparaging definition of Romanticism in the nineteenth-century Parisian newspaper, Le Corsaire… Romanticism is defined as ‘greasy hair growing over the coatcollar’, sighing at least three times a minute’, and ‘dreaming of lakes, mists, bats, daggers, and fountains’… The images had conspired to rebel against their own glibness and communicate something vivid and fantastical in spite of the intentions of their author.’

The Solem Quartet’s performance of Lakes, Mists, Bats, Daggers, and Fountains took place as part of their concert at Wigmore Hall in November 2023. Characteristic of the quartet’s adventurous and creative programming, the concert also featured works by Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans and Leoš Janáček.

The Solem Quartet have worked with many of today’s outstanding composers, including Thomas Adès, Edmund Finnis, Anna Meredith and Colin Matthew, and 2023 also saw them give the premiere of LENCTEN, by Master of the King’s Music Errollyn Wallen. To read more about the programmes currently offered by the quartet, please visit this link, and more details of their upcoming engagements are available here.

The Ivors Classical Awards will take place on 12th November at the British Film Institute Southbank, with the ceremony being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on 16th November. The full list of nominees and more information can be found by visiting the Ivors Classical Awards website.