Harrison Birtwistle

Harrison Birtwistle

Harrison Birtwistle
Our Price: $40.00
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album



(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Performer: Christopher van Kampen
Performer: Antony Pay
Composer: Harrison Birtwistle
Conductor: Oliver Knussen
Performer: Helen Tunstall
Performer: Michael Thompson
Performer: Mary King
Orchestra: London Sinfonietta
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-09-15
Music Label: Nmc Records
Soundtracks:
  1. Melancolia 1, for clarinet, harp, 2 string orchestras
  2. Melancolia 1, for clarinet, harp, 2 string orchestras
  3. Melancolia 1, for clarinet, harp, 2 string orchestras
  4. Melancolia 1, for clarinet, harp, 2 string orchestras
  5. Melancolia 1, for clarinet, harp, 2 string orchestras
  6. Ritual Fragment, for ensemble
  7. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  8. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  9. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  10. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  11. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  12. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  13. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  14. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  15. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble
  16. Meridian, for mezzo-soprano, horn, cello, chorus or 6 sopranos, and instrumental ensemble

Music reviews of Harrison Birtwistle

Music Review: Some essential Birtwistle
Rating: 5 Stars

All three works on this disc are essential Birtwistle. Oliver Knussen is one of best conductors in the world. The London Sinfonietta needs no introduction. And NMC is one of the great independent labels. What else do you need?

Well, I know Birtwistle's music alienates some people, and in its way it is more radical than anything 50/60s Darmstadt serialism could offer. But it is perhaps also the most interesting, often in a extra-musical way.

Birtwistle seems to engage with forgotten areas of history (both musical and cultural, especially that of Britain). He makes history seem a strange, different, and incomprehensible world; he stresses its difference, and thus makes us re-exmaine our current position and cultural acrtivity. Like Stravinsky's Agon, his music problematises a notion of linear and progressive development. It is a critique of the rationalism and humanism of the Modern world, and the goal-orientated music that 'accompanied' it. Witness his interogation of pulse and clock time in Silbury Air (on Etcetera), narrative and the idea of character in the Mask of Orpheus (NMC), and his privileging of the sensous, pre-rational world of Archaic/early Classical Greece (eg, Tragoedia (Decca Britain)).

It is primeval music, yet could not have been written at any other time. In a cultural, not musical, sense, it perhaps exhibits, at the very least lays the foundations for, a radical postmodernity (Musical discussion of the modern and postmodern seems to revolve around whether so-and-so's music has a melody or not!)

The best description for a lot of his music is probably Mechanical Pastoral. Both modern and old, simple yet ellusive, robotic but sadly human, intergorrative and submissive, foreign yet instantly recognisable, his is the music I often have to struggle with the most to begin to comprehend. I don't understand the half of it, but that's what I love about it.

General CDs

Music Genres
Bestsellers in General CDs
The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere ImageAndrea Bocelli - The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere
Andrea; Release date: 2007-10-30; Music CD
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops: $18.98
The Power of Two ImageCheyenne Jackson, Michael Feinstein - The Power of Two
Release date: 2009-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $10.96
Price in other shops: $15.98
The Promise ImageIl Divo - The Promise
Sony; Release date: 2008-11-18; Music CD
Best price: $2.29
Price in other shops: $13.96
Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium ImageCecilia Bartoli - Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium
Release date: 2009-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $15.81
Price in other shops: $24.98
At Home With Friends ImageJoshua Bell - At Home With Friends
Bell; Release date: 2009-09-29; Music CD
Best price: $10.28
Price in other shops: $13.96
My Christmas: Deluxe Edition CD & DVD ImageAndrea Bocelli - My Christmas: Deluxe Edition CD & DVD
Andrea; Release date: 2009-11-23; Music CD
Best price: $16.89
Price in other shops: $24.98
The Christmas Collection ImageIl Divo - The Christmas Collection
Sony; Release date: 2005-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops: $9.99
Harmony ImageThe Priests - Harmony
Release date: 2009-11-23; Music CD
Best price: $9.80
Price in other shops: $13.98
An Evening With Il Divo-Live In Barcelona (CD/DVD) ImageIl Divo - An Evening With Il Divo-Live In Barcelona (CD/ DVD)
Release date: 2009-12-01; Music CD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops: $18.98
My Christmas ImageAndrea Bocelli - My Christmas
Andrea; Release date: 2009-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $11.70
Price in other shops: $18.98
Similar CDs
György Ligeti Edition 1: String Quartets and Duets - Arditti String Quartet ImageGyörgy Ligeti Edition 1: String Quartets and Duets - Arditti String Quartet
LIGETI,G.; Release date: 1997-01-21; Music CD
Best price: $5.29
Price in other shops: $7.98
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles