Release Date: 16 May 2011
Label: NMC Recordings
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5023363015622
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Night's Black Bird/The Sh
Description
This collection of premiere recordings of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's orchestral works spans a period of ten years, from 1994-2004.
The works move away from the composer's forceful and monolithic grandeur, of which he has become associated, and have a more reflective, otherworldly and subtle sound, exploring the world of melancholy. The Shadow of Night is a slow nocturne, exploring the world of melancholy, inspired by the composer's life-long fascination with Dürer's engraving Melencolia I, and Night's Black Bird - commissioned by the Roche Foundation - continues with the same reflective musical imagery. The Cry of Anubis, part tuba concerto, part tone poem, grew out of Birtwistle's fascination with Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the necropolis in Egyptian mythology who played an important part in Birtwistle's surreal opera The Second Mrs Kong (1993-94).
This is the Hallé's first recording for NMC.
Tracklisting
Martin Iddon, Quiet Music Ensemble, Jack Adler-McKean
Clare O'Connell
Martyn Brabbins, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers
Martyn Brabbins, Daniel Pioro, Anna Dennis, Andrew Gourlay, Elena Schwarz
Freya Waley-Cohen, Manchester Collective, Heloise Werner, Katie Bray, Fleur Barron, Tamsin Waley-Co
Slide Action
Siwan Rhys
BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Singers, Alice Farnham
H. Birtwistle
