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Naxos Releases New Alexander Goehr Album

Feb. 01, 2013

Naxos Releases New Alexander Goehr Album

Naxos releases a new album of music by Schott composer Alexander Goehr in February 2013. Oliver Knussen leads both the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta in new recordings of Goehr’s When Adam Fell,Pastorals and Marching to Carcassonne with pianist Peter Serkin as soloist.  

When Adam Fell, for large orchestra, was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and premiered in 2012 by Knussen and the BBC Symphonoy Orchestra. Based on the chromatic bass line of Bach’s Durch Adams Fall ist alles Verderbt, Goehr describes his work as follows, "My own composition might be described as a kind of chorale prelude consisting of a number of settings of Bach’s complete bass-line falling from high up at the opening to extreme depths at the end, with juxtaposed sections based on a contrasting rising melody."

Pastorals is Goehr’s earliest work to appear on this album. Composed in 1965, Pastorals was commissioned by the South West German Radio, Baden-Baden, and was premiered at the Donaueschingen Music Festival. Though scored for orchestra, Goehr characterizes Pastorals as “a virtuoso work for brass”: 

The title Pastorals does not refer to the English countryside: nor is this composition a Pastorale. At the time of its inception and composition, I was writing incidental music for stage productions of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus in Colonus. Traces of the music for Oedipus in Colonus reappear in this composition and I felt that the mood of the work in some way reflected the play in which violent events take place in a pastoral landscape.


Marching to Carcassonne was commissioned in 2002 by the London Sinfonietta and the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation. Scored as a serenade for piano and 12 instruments, the title refers to a short story by Lord Dunsany referenced in Jorge Luis Borges’ essay Kafka and his Precursors in which Borges writes: "An invincible army of warriors departs from an infinite [sic] castle, subjugates kingdoms and sees monsters and crosses deserts and mountains, but never reaches Carcassonne although they once catch a glimpse of it."

For more information on Alexander Goehr, please visit www.schott-music.com

To learn more about the Naxos release, visit www.naxos.com

Alexander Goehr
When Adam Fell, Op. 89
for orchestra
3(3.afl,pic).2(2.ca).3(2.bcl,3.Ebcl).2(2.cbsn)-3.2.3.0-2perc-hp-str
15’ 

Pastorals, Op. 19
for orchestra
0.afl.0.1.0-4.4.2.2btbn.1-timp.2perc-str(12.12.0.10.2)
18’ 

Marching to Carcassonne, Op. 74
for piano and 12 instruments
2(2.afl).1.1(bcl).1(cbsn)-2.0.0.0-hp-2vn.va.vc
30’

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