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Aventa Ensemble Features Oliver Knussen and Julian Anderson

Feb. 29, 2012

Aventa Ensemble Features Oliver Knussen and Julian Anderson

March 25 sees the performance of works by two of Britain's most celebrated composers, Oliver Knussen and Julian Anderson, with the Aventa Ensemble of Victoria, B.C. Conducted by Bill Linwood, the ensemble performs Oliver Knussen's Two Organa for large ensemble alongside the Canadian premiere of Julian Anderson's Comedy of Change at the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall at the University of Victoria.

Knussen's Two Organa, composed in 1994, was premiered by members of the Het Brabants Orkest under the direction of the composer. As the title suggests, the work is in two contrasting parts and draws its craft from the polyphonic organum of the 12th century.

Knussen describes the contrast of the two sections as follows:

In June 1994 I used this technique to write a very short piece for a Dutch project in which thirty-two composers wrote for a two-octave mechanical musical box using only white notes. The second Organum, written in July and August 1994 for the 20th anniversary of the Schönberg Ensemble and dedicated to Reinbert de Leeuw, brings the same technique into a less "innocent" world employing the total chromatic in elaborate polyrhythmic layers.

Julian Anderson's Comedy of Change for chamber ensemble employs a different sense of variation, here in the context of evolution. Composed in 2009, the work was commissioned by the Rambert Dance Company and the Concertgebouw for the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble. It was premiered by Asko|Schönberg under the direction of Oliver Knussen.

Anderson explains the pretense for his Comedy of Change:

The music takes as its starting principle the idea that all things change, in one way or another, at some speed or other. Looking at nature, whether animate or inanimate, proved a vital stimulus for developing various kinds of musical change and evolution.

For more information on the program, visit www.aventa.ca.

Details on the life and work of Oliver Knussen and Julian Anderson can be found at www.fabermusic.com.

Julian Anderson
The Comedy of Change (2009)
for 12 players
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23’


Oliver Knussen
Two Organa (1995)
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6’

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