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Sir Harrison Birtwistle Honored in 75th Birthday Concerts in New York, London

Jun. 04, 2009

This summer marks another composer milestone as Sir Harrison Birtwistle celebrates his 75th birthday on July 15. Cities around the globe play host to performances honoring the composer including New York, beginning with the Ensemble ACJW's performance of Cortege on June 13 at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Composed for fourteen instrumentalists, Cortege utilizes a style unique to Birtwistle of combining ritual, theatre and music. In this piece the musicians are arranged in a semicircle and as the piece proceeds select members of the ensemble hand around from one to another a continuous but ever changing solo line. Physical movement is also key to experiencing Birtwistle's piece as a central position on the stage is reserved for whomever is carrying the solo at any one time, thus creating a drawn out dance as players move to the front of the stage and then to the outer semicircle as others fill the physical and musical space they have just vacated.

Later this summer Birtwistle is honored at the BBC Proms as the London Sinfonietta, led by founder-conductor David Atherton perform a selection of Birtwistle's seminal early works Carmen arcadiae mechanicae perpetuum, Silbury Air, and Verses for Ensembles on August 4 at Royal Albert Hall. Silbury Air, named after the mysterious man-made mound in Wiltshire, uses a 'pulse labyrinth' to direct explorations of its 'imaginary landscapes,' while in Carmen arcadiae mechanicae perpetuum, written for the Sinfonietta's 10th anniversary in 1978, six musical mechanisms are set in perpetual motion and put on a virtual collision course. A virtuosic showpiece for brass, wind and percussion, the 1969 Verses for Ensembles is Birtwistle's earliest Sinfonietta score.

Rounding out the BBC Proms celebration of Birtwistle is a performance of the central act to Birtwistle's three-act lyric tragedy The Mask of Orpheus, entitled "The Arches." The performance takes place on August 14 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Ryan Wigglesworth.

Visit www.universaledition.com for more on Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

For precise information on the Birtwistle concerts go to www.carnegiehall.org and www.bbc.co.uk.

 

Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Carmen arcadiae mechanicae perpetuum (1977/1978)
for chamber orchestra
1.1.1.1-1.1.1.0-mar-pno-str
12'

Silbury Air (1977)
for chamber ensemble
1.1.1.1-1.1.1.0-perc-hp.pno-str
15'

Verses for Ensembles (1968-1969)
for three instrumental ensembles
1.1.2.1-1.2.2.0-3perc
28'

Cortege (2007)
a ceremony
for 14 musicians
1.1.1.1-1.1.0.0-pno-btp-gtr-str
15'

The Mask of Orpheus (1973-1984)
opera in three acts
libretto (En) by Peter Zinovieff
for voices, chorus and orchestra
4.4.4.3sax.4-4.4.6.2-7perc-3hp-elec gtr.bgtr.elec mand-tape
210'

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