The London Sinfonietta presents a portrait of Harrison Birtwistle at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London tonight. David Atherton conducts.

On the programme are Cortege, Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, 5 Distances for 5 Instruments and the the UK première of In Broken Images.

In the first half of the concert, Tom Service talks to Harrison Birtwistle about his music.

Watch Birtwistle in conversation with the Southbank Centre’s Gillian Moore.

Watch on YouTube.

The Opera Group and the London Sinfonietta perform Harrison Birtwistle's Bow Down this May.

Watch rehearsals with the composer here:

Watch on YouTube

Harrison Birtwistle’s Silbury Air for chamber ensemble was given its world première on 9 March 1977 by the London Sinfonietta.

“Silbury Air is named after Silbury Hill, a prehistoric mound in Wiltshire, the biggest artificial mound in Europe, being 125 feet high and covering more than five acres. Its use and purpose, after centuries of speculation, still remain a mystery.”

(Harrison Birtwistle)

“A vigorous and eventful fifteen minute piece, full of sharp motoric rhythms that (until the very end) tend to accelerate.

The result is dramatic and immediately exciting, contradicting in its vitality the idea of static blocks of sound on which Birtwistle has usually relied, but equally showing the firmest possible architectural sense, with each section relating naturally and satisfyingly to the rest. With so much argument crammed into so relatively short a span, it is a work that cries out for early repetition.”

(Edward Greenfield, The Guardian 10.03.1977)

Luciano Berio’s La vera storia (Azione musicale in 2 parti) was given its world première on 9 March 1982 at the Scala in Milan.

“To say what happens in La Vera Storia is not easy, and I don’t know that it’s all that useful, granted that this is a work which tells its own story … If I weren’t afraid of being misunderstood or appearing rude, I wouldn’t even have written these lines.“

(Luciano Berio)

Wolfgang Schreiber said of the première: “Berio’s theme is tension, and the violent conflict between individual and state or society, of people and power, of freedom and authority.”

Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain’s Journey is performed by the RSO Munich tonight, conducted by Stefan Asbury. The concert also includes a new work by Enno Poppe and Charles Ives’ Robert Browning Overture.

Gerald Larner wrote in The Guardian that Gawain’s Journey is “a dramatic concert piece and a bruising but exhilarating experience for the audience.”

The RSO Vienna performs under Johannes Kalitzke tonight at the Wien Modern festival.

The first half of the concert consists of orchestral miniatures, including excerpts of Francis Burt’s Morgana, Johannes Maria Staud’s ‘Eck’ from his work Polygon and Friedrich Cerha’s Momente.

After the interval, Harrison Birtwistle’s 30-minute The Triumph of Time will be performed.

The concert is broadcast on ORF Radio 1 on Friday 4 November at 19:30 Vienna time.

Our friends at Boosey & Hawkes have produced this marvellous film with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, in which he talks about his music (and his tomatoes).

Watch on the Boosey.com website.

For a list of works published by UE, see this page.
For a list of works published by Boosey & Hawkes, see this page.

From this weekend’s blogs and tweets:

Alex Ross reports on a performance of Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories at a floating concert hall in New York.

MahlerNews reports on Twitter that Michael Tilson Thomas’ DVD “Keeping Score: Mahler” has won a German Record Critics’ Prize (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik).

And Norman Lebrecht spots Harrison Birtwistle watching cricket at Lords.

Courtesy of NMC Recordings

Watch on YouTube

Performance material available on request

Alarm Will Sound take to the stage tonight at the MaerzMusik Festival in Berlin.

On the programme are Harrison Birtwistle’s Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum and Wolfgang Rihm’s Will Sound, which was written for the ensemble. Alan Pierson conducts.

The concert will be broadcast on Thursday 24th on Deutschlandradio Kultur.