Harrison Birtwistle: Responses (Sweet Disorder) & Gawain's Journey

British composer Harrison Birtwistle is in the spotlight in this album from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra's long-running Musica Viva series. His piano concerto Responses: Sweet Disorder was written for Pierre-Laurent Aimard and premiered in 2014, and Gawain's Journey (1991) reimagines material from his opera Gawain, turning it into a powerful orchestral work. Stefan Ashbury conducts.

Featuring

Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Stefan Asbury
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Harrison Birtwistle

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Composer Biography

Harrison Birtwistle was Music Director of the National Theatre in London from 1975 to 1988 and held the Henry Purcell Chair of Musical Composition at King's College London from 1994 to 2001.

Composer Biography

Harrison Birtwistle has received numerous awards, including the Grawemeyer Award in 1986, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1995, and a knighthood in 1988.

Composer Biography

Sir Harrison Birtwistle, born in 1934, is considered one of the leading contemporary British composers.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Myth, reaching from over the hill of time and resonating around us, has long been a source of inspiration for Harrison Birtwistle's music.

Composition History

The work "Responses" was commissioned by musica viva des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Casa da Música Porto, and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Performer Biography

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the pianist, won the First Prize at the Messiaen Competition in 1973 and became First Solo Pianist with the Ensemble intercontemporain under Pierre Boulez.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Harrison Birtwistle subtitled his piano concerto "Responses" after a book of essays by his friend, the architect Robert Maxwell, titled "Sweet Disorder and the Carefully Careless."