Julian Anderson: The Comedy of Change & Heaven Is Shy of Earth

Featuring

Oliver Knussen
Susan Bickley
London Sinfonietta
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
Julian Anderson

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Performer Biography

Oliver Knussen, the conductor on this album, was a highly influential composer-conductor who knew Julian Anderson for 37 years and conducted his music with 'total expertise and implicit understanding'.

Composition History

Julian Anderson's "Heaven is Shy of Earth" was commissioned for the 2006 BBC Proms, a major classical music festival.

Compositional Technique

The opening movement of "Heaven is Shy of Earth" features a solo flugelhorn melody, written for the wedding of two of the composer's friends, surrounded by small groups of instruments.

Composition History

Julian Anderson's "The Comedy of Change" was inspired by Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of "The Origin of Species," exploring both inevitable and unpredictable aspects of change.

Compositional Technique

Julian Anderson developed a special tuning for some accompanying instruments in "Heaven is Shy of Earth," which recalls folk music and evokes natural resonance through harmonic series.

Composer's Artistic Vision

For "Heaven is Shy of Earth," Julian Anderson combined Latin Mass texts with poems by Emily Dickinson, a visionary American poet, to create a 'secular Eucharist' celebrating nature.

Composition History

One movement of "Heaven is Shy of Earth" was not included in its 2006 premiere because its technical challenges were only solved after Julian Anderson composed his orchestral work "Fantasias."