Composer of the Week: Harrison Birtwistle

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Harrison Birtwistle (b 1934): Imaginary Landscapes

Harrison Birtwistle (b 1934)

Imaginary Landscapes

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Harrison Birtwistle (b 1934), Imaginary Landscapes

Donald Macleod explores Sir Harrison Birtwistle's non-musical inspirations.

Donald Macleod explores Sir Harrison Birtwistle's non-musical inspirations, from the paintings of Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso to the poetry of Robin Blaser and Lorine Niedecker.

This week Donald Macleod meets Sir Harrison Birtwistle, described as “the most forceful and uncompromisingly original composer of his generation”. We hear his major compositions, broadly in chronological order, and reveal the preoccupations and processes behind a singular music imagination.

In this episode, Birtwistle talks about some of his non-musical inspirations, from the paintings of Paul Klee to the films of Quentin Tarantino or the written words of Lorine Niedecker.  He reveals how time, and the instruments for measuring time, have inspired many of his compositions, most notably in the fiendish piano work, Harrison’s Clocks, and he talks about why he enjoyed the furore over Panic, his notorious orchestral work performed at the 1995 Last Night of the Proms.


Nine Settings of Lorine Niedecker (There’s A Better Shine; How The White Gulls; My Life; Sleep’s Dream)
Amy Freston, soprano
Adrian Brendel, cello

Earth Dances
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Péter Eötvös, cond.

Harrison’s Clocks (Clock 2; Clock 5)
Nicolas Hodges, piano

Panic
John Harle, saxophone
Paul Clarvis, drum kit
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Davis, cond.

Producer: Iain Chambers

Composer of the Week: Harrison Birtwistle (b 1934)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod meets composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle to talk about his life and music.

This week Donald Macleod meets Sir Harrison Birtwistle, described as 'the most forceful and uncompromisingly original composer of his generation'.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Harrison Birtwistle (b 1934)

Imaginary Landscapes

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3