JULIAN ANDERSON (b. 1967)

World Premiere Recordings

 

Alhambra Fantasy, Khorovod *,

The Stations of the Sun, The Crazed Moon, Diptych

BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta*/ Oliver Knussen

 

Julian Anderson is a prominent figure in the contemporary music scene as Composer in Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2005, former Head of Composition at the Royal College of Music until 2005, and as current head of composition at Harvard.

 

The composer himself was closely involved in the production of this CD, and harmonia mundi - 7th August 2006 as author of the booklet's liner notes. This is the first release of five of his most important works to date.

 

Diptych (1990) was Anderson's first acknowledged work; it won the 1992 Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for Young Composers and was subsequently nominated as the BBC entry in the 1996 International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.

 

His two commissions for the London Sinfonietta, Khorovod (1994) and Alhambra Fantasy (2000) have been widely performed by leading ensembles across Europe and the USA. His other most played works include the orchestral BBC Proms commission The Stations of the Sun (1998).

 

A terrifying poem by W.B. Yeats, as well as the experience of a lunar eclipse in March 1996 gave the inspiration to The Crazed Moon (1997) commissioned by BBC Wales.

 

With a steady progression of major works for ensemble and orchestra to his name, Julian Anderson is now well established as one of the leading voices of his generation (he will be 40 next year). His latest piece, Heaven is Shy of Earth, is premièred at tomorrow night's BBC Prom, and to coincide with that event comes the release of this first disc devoted wholly to his music. It provides a comprehensive survey of his work in the 1990s, from his early, prize-winning Diptych, by way of his seminal Khorovod to his earlier Prom commission The Stations of the Sun and his most recent work for the London Sinfonietta, Alhambra Fantasy. All exhibit that characteristic Anderson sound: bright but lucid orchestration coupled with a rejuvenation of melody as a guiding force and a complex but energising sense of movement and harmony.

Oliver Knussen has been something of a mentor to Anderson, and he brings out the primeval vigour of Khorovod (he is its dedicatee) while dwelling on the passages of ravishing lyricism in The Stations of the Sun and the keening melody of The Crazed Moon.

Matthew Rye, Telegraph

 

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