Harrison Burtwistle, one of Britain’s most famous composers, has died at the age of 87. Bertwistle’s compositions with uncompromising modernism – ranging from large-scale grand opera to intimate solo pianos – have dominated British music for more than five decades. He was born in Accrington in 1934 and as a young clarinetist he played in theater groups and began composing. He studied in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he and his fellow students Alexander Györ and Peter Maxwell Davis were part of an explosion of music and belonged to a group that was once called the Manchester School.
His first chamber opera, Punch and Judy, was performed at the Aldberg Film Festival in 1968, and legend has it that the violence of her story and music outraged much of the audience, including festival founder Benjamin Britton, who apparently left the interval. (Burtwistle himself directed the revival of the opera at the festival in June 1991.) The triumph of time in 1972, inspired by the eponymous woodcarving of Peter Brueghel the Elder, secured his international reputation and remained one of his best-known works.
Birtwistle, 39, photographed by David Newell Smith in September 1973. Photo: David Newell Smith / The Observer
In 1975, Birtwistle became musical director of the newly established Royal National Theater in London, where his responsibilities included teaching Simon Callow, playing Mozart in the premiere of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, and playing the piano convincingly. Birtwistle was knighted in 1988 and was honored in 2001.
If Birtwistle’s dissonant and jagged music can feel uncompromisingly aggressive, it also carries a huge emotional impact and is exciting and complex. Much of his work stems from his love of poetry and language, and he finds inspiration in myths, rituals and folklore. One opera, Gawain, took Arthur’s knight’s Middle English romance as its source; The 2008 Minotaur retells the Greek legend, and the Mask of Orpheus (1986) explores the myth of Orpheus.
Johann Reuters (Theseus) and John Tomlinson (The Minotaur) in Birtwistle’s “Minotaur” at the Royal Opera House, revived in 2013. Photo: Tristram Kenton / Guardian
He gained national fame in 1995 when his saxophone concerto, Panic, premiered on the last night of the ball. The work – the first piece of contemporary music to ever appear on Last Night – was scheduled for the second half of the concert and was thus broadcast live on Saturday night in front of millions of viewers on BBC One. The abrasive energy of the work and the noisy and violent sound world were described as “terrible cacophony” by some reviewers, and the BBC’s board was jammed with complaints from viewers that their ears had been attacked.
Birtwistle continued composing in the 1970s and 1980s. His duet for eight strings for 2019 was nominated for the Basca-Ivors Composer Award (his 10th nomination); Moth Requiem for female voices, harps and flute, premiered in the UK at the 2013 prom and won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award – his fifth, making him the most respected musician in the history of RPS awards. “One of the most beautiful and intensely personal of his recent scores,” wrote the Guardian’s Andrew Clements. Many conductors supported his music, including Pierre Boulez, Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim and Antonio Papano.
Desperately sad news for Harry Burtwistle. Privilege to know him and work with him. And what a legacy – not least the premiere of the 4 operas was @SnapeMaltings @BrittenPears. Colossal figure and inspiration. There will be a lot missing.
– Roger Wright (@ rogerandout56) April 18, 2022
Among those who paid tribute on Twitter were Roger Wright of Aldeburgh Music and conductor Nicholas Colin, who said “what a visionary, what a virtuoso, what an inspiration.” Australian composer Lisa Lim wrote: “He was an important composer for me:” Secret Theater “,” Earth Dance “,” Mask of Orpheus “among other great works.” BBC Radio 3 controller Alan Davey said: “He was a giant figure in classical music – a composer who steadfastly followed his instinct that humanity deserves to be reflected in complex, unwavering music that penetrates the soul and understands what it’s like to be human. these times. ”
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