Harrison Birtwistle
English composer
Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and the operas The Mask of Orpheus (1986), Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto Panic during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees.
Read more about this composer on Wikipedia.
Works
- 4 Poems by Jaan Kaplinski
- 9 Movements for String Quartet
- An Interrupted Endless Melody
- Bogenstrich – Meditations on a Poem of Rilke
- Duets for Storab
- Entr'actes and Sappho Fragments
- Gawain's Journey
- Harrison’s Clocks
- Nine Settings of Lorine Niedecker
- Oboe Quartet
- Orpheus Elegies
- Pulse Shadows
- Secret Theatre, for 14 instruments Chamber
- Songs by Myself
- The Mask of Orpheus
- The Minotaur
- Three Latin Motets
- Three Settings of Celan
- Three Settings of Lorine Niedecker
- Tragoedia
Box sets & recent recordings
- Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus — Harrison Birtwistle, Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra (2012) box set · 66 tracks Spotify
Box sets & recent releases via Spotify — surfaced automatically, not editorial picks.