For Oliver Knussen's 50th birthday, the London Sinfonietta collected 13 musical tributes to the composer/conductor from among the many composers with whom he had worked. The results are these brief pieces, all between one and five minutes long, scored for solo instrument, small ensemble, or full orchestra by some of the world's most famous modernist, near-modernist, or formerly modernist composers. What's perhaps most surprising about this collection is how serious most of them are for a birthday tribute. There are some ...
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For Oliver Knussen's 50th birthday, the London Sinfonietta collected 13 musical tributes to the composer/conductor from among the many composers with whom he had worked. The results are these brief pieces, all between one and five minutes long, scored for solo instrument, small ensemble, or full orchestra by some of the world's most famous modernist, near-modernist, or formerly modernist composers. What's perhaps most surprising about this collection is how serious most of them are for a birthday tribute. There are some lighthearted exceptions -- Andriessen's minute-long three-movement Very Sharp Trumpet Sonata; Detlev Glanert's perky Dancing Landscape; Robert Zuidam's variations on Happy Birthday, I suppose a fugue is out of the question; and Mark-Anthony Turnage's jazzy Snapshots. Elliott Carter's Aux Quai, (a homonym for the composer's initials) is cleverly titled but the music sounds deadly serious. The final work on the CD, Magnus Lindberg's Bubo bubo, is snappy and relatively celebratory, but...
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