Oliver Knussen

This delightful 17-minute song cycle for soprano and orchestra was derived from Knussen’s fantasy opera Where the Wild Things Are . It brings together the bulk of solo scenes involving the opera...

None of the four songs lasts more than a few minutes, yet they pack in an astonishing range of emotional and vocal nuance. . . with wonderfully lucid colours drawn from a vast ensemble; each song seem...

... creates a shimmering tapestry of sound that ranges satisfyingly wide within a brief-span - a fine display piece for conductor and every section of the orchestra. The Guardian, 17 September 1988 In...

Group A: 3 tpt - perc(1): t.bells/susp.cym Group B: 2 hn (or Wagner tubas/euphoniums etc.) - 3 trbn - tuba - perc(1): 2 tam-t Group C: 4 hn - perc(1): t.bells

‘Fantastical lunar beauty’ The Times (Hilary Finch), 4 November 2002

... a sumptuous piece, clotted with color, dense with incident, yet also transparent in its deisgn: it lets you know where you are. Richard Dyer, Boston Globe, 7 August 1991, Instrumentation: fl(=afl)...

A tightly constructed work inspired by Shakespeare's description of Ophelia's madness, it blends wind, string and keyboard timbres superbly and moves easily between sprightliness and dreamy introspect...

Taking the word Hum literally, Knussen has subjected A.A.Milne to some lighthearted but intense expressionist treatment, even developing a series of aphorisms which present such incidents as Piglet me...

Composer's note: 'The 12th-century organa of the Notre Dame school (most notably those of Pérotin) employ plainchant as the slow foundation for rapid, ecstatic, dance-like melismata. In June 1994 I us...

Instrumentation: 1111 - 1000 - 2 vln.vla.vlc

The three frammenti, whose text consists solely of the word chiara sung in a variety of languages depict St Clare being wafted to church by Angels.

... an engaging solo piano work by Oliver Knussen that draws the listener into its hazy texture and present fleeting moments of tension and release that make for compelling if nonspecific narrative. A...

'Prayer Bell Sketch' was commissioned by Ms. Masako Okamura and Mr. Motoyuki Nakagawa in memory of Toru Takemitsu. Here is the 'prayer Bell Sketch' for the solo piano.

This is the violin part only of Reflection Op.31a, composed by Oliver Knussen, for violin and piano in digital sheet music format.

‘A work of extraordinary inner energy that already seems like a classic.’ Financial Times (Andrew Clark) on the Violin Concerto, 11 May 2005 Instrumentation: 3.1.ca.2.1.cbsn - 3220 - timp(...

The wish to compose something for Barry Tuckwell had been somewhere at the back of my mind for almost as long as I can remember. Hence, when I received an invitation form the Suntory Foundation to wri...

The piece is full of clever and beautiful things; the early scenes proceed almost in convulsions of orchestral brilliance within a marvellously clear and animated world whose chief references, sometim...

... the title aptly reflects both the songful character of the musical invention and the relationship of wind solo to string trio... [a] composition of great charm and precise character; its other vir...