Birtwistle: Night's Black Bird - The Shadow of Night - The Cry of Anubis Owen Slade

• Ryan Wigglesworth (1979)
• 1 Night's Black Bird 14:04
• 2 The Shadow of Night 28:15
• 3 The Cry of Anubis 13:24
• Total Runtime 55:43

Info for Birtwistle: Night's Black Bird - The Shadow of Night - The Cry of Anubis

Sir Harrison Birtwistle is one of Britain’s leading composers and has received many honours, including the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1986 and a British knighthood in 1988. He was made a Companion of Honour in 2001 and is currently Director of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Owen Slade is one of London’s most versatile tuba players: in addition to his many classical performances, including the premiere performance of Birtwistle’s The Cry of Anubis, he has worked with artists such as Blur, Barry Manilow and Quincy Jones.

Birtwistle is a composer associated with works of forceful and monolithic grandeur so some of you may be surprised by the otherworldly and subtle sound-world of the orchestral works on this new recording.

The Shadow of Night is a slow nocturne, exploring the world of melancholy, inspired by the composer’s life-long fascination with Dürer’s engraving Melencolia I and Night’s Black Bird (commissioned by the Roche Foundation) continues the with the same reflective musical imagery. The Cry of Anubis, part tuba concerto, part tone poem, grew out of Birtwistle’s fascination with Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the necropolis in Egyptian mythology who played an important part in Birtwistle’s surreal recent opera The Second Mrs Kong (1993-94).

This collection of works by Harrison Birtwistle span a period of ten years (1994-2004). All are premiere recordings.

“the wait...has been worthwhile, not least when Ryan Wigglesworth (a composer of real promise) has so evident an affinity with music that can easily become earthbound in less sympathetic hands, with the Halle giving of its best....this performance of [Cry of Anubis] does ample justice to the music's sometimes aggressive but more often wistful melancholy...A disc worth acquiring by Birtwistle sceptics and a mandatory purhcase for admirers.” (International Record Review)

“these are among the most powerful orchestral pieces of recent years...Wigglesworth and the Halle give performances of amazing concentration, accuracy and passion, aided by recorded sound of a matching depth and clarity...there's no doubting [Slade's] virtuosity, which encompasses the lyrical as well as the acerbic: yelps and barks remind us that Anubis was the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead...Overall an essential release.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“In a welcome if rare excursion into contemporary msuic, and recorded with tinglingly immediate atmosphere, the Hallé under Ryan Wigglesworth sound on top form throughout” (Gramophone Magazine)

Owen Slade, tuba
Hallé Choir and Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor

No biography found.

Booklet for Birtwistle: Night's Black Bird - The Shadow of Night - The Cry of Anubis