Oliver Knussen

I hear in this Symphony an extraordinary feeling for the sound of poetry and for its meanings, a sure skill in timing and in plotting the motions from event to event, and beyond any question, that gif...

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...

... a little jewel of a five-minute orchestral piece. Edward Greenfield, The Guardian, 17 June 1988 Instrumentation: 3.1.ca.3.1.cbsn - 4030 - perc(4): timp/tam-t/2 t.bells/susp.cym/vib/tamb/sleigh bel...

... 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...

The score to Hums And Songs Of Winnie-The-Pooh Op.6, composed by Oliver Knussen after AA Milne, for high soprano and instrumentalists in digital sheet music format.

‘The word Lullaby is used in the sense of an incantation to sleep’ explains Oliver Knussen in a programme note for his exquisite 6-minute piano piece Sonya’s Lullaby. ‘Sonya is my daughter, who was a...

Oliver Knussen’s Variations for piano were composed in 1989 and premiered by Peter Serkin. Although they are concise – the twelve variations play for a little more than six minutes in all – the compos...

Ophelia’s Last Dance (Ophelia Dances, Book 2) is based on a melody dating from early in 1974, which was among several ideas intended for - but ultimately excluded from – Oliver Knussen’s Third Symphon...

Prayer Bell Sketch is a hauntingly beautiful study in weight and measure, resonance and reverberation composed by Oliver Knussen. Lasting 6-minutes, it recollects and rearranges a few clear, bell-like...

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.