Whilst in the US in April, Knussen stopped off at the Miller Theater in New York for a portrait concert given by Ensemble Signal and conductor Brad Lubman. The programme included many of Knussen's most enduring ensemble and chamber works - Requiem: Songs for Sue and Ophelia Dances - which clearly delighted the New York audience.
Press comments:
'Ophelia Dances...The pungent harmonic language is tart and captivating. And the piece really dances. A swinging early episode seems deceptively cheerful. Soon a jazzy clarinet interrupts and the rhythmic flow fractures into jagged bursts. The performance was dazzling.'
New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 19 April 2013
'Most touching of all was the music which he wrote upon the death of his wife, Sue... Mr. Lubman and his Signal Ensemble gave the piece a freshness, a gossamer-thin beauty of texture... Mr. Knussen's music is... magical in resurrecting past times, in transcending the ordinary, magical in hiding music within music, that it must be played again and again here... how fortunate we were to hear a composer who can unveil the undending spirtual flowers within our fragile world.;
Concerto Net (Harry Rolnick), 19 April 2013
Press comments:
'Ophelia Dances...The pungent harmonic language is tart and captivating. And the piece really dances. A swinging early episode seems deceptively cheerful. Soon a jazzy clarinet interrupts and the rhythmic flow fractures into jagged bursts. The performance was dazzling.'
New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 19 April 2013
'Most touching of all was the music which he wrote upon the death of his wife, Sue... Mr. Lubman and his Signal Ensemble gave the piece a freshness, a gossamer-thin beauty of texture... Mr. Knussen's music is... magical in resurrecting past times, in transcending the ordinary, magical in hiding music within music, that it must be played again and again here... how fortunate we were to hear a composer who can unveil the undending spirtual flowers within our fragile world.;
Concerto Net (Harry Rolnick), 19 April 2013