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This 8-minute solo flute piece, written in 1979, was inspired by the sight of birds soaring and dipping over the peaks of the Swiss Alps. Equally important to me at the time, however, was the challenge to produce clear, dramatic structure and harmony within a monody restricted to the flute’s three-octave compass.

© George Benjamin

'Benjamin's Flight must surely be seen as the successor to Debussy's Syrinx. It displays fully the flute's compatibility with freedom and fantasy. It's virtuosic by nature, but begins and ends with mellow, low-register glissandi.'
BBC Music Magazine (Kate Sherriff), October 1995