On 14 November Katrin Baerts performed Oliver Knussen’s Requiem – Songs for Sue (2006) with Asko Schönberg conducted by Michael Wendeberg at the Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw.
The 13-minute work is scored for soprano and ensemble of fifteen players. It was composed as an elegy for Sue Knussen and grew from the inclusion of a fragment of Rilke’s ‘Requiem for a Friend”, chosen by Alexander Goehr, in her memorial booklet. It is predominantly autumnal in its instrumental colouring, with darker and more mellow timbres emerging from its combination of flute, alto flute, a pair of clarinets with bass clarinet, two horns, violas, and cellos, as well as double bass and marimba.
When searching for texts Knussen read 1700 poems by Emily Dickinson, alighting on those addressed to her sister Sue. The first song in the set emerged as a composite of lines from Dickinson, beginning ‘Is it true, dear Sue?’ The second movement sets Antonio Machado and the last W.H. Auden (a special favourite of Knussen and his late wife). “It's not a huge work”, said Knussen in an interview, “but it's a big piece emotionally…it's very much a piece written for family, and for people who knew Sue."
It was premiered by Claire Booth and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Knussen in 2006. Booth and Knussen subsequently performed it with ensembles including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Booth has also performed it with Ensemble intercontemporain and the London Sinfonietta, conducted by George Benjamin. Asko Schönberg gave the Netherlands premiere of the piece in 2007 with Claudia Barainsky, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw; Booth and Knussen presented it with the ensemble in 2011.