O Hototogisu!, Oliver Knussen’s last completed work, appears with soprano Claire Booth and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Glasgow’s City Halls on 30 October, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.
The 8-minute song cycle was conceived as a kind of double concerto for soprano and flute, accompanied by a large ensemble of 22 players. Subtitled ‘fragment of a Japonisme’, it draws on many aspects of Japanese culture including the instrumental signals from Kabuki theatre and the song of the titular cuckoo. The bird was widely referenced in the haiku of 17th and 18th centuries, selections from which are set by Knussen, and its song in the poems is both harbinger of summer and a voice from the land of the dead. Knussen would make numerous trips to Japan to conduct, working there with the London Sinfonietta, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, and Osaka Philharmonic.
Booth, a longstanding champion of Knussen’s work and cherished collaborator, premiered O Hototogisu! with Marie-Christine Zupancic and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at the 2017 Aldeburgh Festival, conducted by the composer. She has given numerous performances of Knussen’s Requiem, debuting the piece in Chicago in 2006, and the Whitman Settings, performing the piece alongside Knussen composer with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. With Wigglesworth Booth presented Songs and a Sea Interlude, a 17-minute song cycle derived from fantasy opera Where the Wild Things Are, with the BBC SSO in 2015.
Wigglesworth has been performing Knussen’s music for over two decades. He conducted O Hototogisu! in 2019 at the Aldeburgh Festival as part of a concert commemorating Knussen, and in 2022 gave the first public performance of Knussen’s Cleveland Pictures at Snape Maltings, alongside his Horn Concerto. In 2012 he led Britten Sinfonia in a double-bill of Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Barbican Theatre.
Knussen’s music will also feature in Glasgow – the composer’s birthplace – on 4 October, when his Flourish with Fireworks opens the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s 2025/26 season, conducted by Thomas Søndergård.