On 3 August the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo perform Jonathan Harvey’s Tranquil Abiding (1999). The 14-minute work for chamber orchestra finds its imaginative wellspring in Harvey’s Buddhist faith, the title referring to a term for a state of single-pointed concentration. It is based on a single, slow breathing rhythm: a simple oscillation between an ‘inhalation’ on an upper note and an ‘exhalation’ on a lower one. Overlaid with increasingly ornate melodic fragments, this simple unifying device creates an organic and coherent trajectory through the work’s wave-like form and towards its limpid conclusion.
Sakari Oramo has been conducting Harvey’s music for over two decades. He has previously conducted Tranquil Abiding with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, including a French tour entailing its national premiere in 2003. He also conducted White as Jasmine with the orchestra that same year, with Anu Komsi as soprano soloist, and subsequently gave the Finnish premiere of the work in 2005 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra at Musica Nova Helsinki.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s relationship with Harvey’s music goes back to the 1980s. They gave the world premieres of Madonna of Winter and Spring (1987) and Mothers Shall Not Cry (at the 2000 BBC Proms), as well the UK premiere of Timepieces in 2001. At the 2012 Total Immersion focus on Harvey at the Barbican they gave the UK premiere of Harvey’s opera final Wagner Dream, as well as performances of Messages – its London debut – and Body Mandala.
Tranquil Abiding will also be performed on 24 October by Ryan Bancroft and the Tapiola Sinfonietta. On 12 December Ensemble Insomnio and Laura Sandee present Harvey’s Bird Concerto with Pianosong at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ; the same forces previously performed the 30-minute work for piano, ensemble and live electronics, inspired by 40 colourful cries of Californian birds, in February 2020.