Jonathan Harvey (1939-)

Series

Episode

First
Broadcast

Comments

2009

20090713

Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey, a fastidious craftsman whose works are very much music of integration, often bringing together different worlds: cutting-edge electronics and traditional instruments, past and present, material and ethereal.

Harvey is singularly thoughtful about his own art and the process by which he makes it, but he is not a composer with his head in the clouds - he is very much hands-on when it comes to computer technology and electronics, and how they can be harnessed to open up new worlds of the imagination.

He is a composer whose work encompasses the realms of bliss as well as the practicalities and imperfections of the world of real instruments and earthly musicians. In an interview some time ago, he asked himself what the purpose of music is: 'It is, in my view, to reveal the nature of suffering and to heal - the one big question of existence.

Including a hymn to Angels (an abiding interest of Harvey's, and he is often conscious of their presence in everyday life), and the now-classic electronic work Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco, whose two main sonic components are the great tenor bell of Winchester Cathedral and the treble voice of Harvey's own son Dominic (who was a Winchester chorister in the late 1970s). Plus a pair of viola pieces that evoke the image of a remote Tibetan monastery; and Song Offerings, a magical song-cycle set to the words of Rabindranath Tagore, and one of the composer's most beautiful and accessible works.

The Angels (1994) for unaccompanied double SATB chorus

Latvian Radio Choir

By permission of Latvian Radio - to be released on Hyperion

Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980, remixed 1999) for quadraphonic tape

Sargasso SCD 28029, Tr 2

Chant (1992) for solo viola

Christophe Desjardins (viola)

Live concert recording, Palais du Rhin, 28 September 2003

By permission of Christophe Desjardins

Jubilus (2003) for viola and ensemble of 8 players

Scott Dickinson (viola)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Studio recording

Song Offerings (1985) for soprano and ensemble of eight players (settings of poems by Rabindranath Tagore)

1: First Song; 2: Second Song; 3: Third Song; 4: Fourth Song

Penelope Walmsley-Clark (soprano)

London Sinfonietta

George Benjamin (conductor)

Nimbus NI 5649, Trs 8-11.

Donald Macleod explores the music of Jonathan Harvey with the composer himself.

2009

20090714

Donald Macleod in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey.

Harvey's instrumental and chamber works, beginning with two minutes of musical madness for prepared piano and tape, based on the finale of Chopin's Piano Sonata in B flat minor. This is followed by a musical depiction of the god Shiva in his guise as Nataraja, Lord of the Dance.

Then a memorial to Harvey's friend Peter Gibbs, ex-RAF pilot and leader of the BBC Scottish Orchestra, who died in a mysterious plane crash; The Riot, an exhilarating trio for flute, clarinet and piano (the name is an anagram of the Dutch group for whom it was written - Het Trio); and a recent work, Harvey's String Trio, whose energising spark, the composer tells us, is the collision of two different musical moods - the sacred and the folkoristic.

Homage to Cage, À? Chopin (und Ligeti ist auch dabei - 1998) for piano and tape

Florian Hoelscher (piano)

Neos 10828 Tr 6

Nataraja (1983) for flute and piano

Pirmin Grehl (flute/piccolo)

Neos 10828 Tr 1

Flight-Elegy (1983/9) for violin and piano

Julie-Anne Derome (vioin)

AndrÀ?© Ristic (piano)

Atma ACD2 2254 Tr 9

The Riot (1993) for flute/piccolo, bass clarinet and piano

Harrie Starreveld (flute/piccolo)

Harry Sparnaay (bass clarinet)

RenÀ?© Eckhardt (piano)

Sargasso SCD28044 Tr 1

String Trio (2004)

Irvine Arditti (violin)

Ralf Ehlers (viola)

Lucas Fels (cello)

Aeon AECD 0975, CD 2 Tr 1.

Including Homage to Cage, Nataraja, Flight-Elegy and The Riot.

2009

20090715

Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey.

The orchestra learns to speak in one of Harvey's most ambitious and complex works to date - Speakings, which was premiered at the BBC Proms 2008. As the composer himself explains it: 'The orchestral discourse, itself inflected by speech structures, is electro-acoustically shaped by the envelopes of speech taken from largely random recordings. The vowel and consonant spectra-shapes flicker in the rapid rhythms and colours of speech across the orchestral textures. A process of 'shape vocoding', taking advantage of speech's fascinating complexities, is the main idea of this work.

One Evening... (1993-4) for soprano, mezzo-soprano, ensemble of eight players and electronics (4th mvt)

Sarah Leonard (soprano)

Mary King (mezzo-soprano)

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Stefan Asbury (conductor/electronics)

Accord 465 281-2, Tr 4

How Could the Soul Not Take Flight (1996) for unaccompanied double SATB chorus

BBC Singers

David Hill (conductor)

Specially recorded for Composer of the Week on 13 March 2009

Speakings (2007-8) for orchestra and electronics

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Live concert recording - City Halls, Glasgow, 5 March 2009.

The music of Jonathan Harvey including One Evening..., How Could the Soul Not Take Flight.

2009

20090716

Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey.

The theme of nature runs through the programme - trees form the backdrop to Moving Trees, a ravishing short piece for chamber ensemble written in response to a commission from Belgian choreographer Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker.

Birds crop up - first, in Chu (Tibetan for 'bird'), then in Bird Concerto with Pianosong, which began life as Piano Concerto with Birdsong until Harvey realised that the birds were the main protagonists. The birds in this case are synthesized ones from California, and they transform, morph and interact with the orchestra in extraordinary ways.

Moving Trees (2002) for ensemble of 18 players

Remix Ensemble

Peter Rundel (conductor)

Live concert recording: Casa da Musica, Porto, 10 January 2009

Chu (2002) for soprano, clarinet/contrabass clarinet and cello

Ensemble Accroche Note:

Francoise Kubler (soprano)

Armand Angster (clarinet)

Christophe Beau (cello)

L'empreinte digitale ED13229, Tr 1

Bird Concerto with Pianosong (2001) for solo piano and sampler, and ensemble of 17 players and live electronics

Hideki Nagano (piano/keyboard)

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Susanna Malkki

Donald Macleod and composer Jonathan Harvey focus on the theme of nature in Harvey's music

2009

05 LAST

20090717

Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey.

The final programme begins with a short piece for solo guitar, Sufi Dance - which the composer describes as 'a memory of a Sufi song heard some time ago and probably incorrectly retained or at least filtered through my own paths of thought' - and ends with a major work for chorus and orchestra, Messages, whose text consists entirely of the names of Judaic and Persian angels. The composer calls it his most intuitive work to date. The recording chosen is its world premiere in 2008 by the Berlin Philharmonic and Berlin Radio Choir under Reinbert de Leeuw.

Sufi Dance (1997) for solo guitar

Janne Malinen (guitar)

Pilfink JJVCD-31 Tr 15

Marahi (1999) for unaccompanied SATB chorus

BBC Singers

David Hill (conductor)

Specially recorded for Composer of the Week, 13 March 2009

Scena (1992) for violin and ensemble of nine players

1: Lament

2: Mystical Event

3: Romantic Event

4: Dream

5: Metamorphosis

Irvine Arditti (violin)

Nieuw Ensemble

Ed Spanjaard (conductor)

Montaigne MO 782034, Trs 5-9

Messages (2007) for double SATB chorus and orchestra

Berlin Radio Choir (chief conductor: Simon Halsey)

Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor)

Live concert recording: Berlin Philharmonic Hall, 30 March 2008.

Donald Macleod concludes his exploration of the music of Jonathan Harvey.

Episodes

Series	Episode	First Broadcast	Comments
2009	01	20090713	Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey, a fastidious craftsman whose works are very much music of integration, often bringing together different worlds: cutting-edge electronics and traditional instruments, past and present, material and ethereal. Harvey is singularly thoughtful about his own art and the process by which he makes it, but he is not a composer with his head in the clouds - he is very much hands-on when it comes to computer technology and electronics, and how they can be harnessed to open up new worlds of the imagination. He is a composer whose work encompasses the realms of bliss as well as the practicalities and imperfections of the world of real instruments and earthly musicians. In an interview some time ago, he asked himself what the purpose of music is: 'It is, in my view, to reveal the nature of suffering and to heal - the one big question of existence. Including a hymn to Angels (an abiding interest of Harvey's, and he is often conscious of their presence in everyday life), and the now-classic electronic work Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco, whose two main sonic components are the great tenor bell of Winchester Cathedral and the treble voice of Harvey's own son Dominic (who was a Winchester chorister in the late 1970s). Plus a pair of viola pieces that evoke the image of a remote Tibetan monastery; and Song Offerings, a magical song-cycle set to the words of Rabindranath Tagore, and one of the composer's most beautiful and accessible works. The Angels (1994) for unaccompanied double SATB chorus Latvian Radio Choir By permission of Latvian Radio - to be released on Hyperion Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980, remixed 1999) for quadraphonic tape Sargasso SCD 28029, Tr 2 Chant (1992) for solo viola Christophe Desjardins (viola) Live concert recording, Palais du Rhin, 28 September 2003 By permission of Christophe Desjardins Jubilus (2003) for viola and ensemble of 8 players Scott Dickinson (viola) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov (conductor) Studio recording Song Offerings (1985) for soprano and ensemble of eight players (settings of poems by Rabindranath Tagore) 1: First Song; 2: Second Song; 3: Third Song; 4: Fourth Song Penelope Walmsley-Clark (soprano) London Sinfonietta George Benjamin (conductor) Nimbus NI 5649, Trs 8-11. Donald Macleod explores the music of Jonathan Harvey with the composer himself.
2009	02	20090714	Donald Macleod in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey. Harvey's instrumental and chamber works, beginning with two minutes of musical madness for prepared piano and tape, based on the finale of Chopin's Piano Sonata in B flat minor. This is followed by a musical depiction of the god Shiva in his guise as Nataraja, Lord of the Dance. Then a memorial to Harvey's friend Peter Gibbs, ex-RAF pilot and leader of the BBC Scottish Orchestra, who died in a mysterious plane crash; The Riot, an exhilarating trio for flute, clarinet and piano (the name is an anagram of the Dutch group for whom it was written - Het Trio); and a recent work, Harvey's String Trio, whose energising spark, the composer tells us, is the collision of two different musical moods - the sacred and the folkoristic. Homage to Cage, À? Chopin (und Ligeti ist auch dabei - 1998) for piano and tape Florian Hoelscher (piano) Neos 10828 Tr 6 Nataraja (1983) for flute and piano Pirmin Grehl (flute/piccolo) Neos 10828 Tr 1 Flight-Elegy (1983/9) for violin and piano Julie-Anne Derome (vioin) AndrÀ?© Ristic (piano) Atma ACD2 2254 Tr 9 The Riot (1993) for flute/piccolo, bass clarinet and piano Harrie Starreveld (flute/piccolo) Harry Sparnaay (bass clarinet) RenÀ?© Eckhardt (piano) Sargasso SCD28044 Tr 1 String Trio (2004) Irvine Arditti (violin) Ralf Ehlers (viola) Lucas Fels (cello) Aeon AECD 0975, CD 2 Tr 1. Including Homage to Cage, Nataraja, Flight-Elegy and The Riot.
2009	03	20090715	Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey. The orchestra learns to speak in one of Harvey's most ambitious and complex works to date - Speakings, which was premiered at the BBC Proms 2008. As the composer himself explains it: 'The orchestral discourse, itself inflected by speech structures, is electro-acoustically shaped by the envelopes of speech taken from largely random recordings. The vowel and consonant spectra-shapes flicker in the rapid rhythms and colours of speech across the orchestral textures. A process of 'shape vocoding', taking advantage of speech's fascinating complexities, is the main idea of this work. One Evening... (1993-4) for soprano, mezzo-soprano, ensemble of eight players and electronics (4th mvt) Sarah Leonard (soprano) Mary King (mezzo-soprano) Ensemble Intercontemporain Stefan Asbury (conductor/electronics) Accord 465 281-2, Tr 4 How Could the Soul Not Take Flight (1996) for unaccompanied double SATB chorus BBC Singers David Hill (conductor) Specially recorded for Composer of the Week on 13 March 2009 Speakings (2007-8) for orchestra and electronics BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov (conductor) Live concert recording - City Halls, Glasgow, 5 March 2009. The music of Jonathan Harvey including One Evening..., How Could the Soul Not Take Flight.
2009	04	20090716	Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey. The theme of nature runs through the programme - trees form the backdrop to Moving Trees, a ravishing short piece for chamber ensemble written in response to a commission from Belgian choreographer Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker. Birds crop up - first, in Chu (Tibetan for 'bird'), then in Bird Concerto with Pianosong, which began life as Piano Concerto with Birdsong until Harvey realised that the birds were the main protagonists. The birds in this case are synthesized ones from California, and they transform, morph and interact with the orchestra in extraordinary ways. Moving Trees (2002) for ensemble of 18 players Remix Ensemble Peter Rundel (conductor) Live concert recording: Casa da Musica, Porto, 10 January 2009 Chu (2002) for soprano, clarinet/contrabass clarinet and cello Ensemble Accroche Note: Francoise Kubler (soprano) Armand Angster (clarinet) Christophe Beau (cello) L'empreinte digitale ED13229, Tr 1 Bird Concerto with Pianosong (2001) for solo piano and sampler, and ensemble of 17 players and live electronics Hideki Nagano (piano/keyboard) Ensemble Intercontemporain Susanna Malkki Live concert recording: CitÀ?© de la Musique, Paris, 3 October 2006. Donald Macleod and composer Jonathan Harvey focus on the theme of nature in Harvey's music
2009	05 LAST	20090717	Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey. The final programme begins with a short piece for solo guitar, Sufi Dance - which the composer describes as 'a memory of a Sufi song heard some time ago and probably incorrectly retained or at least filtered through my own paths of thought' - and ends with a major work for chorus and orchestra, Messages, whose text consists entirely of the names of Judaic and Persian angels. The composer calls it his most intuitive work to date. The recording chosen is its world premiere in 2008 by the Berlin Philharmonic and Berlin Radio Choir under Reinbert de Leeuw. Sufi Dance (1997) for solo guitar Janne Malinen (guitar) Pilfink JJVCD-31 Tr 15 Marahi (1999) for unaccompanied SATB chorus BBC Singers David Hill (conductor) Specially recorded for Composer of the Week, 13 March 2009 Scena (1992) for violin and ensemble of nine players 1: Lament 2: Mystical Event 3: Romantic Event 4: Dream 5: Metamorphosis Irvine Arditti (violin) Nieuw Ensemble Ed Spanjaard (conductor) Montaigne MO 782034, Trs 5-9 Messages (2007) for double SATB chorus and orchestra Berlin Radio Choir (chief conductor: Simon Halsey) Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor) Live concert recording: Berlin Philharmonic Hall, 30 March 2008. Donald Macleod concludes his exploration of the music of Jonathan Harvey.