Oliver Knussen's composing and conducting careers began with early successes, and he has continued to be active in both fields since. His early compositions were influenced by the Russian and American traditions of orchestral writing. A large proportion of these early pieces were also composed with twelve-tone and serial techniques. His later music uses detailed harmonic and rhythmic structures to create complex but clearly defined textures, withRead more fine orchestral color. In all of his work, an accessible sound world is united with highly thought-out structural details.
Knussen was born into a musical family and as a child spent time at London Symphony Orchestra rehearsals, where his father was principal double bass. Oliver was thrown into prominence early in life, when at the age of 15 his First Symphony was performed in London. His precocity as a conductor was demonstrated at the same time when the illness of the scheduled conductor forced Knussen onto the podium. Two weeks later the work was performed in New York under Daniel Barenboim.
Knussen's first composition teacher was John Lambert, a student of Nadia Boulanger, and then from 1970 to 1973 he studied with Gunther Schuller in Tanglewood and Boston. Schuller's influence is evident in the expressionist character of the Second Symphony (1970-1971), which sets verses by the poets Georg Trakl and Sylvia Plath. Other influences in this period appear in the Concerto for Orchestra (1970) that incorporates jazz and the Charleston.
After the spotlight on Knussen receded, rumors abounded that his success was not entirely based on merit, and performances dwindled. He himself felt that early exposure was a mixed blessing and that the smaller pieces he wrote at the time of the First Symphony were more interesting. This trend was evident in his chamber pieces of the 1970s, which were slightly more radical than the larger symphonies, notably Coursing (1979) for chamber orchestra.
In the early '80s, Knussen's compositional energies were concentrated on two large scale projects which he termed fantasy operas, settings of children's books by Maurice Sendak, who became the librettist: Where the Wild Things Are (1979-1983), and Higgledy Piggledy Pop (1984-1990). These works use varied compositional resources, including layers of contrasting rhythms (polyrhythms) and very subtle orchestral colors, to create a range of refined textures. Many styles are also present, from jazz to Mozart references.
Shortly afterwards, the composer became attracted to music on a more miniature time frame, for example in the orchestral Flourish with Fireworks (1988). This work is in a line of pieces which use subtle references to the works of older composers. The Whitman Settings, for soprano and orchestra, although originally composed for voice with piano in 1991, were written as the composer was attracted to four unusually short poems of Walt Whitman.
Knussen's conducting career has encompassed a wide-ranging repertoire, and he specializes in the works of contemporary composers. He has been the music director of the London Sinfonietta (an ensemble which also frequently perform his own music) and the artistic director of Aldeburgh Festival from 1992 to 1998. In that same period, he was principal guest conductor of the Residentie Orchestra, The Hague. In 1989 he was appointed associate guest conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and from 1986-1990 was the coordinator of contemporary music activities at the Tanglewood Music Centre. He was named a commander of the British Empire in 1994 and the following year signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon to record contemporary music; many of those albums have won awards. Read less
Label: Virgin Classics
Catalog: 026792
Release Date: 02/26/2013
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Truls Otterbech Mork,
Lars Anders Tomter,
Robert Tear,
Elisabeth Söderström
...
Conductor:
Libor Pesek,
Simon Rattle,
Oliver Knussen,
Iona Brown
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Endymion Ensemble,
Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 781602
Release Date: 02/05/2013
Number of Discs: 8
Composer:
Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Robert Tear,
Peter Donohoe,
Peter [English Horn] Walden,
Wesley Warren
...
Conductor:
Libor Pesek,
Simon Rattle,
Paavo Järvi,
Paavo Berglund
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
City of Birmingham Choir
...
Recommendation
Label: Virgin Classics
Catalog: 026722
Release Date: 02/05/2013
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Peter Coleman-Wright,
Angelika Kirchschlager,
Ian Bostridge,
Susan Gritton
...
Conductor:
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble
Recommendation
Label: Nmc
Catalog: 178
Release Date: 11/13/2012
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Oliver Knussen
Performer:
Oliver Knussen,
Ryan Wigglesworth,
Huw Watkins,
Alexandra Wood
...
Conductor:
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001702102
Release Date: 07/24/2012
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Modest Mussorgsky,
Alexander Borodin,
Aram Khachaturian
Performer:
Torgny Sporsen
Conductor:
Carlo Maria Giulini,
Lorin Maazel,
Neeme Järvi,
Oliver Knussen
...
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 44290
Release Date: 07/03/2012
Number of Discs: 20
Composer:
John Philip Sousa,
Scott Joplin,
Ferde Grofé,
George Gershwin
...
Performer:
Joshua Rifkin,
Ralph Grierson,
Richard Rodney Bennett,
Barry Tuckwell
...
Conductor:
Timothy Foley,
George Sponhaltz,
Felix Slatkin,
Ferde Grofé
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Great American Main Street Band,
Southland Stingers,
Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra
...
Recommendation
Label: Nmc
Catalog: 175
Release Date: 04/24/2012
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Oliver Knussen
Performer:
Michael Collins,
Ian Mitchell,
Dward Pillinger,
Linda Hirst
...
Conductor:
Michael Tilson Thomas,
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
London Sinfonietta
Recommendation
Label: Virgin Classics
Catalog: 96354
Release Date: 05/03/2011
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Elliott Carter,
Oliver Knussen
Performer:
Ole Böhn,
Lisa Saffer,
Lucy Shelton,
Peter Serkin
Conductor:
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Sinfonietta,
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Label: Bridge
Catalog: 9314
Release Date: 02/09/2010
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Elliott Carter
Performer:
Lucy Shelton,
Charles Neidich,
Simon Boyar,
Huang Hsin-Yun
...
Conductor:
Frank Epstein,
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Juilliard String Quartet,
New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble,
BBC Singers
...
Recommendation
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 67063
Release Date: 01/26/2010
Number of Discs: 50
Composer:
Richard Strauss,
Gustav Holst,
Sergei Prokofiev,
Modest Mussorgsky
...
Performer:
Barbara Hendricks,
Susan Bickley,
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson,
Catherine Pierard
...
Conductor:
Rudolf Kempe,
André Previn,
Paavo Järvi,
Sir Charles Mackerras
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Dresden Staatskapelle,
London Symphony Orchestra,
Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra
...
Label: Nmc
Catalog: 157
Release Date: 11/24/2009
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Peter Maxwell Davies
Performer:
John Graham Hall,
Peter Hall,
Peter Sidhom,
Michael Chance
...
Conductor:
Stefan Asbury,
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Symphony Orchestra,
New London Children's Choir,
London Voices
...
Recommendation
Label: Nmc
Catalog: NMCD157
Release Date: 11/24/2009
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Peter Maxwell Davies
Performer:
Stephen Pruslin,
Peter Sidhom,
David Wilson-Johnson,
Stuart [Tenor Vocal] Kale
...
Conductor:
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Fretwork,
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Label: London Sinfonietta
Catalog: 22009
Release Date: 09/07/2009
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
James Olsen,
Christian Mason,
Larry Goves,
Claudia Molitor
...
Performer:
Rolf Hind,
Clio Gould
Conductor:
David Porcelijn,
Baldur Brönnimann,
Oliver Knussen
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 64249
Release Date: 07/28/2009
Number of Discs: 6
Composer:
György Ligeti,
John Adams,
George Gershwin,
Aaron Copland
...
Performer:
Wayne Marshall,
Ralph Kirshbaum,
Tasmin Little,
Simon Haram
...
Conductor:
None,
Simon Rattle,
Leonard Slatkin,
Christopher Warren-Green
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Artemis String Quartet,
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
...
Label: Nimbus
Catalog: 5828
Release Date: 01/13/2009
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Benjamin
Performer:
Anu Komsi,
Hilary Summers,
Dietrich Henschel
Conductor:
Franck Ollu,
Oliver Knussen,
Kent Nagano
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Modern,
BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Berlin Radio Chorus
...
Recommendation
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 17500
Release Date: 11/24/2008
Number of Discs: 16
Composer:
Sergei Rachmaninov,
Claude Debussy,
Frederick Delius,
Gustav Mahler
...
Performer:
Leif Ove Andsnes,
Christa Ludwig,
Martha Argerich,
Sarah Chang
...
Conductor:
Antonio Pappano,
Carlo Maria Giulini,
Sir Thomas Beecham,
Otto Klemperer
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Melos Ensemble London
Recommendation
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 17526
Release Date: 11/24/2008
Number of Discs: 37
Composer:
Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Andrew Mead,
Jill Gomez,
Norman Bailey,
Penelope Walker
...
Conductor:
Reginald Goodall,
Richard Hickox,
Daniel Harding,
Bernard Haitink
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Trinity Boys Choir,
City of London Sinfonia,
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Chorus
...
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 449572
Release Date: 11/18/2008
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Oliver Knussen
Performer:
Barry Tuckwell,
Lucy Shelton,
Paul Silverthorne,
Michael Collins
...
Conductor:
Oliver Knussen
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Sinfonietta
Recommendation