Spring Awakening: Birtwistle, Satie and The Firebird

Birtwistle: The Triumph of Time

Satie/Debussy: Two Gymnopédies

Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1919)

Joanna MacGregor: conductor

In a creative career that lasted more than 50 years, the great English composer Harrison Birtwistle showed a deep affinity for folklore, the seasons and the soil: he wrote of Gawain’s journey and the ancient landscape of Silbury Hill, and chose to live near Stonehenge. His breakthrough came in 1972 with the epic The Triumph of Time, hinting at a connection with Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s apocryphal etching of the same name, with its wagons of Time, Death and Fame. The idea of a cryptic, cyclical procession was to return often in Birtwistle’s music, with his favourite instruments – harp, cor anglais, soprano saxophone – narrating. Don’t miss a rare chance to hear this gripping masterpiece, the first-ever in Brighton. 

After Time’s triumph, Debussy’s transparent, subtle orchestrations of Satie’s timeless Gymnopédies, coaxing spring’s rebirth. Stravinsky’s celebrated Firebird Suite blazes with a different folklore, that of the mythical bird whose feathers glitter and flicker like flames.

‘Visceral theatrical power and vividly dramatic… the gradual accumulation of tension and density in Triumph of Time is still unsurpassed in Birtwistle's output.’ Gramophone

‘Joanna MacGregor has repeatedlydemonstratedher commitment to bringing rarer repertoire to BPO’s programmes, whilst also managing to show theydon’tneglect core repertoire.’Nick Boston

The Listening Club

Join Joanna MacGregor at Brighton Unitarian Church on Thu 11 Mar for a one-hour, illustrated lecture delving deeper into the concert

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