Birtwistle: Night's Black Bird / The Shadow of Night / The Cry of Anubis

This is a great new disc of orchestral music by Birtwistle with the same high quality of earlier works such as "The Triumph of Time" (1971-2) and "Earth Dances" (1985-6). It represents a continuation of Birtwistle's handling of musical time -- "the constant disruption of forward motion, so that the listener has the recurrent sense of having to repeat the journey by a different route, or of retracing steps in a maze -- never finally arriving or getting out" (from the excellent liner notes by Bayan Northcott).

The central and longest piece is "The Shadow of Night" (2001 -- 28'15), commissioned by the BBC and scored for a very large orchestra with six horns, four each trumpets and trombones, and five percussionists. Birtwistle describes it as "a slow and reflective nocturne, exploring the world of melancholy as understood and celebrated by Elizabethan poets and composers... I took inspiration from two dark sources -- the expressions of melancholy in Albrecht Durer's engraving 'Melancholia I' (1514) and John Dowland's song 'In Darkness Let Me Dwell'." He goes on to describe his use of a three-note motif from Dowland's song. The title comes from a long poem by the Elizabethan poet George Chapman where, according to Birtwistle, "melancholy is no longer an inert and depressive mood, but a humour of the night, an inspired spiritual condition."

As described by Northcott, "Shadow of Night" has three parts, "[t]he first is a substantial introductory section of tenebrous and sub-lunary textures, halting melodic fragments and anticipatory upsurges and descents. The second, launched by a magical texture of keening wind phrases over ripplings and rockings for tuned percussion, harps and strings, comprises a long, central nocturne ... eventually gathering in a sustained accelerando ... [and] an almost expressionistic outburst of violence ... midway through the recapitulatory third part, before the music ebbs away beneath a brief skirl of nocturnal birdsong." I don't doubt that some would find this music to be lugubrious, but I have come to love Birtwistle's style, and the slow-moving dynamics to be fascinating.

On the disc "Shadow of Night" follows "Night's Black Bird" (2004 -- 14'04), which was actually written three years later for similarly large forces. It is in the same vein, but half the length, and utilizes Dowland's "Flow My Tears." "Night's Black Bird" is more concise and clear-cut in structure than "Shadow of Night," with a simpler central section and a conclusion without any apocalyptic climaxes. It serves on disc as an accessible introduction to the soundworld that is developed at greater length and with greater complexity in the piece that follows.

There is no single recipe for a satisfying music album. Sometimes variety works, while sometimes it can sound too eclectic. Sometimes developing one consistent sound is powerful and effective, and sometimes it can be too monotonous. Following "Night's Black Bird" and "The Shadow of Night" with the tuba concerto "The Cry of Anubis" (1994 -- 13'24) is a winning gamble that continuing in the dark, melancholy vein will work. Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the ancient Egyptian city of the dead, is a character in Birtwistle's never-recorded opera "The Second Mrs. Kong" (1993-4), but "Cry of Anubis" is not an extract, rather it develops some of the opera's material in a new work. Owen Slade masterfully plays the tuba.

These excellent performances by The Halle, the Manchester-based orchestra, led by Ryan Wigglesworth, were made at the BBC Manchester's Studio 7 in July 2010.

. . . if you don't like Birtwhistle, you will hate it !
I have noticed when reading serious music reviews that if the piece is well known and part of the general repertoire, then the reviewer tends to concentrate on the performance and recording, but where the music is relatively unknown, or it is the first recording, greater emphasis is put on a discussion of the relative merits of the piece itself. I have listened to quite a bit of Birtwhistle now - one piece that I have particularly come to love is 'The Triumph of Time' - another is his recent opera 'The Minotaur'. This recent offering is in a similar dark-hued, rugged form, which on first-hearing would be termed 'difficult' by many I'm sure. I find a bit of perseverance to familiarise oneself always pays off, as it does when listening to anything, and I now enjoy this music greatly. I cannot comment on the performance, not having any other versions to compare, but the recording and presence is excellent, and to anyone who feels like letting some quality modern serious music wash over their eardrums, I recommend this CD wholeheartedly

I have never been a huge fan of modern 'classical' music; tending to shy away from the stereotype of the self-consciously discordant.

However, when I saw this album feature so highly in the Gramophone Awards 2011 I decided to give it a try (OK, so shoot me for being so weak minded). I have to say that I am really glad I did - yes, there is an element of the discordant but it is so beautifully and powerfully done that the end result is a darkly moving and visceral piece that I have only just begun to explore, after several outings.

This is a great album and, for me at least, it has opened up a new vista of music.