UKH

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016hhj [07:30 – 15:30] [...] Sir Harrison Birtwistle Born 15 July 1934; died 18 April 2022 aged 87. Last Word spoke to classical music critic Norman Lebrecht and to [composer & broadcaster] Michael Berkeley. [...]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016jpq [02:20 - 23:30] [...] [Music Matters'] Kate talks to two people who knew his work intimately and who were amongst his personal friends: the Observer’s classical music critic Fiona Maddocks, and Professor of music at the University of Oxford, Jonathan Cross – both of whom have written books with and about Harry, as he is affectionately known. Together [...], they listen to conversations between Tom Service and Harry from the Music Matters archives, and discuss Birtwistle’s desire to express a music that existed in his head but which he’d never heard anywhere, as well as his lifelong fascination with myths, his compositional process, and his legacy. [...]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016jr8 Tom Service pays tribute [...] with a selection from the composer’s vast output that encompasses opera, orchestral music, chamber and ensemble works. From the earliest opera Punch and Judy to the monumental and dramatic Earth Dances, and recent works including The Moth Requiem and Duet for Eight Strings, in recordings by some of the artists and ensembles closely associated with the composer.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SilasBirtwistle/status/1516397494858616836
 

During one of my climbing trips to Skye I made a visit to the small island of Raasay - where Birtwistle lived for a few years - so that I could solo on some of the oldest rocks we've got in the UK. Like me and surely many climbers Birtwistle was fascinated with the processes of geology and deep time, hence this majestic late piece:

youtube.com/watch?v=lnkEK1cAsvs&

Surely the greatest english composer since Elgar, by some distance too. check this out-https://youtu.be/DlBtv-Y4rHk

What a great thing to do! I haven’t been there, unfortunately, although I’ve been to Skye (& Applecross). Thanks for the Deep Time link – yes, a majestic follow-up to the pieces mentioned in the programme note. It seems as though HB's stay on Raasay - his experience of its landscape & his interest in its geology (perhaps sparked by Zinovieff) - remained with him long after he left:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vTFvBwAAQBAJ&q=spectacular%20view%2... “The sound of Raasay: Birtwistle’s Hebridean experience”

^ this only seems to work if I select the Desktop, classic Google Books & Clear Search options

Yes, for sure!

I enjoyed that - Joanna MacGregor impressive, as always – thanks for sharing

Just on Elgar / HB, I don’t know if this’ll be of interest – the whole piece is reviewed below:

youtube.com/watch?v=sZFJHWp_kXk&

^ 17:29 Variation IX: Harrison Birtwistle

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/14/prom-35-bbcsso-martyn-brabbin... [...] Harrison Birtwistle [contributed] a typically dark, growling interlude in the Nimrod slot [...]

^ no longer available, sadly, but - for those who like opera – this was broadcast recently, with HB tributes during the interval (from 1:43:10)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017ml3 Opera on 3: Harrison Birtwistle - Gawain

HB is fondly remembered for his comment at the Novello Awards a few years ago, after the old boy had the novel experience of having to listen to some pop music: "I never ****ing knew so many ****ing clichés existed until this evening."

He wasn’t happy with the volume, either, IIRC ...

And, on another occasion, used similarly colourful language in response to a remark / request by a press photographer, according to Michael Berkeley, who also says how warm, affectionate & funny HB was (Last Word, OP)