Julian Anderson: Book of Hours

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The dazzling Book of Hours, composed for the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, is one of Anderson's greatest achievements so far, building from the simplest beginning - the first four notes... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2006, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Oct 2006
Catalogue No: NMCD121
Label: NMC
Length: 78 minutes

Gramophone Awards

2007

Finalist - Contemporary
Gramophone Magazine

November 2006

Editor's Choice

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Anderson, Julian: Eden (Live)

Work length7:26

$1.50

$2.60

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins

Anderson, Julian: Imagin’d Corners

Work length10:13

$1.50

$3.85

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo

Anderson, Julian: Four American Choruses

Work length32:20

Album only

$5.20

City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus
Simon Halsey

No. 1, I'm a Pilgrim

Track length18:02

Album only

$1.30

No. 2, Beautiful Valley of Eden

Track length3:51

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, Bright Morning Star!

Track length6:42

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, At the Fountain

Track length3:45

$1.00

$1.30

Anderson, Julian: Symphony (Live)

Work length4:04

$1.00

$5.15

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo

Anderson, Julian: Book of Hours

Work length24:11

$4.10

$7.70

Lamberto Coccioli, Scott Wilson
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Oliver Knussen

Pt. 1 (Live)

Track length11:55

$2.05

$3.85

Pt. 2 (Live)

Track length12:16

$2.05

$3.85

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About

This disc from Julian Anderson celebrates his residency with Birmingham's ensembles from 2001-2005.

Book of Hours, one of three live recordings on the disc, combines ensemble and live electronics in a tribute to two great glories of late medieval art - the illuminations of the Tr?s riches heures du Duc de Berry and the Dame ? la licorne tapestries held in Paris; it uses electronic sound as (in the composer's words) 'an extra colour ? rather as gold-leaf might be applied in a Medieval manuscript'.

Reviews

November 2006

The dazzling Book of Hours, composed for the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, is one of Anderson's greatest achievements so far, building from the simplest beginning - the first four notes of a major scale - into a wonderfully rich study of thematic transformation and texture, coloured by digitally synthesised haloes of the instrumental sounds.

2010

This, the magnificent follow-up to the Ondine Julian Anderson disc (see above), contains the five works he wrote for Birmingham forces during his years as CBSO composer-in-association (2001-5). The recordings were made at different times in different places but the strongest impression is of a group of compositions exploring closely related ideas and beliefs.
The opening of the Symphony is emblematic, evolving from attenuated noises to the trills, arabesques and fanfares of a pastoral dawnmusic.
You might pick up hints of Tippett's Ritual Dances, Nicholas Maw's Odyssey, even of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé.
But the music never falls back on simple imitation, and while it seems to share Tippett's modern construction of Utopia – of aspiration inseparable from uncertainty and doubt – the subtle intricacy of Anderson's approach to harmony, and to the interplay between tempered and non-tempered tunings, reinforces its strongly personal, authentically contemporary quality. Similar images are powerfully projected at the end of Book of Hours for instrumental ensemble and live electronics, when an artless, folklike tune is challenged by much darker, denser materials, and again in the shorter orchestral works Eden and Imagin'd Corners. In all these scores the luminous yet abrasive resonance of the textures counters the risks of oldstyle pastoral complacency.
As John Fallas's well-informed notes point out, Anderson's is not an escapist vision of Utopia.
Hope is always 'uncertain', and in the FourAmerican Choruses, setting verses from Ira Sankey's evangelical hymns collection, the music seems to question as much as to endorse the simple religious sentiments of the texts.
Even if these works receive more polished performances in future years, the present recordings are all special in the imagination and excitement they convey.

November 2006

This, the magnificent follow-up to the recent Ondine Julian Anderson… contains the five works he wrote for Birmingham forces during his years as CBSO composer-in-association (2001-5). The opening of the Symphony is emblematic, evolving from attenuated noises to the trills, arabesques and fanfares of a pastoral dawn-music. ...the subtle intricacy of Anderson's approach to harmony, and to the interplay between tempered and non-tempered tunings, reinforces its strongly personal, authentically contemporary quality. Similar images are powerfully projected at the end of Book of Hours for instrumental ensemble and live electronics, when an artless, folklike tune is challenged by much darker, denser materials, and again in the shorter orchestral works Eden and Imagin'd Corners. In all these scores the luminous yet abrasive resonance of the textures counters the risks of old-style pastoral complacency. Even if these works receive more polished performances in future years, the present recordings are all special in the imagination and excitement they convey.

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