BBC Symphony Orchestra & Birmingham Contemporary Music Group - Alexander Goehr: Colossos Or Panic, the Deluge & Little Symphony (CD)

Release Date: 05/21/12

Goehr's orchestral evocation of Goya's terrifying painting, Colossos, is coupled with the premiere recording of his early cantata The Deluge.

Goehr's orchestral evocation of Goya's terrifying painting, Colossos, is coupled with the premiere recording of his early cantata The Deluge.

To celebrate Alexander Goehr's 80th birthday this year, BBC Radio 3 commissioned a new orchestral work which was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 13 January 2012 at Barbican Hall in London. Oliver Knussen, to whom the work is dedicated, conducted the work. = Goehr's orchestral evocation of Goya's terrifying painting, Colossos, is coupled with the premiere recording of his early cantata the Deluge, inspired by Eisenstein's notes for a film based on a writing by Leonardo da Vinci (the film was never completed). The neo-classical Little Symphony uses the chordal structure of Mussorgsky's 'Catacombs' from Pictures at an Exhibition as a harmonic backbone and is performed by the Dutch chamber orchestra, ASKO Ensemble.