Oliver Knussen (b1952): AUTUMNAL Claire Booth, soprano ~ BCMG ~ Oliver Knussen, conductor Leila Josefowicz, violin ~ BBC Symphony Orchestra Alexandra Wood, violin ~ Huw Watkins, piano Ryan Wigglesworth, piano NMC D178 • Knussen started composing at the age of 6. In 1968, aged 15 he stepped in to conduct his Symphony's premiere at the Royal Festival Hall after István Kertész fell ill.   Upon hearing this, Daniel Barenboim asked him to conduct the work's first two movements in New York a week later. • Composer/conductor Oliver Knussen celebrates his 60th birthday this year. • This disc features the dynamically virtuosic violinist Leila Josefowicz, who has worked with many of today's leading composers — including John Adams and Oliver Knussen — and is a strong advocate of new music. Oliver Knussen is a huge influence on the contemporary British music scene — not only as composer, but as conductor, teacher, programmer and artistic director. Despite having started composing as a teenager, his oeuvre is relatively small — partly due to his busy schedule as a conductor (he must surely hold the record for premiere performances!), but also because every bar he writes is measured against all the music that he knows and loves. This new recording, to celebrate Olly's 60th birthday, is a chronological tour of his work, starting with the brooding orchestral Choral, and the poetic Autumnal for violin (both written in the 1970s), through to Ophelia's Last Dance from 2010.   Requiem: Songs for Sue, was written following the death of his wife in 2003, and sets texts by poets who were important to them both — from Emily Dickinson's poem to her sister Sue, “Is it true, dear Sue?” to works by Antonio Machado, WH Auden and Rainer Maria Rilke — the latter translated by Olly's friend and musical collaborator Alexander Goehr.   Also on this disc is a live recording of Knussen's luminous Violin Concerto, performed at the BBC Proms by one of the world's exemplary soloists, Leila Josefowicz. TRACK LISTING 01. CHORAL Op.8( 1970-72)     9'53       BBC Symphony Orchestra • Oliver Knussen conductor       AUTUMNAL Op. 14 (1976-7)     7'36 02. Nocturne     3'42 03. Serenade     3'54       Alexandra Wood violin • Huw Watkins piano       WHITMAN SETTINGS Op.25 (1991)     11'30 04. When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer     3'06 05. A Noiseless Patient Spider     3'18 06. The Dalliance of the Eagles     2'05 07. The Voice of the Rain     3'01       Claire Booth soprano • Ryan Wigglesworth piano 08. SECRET PSALM (1990)     4'16       Alexandra Wood violin 09. PRAYER BELL SKETCH Op.29 (1997)     6'49       Ryan Wigglesworth piano       VIOLIN CONCERTO Op.30 (2002)     16'05 10. Recitative     5'01 11. Aria     5'20 12. Gigue     5'44       Leila Josefowicz violin • BBC Symphony Orchestra • Oliver Knussen conductor       REQUIEM - SONGS FOR SUE Op.33 (2005-6)     11'17 13. From Emily Dickinson     3'57 14. Antonio Machado     2'42 15. W.H.Auden     3'12 16. Rainer Maria Rilke     1'26       Claire Booth soprano • Birmingham Contemporary Music Group • Oliver Knussen conductor 17. OPHELIA'S LAST DANCE Op.32 (2004/2010)     9'20       Huw Watkins piano       Total timing     77'54 NMC Recordings are distributed in Australia by Rockian Trading, P.O.Box 44, Briar Hill, Vic, 3088, Australia Telephone (03) 9432 4149 ~ Facsimile (03) 9444 6879