BBC Symphony Orchestra - Anders Hillborg: Swedish Maverick (recorded live, 22 Feb 2020)

There's a few particularly interesting broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 In Concert this spring (I'm still enjoying the Bang On show), so here's another one.  Anders Hillborg, born 1954 in Sollentuna Kommun near Stockholm, was the subject of a "Total Immersion" day on Sat 22 February, with three concerts given over to his chamber, choral and orchestral music.  Today's post is the latter; the other two will be broadcast (and feature here) in due course.

Hillborg, who I wasn't aware of until this broadcast, started in pop music and moved through electronic composition to become an eclectic and unique composer.  This concert covers six of his orchestral works, from the 95-second Fanfare that opens the show to the 25-minute Violin Concerto No. 1 that was one of his earliest compositions.  There's also a brand new work that had only received its world premiere a few weeks earlier, Through Lost Landscapes.  With Messiaen-esque bird calls, it closes the concert evoking the birds' disappearing natural habitats.

In between are two of Hillborg's most striking orchestral works: the multi-section Eleven Gates full of aquatic, impressionistic drift, and Beast Sampler, which showcases his skill for conjuring alien-sounding effects from the orchestra to its fullest extent.  Completing a remarkable concert is Hillborg's clarinet concerto Peacock Tales, which is what the image above relates to.  The clarinettist Martin Fröst is tasked not only with the fiendish lead part, but also playing it masked whilst performing the extensive choreography.  This makes it a piece that has to be seen - so here's a different performance for that element - but even just hearing it as part of the concert is spectacular.  Hillborg is definitely a composer I'll be taking a closer look into.

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Olivier Messiaen - Des Canyons Aux Étoiles (live at BBC Proms, 28 July 2019)

Along with the Turangalîla Symphony, Des canyons aux étoiles... (From the canyons to the stars...) is one of Olivier Messiaen's most epic orchestral works.  The creative spark was a visit to the US that Messiaen undertook in 1972, in response to a commission for music celebrating the upcoming Bicentennial.  Finding himself in Bryce Canyon, Utah, the composer was awestruck by the landscape and started work on something that would capture it in music, along with his usual religious fervour and interest in birdsong.

Des canyons aux étoiles... was the result, and the 90-minute work premiered in 1974.  This recording from just over a week ago saw the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo, tackle its complexity in grand style.  Pianist Nicholas Hodges is in charge of the Messiaenic aviary, with birdsong transcribed not just from American species, but from all over the world, and lengthy passages of this punctuate the powerful sweep of the orchestra.  Des Canyons also has in its score a massive percussion section, including a wind machine, thunder sheet and a geophone; the latter being a large drum of Messiaen's invention, filled with lead pellets.  Listen and be blown away. (P.S. be sure to listen on headphones to get the benefit of the binaural mix.)

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