Timepieces / Towards a Pure Land / Body Mandala / etc

MusicWeb - Recording of the Year 2008

GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE AWARD WINNER 2008 - Contemporary

"These are some of Harvey's most ambitious and imposing orchestral pieces, two of them, Body Mandala and ...Towards a Pure Land, written for Volkov and the BBCSSO, whose composer-in-association he was from 2005 to 2007. They are parts of a Buddhist trilogy whose centrepiece is forthcoming, and are well contrasted, the first predominantly fast and loud and full of rough-edged exotic sonority that mimics music in Tibetan monasteries, the second more typically Harveyesque in its meditativeness. The mysteriously static Tranquil Abiding is an extreme case of the latter approach. The three-movement Timepieces explores the nature of time, and clocks, with a complexity calling for a second conductor (Stefan Solyom)." Sunday Times, 20th April 2008

"Jonathan Harvey's music juxtaposes moments of disarming simplicity, of naivety almost, with others of considerable sophistication and intricacy. …all but one of these pieces explore different facets of spirituality… Perhaps the most immediately involving is White as Jasmine, based on texts by a 12th-century Hindu saint. Here, soprano Anu Komsi delivers a superbly controlled performance of great vocal beauty." Gramophone Magazine, September 2008