Happy Harry, 80 today
mainThe greatest living English composer is entering a new decade.
Why the greatest?
Because Harrison Birtwistle never does what’s expected of him.
Where his contemporary Peter Maxwell Davies writes symphonies and concertos to commission by the yard, every Birtwistle work is different, unexpected, sometimes unfathomable, often underlaid with dry wit.
And the titles that are so determinedly no-sell. The Moth Requiem: who else could have pinned that to the wall?
Happy birthday, Harry!
Check out “Wild Tracks” a recently published conversation diary with FIona Maddocks. On very page there’s a gem from Sir Hal