Kenneth Hesketh: in ictu oculi
orchestral works
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Christoph Mathias Mueller
Awards:
-
The Times Records of the Year, 2018
-
BBC Music Magazine, January 2019, Orchestral Choice
Hesketh is a composer at the height of his considerable powers. Born in Liverpool in 1968, his music is saturated with an Anglo-French modernism informed by figures from Dutilleux to Knussen,...
Kenneth Hesketh: in ictu oculi
orchestral works
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Christoph Mathias Mueller
Purchase product
Awards:
-
The Times Records of the Year, 2018
-
BBC Music Magazine, January 2019, Orchestral Choice
Hesketh is a composer at the height of his considerable powers. Born in Liverpool in 1968, his music is saturated with an Anglo-French modernism informed by figures from Dutilleux to Knussen,...
About
This new release features three works by composer Kenneth Hesketh. Knotted Tongues is based on a theory of René Descartes (1637) which expounds the idea that the body is no more than a wonderfully complex machine. Of Time and Disillusionment is written for a reduced quasi-classical orchestra (no percussion) and focuses on clarity of line without adumbration in orchestral texture. In Ictu Oculi, Three meditations is an extended meditation upon the transience of time and that all things come to an end. Kenneth Hesketh has been described as “one of the UK’s most vibrant voices, having a brand of modernism that reveals true love for sound itself” (International Piano) and as “a composer who both has something to say and the means to say it.” (Tempo Magazine) He has received numerous national and international commissions, including the Fromm Foundation, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and the BBC Philharmonic.
Contents and tracklist
- BBC National Orchestra of Wales
- Christoph Mathias Mueller
- BBC National Orchestra of Wales
- Christoph Mathias Mueller
- Recorded: 19-20 September 2017
- Recording Venue: BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, Wales, UK
- BBC National Orchestra of Wales
- Christoph Mathias Mueller
Awards and reviews
-
The Times Records of the Year2018
-
BBC Music MagazineJanuary 2019Orchestral Choice
January 2019
Hesketh is a composer at the height of his considerable powers. Born in Liverpool in 1968, his music is saturated with an Anglo-French modernism informed by figures from Dutilleux to Knussen, and interests from classical architecture to medieval iconography. These three recent orchestral works showcase to brilliant effect his deepening fascination with scientific and other philosophies of existence.
December 2018
Together, they give a very cogent view of Hesketh’s status as a composer, his current expressive concerns and the sheer vivacity of his orchestral writing.
21st October 2018
Hesketh (b1968) is a composer of orchestral virtuosity. He controls dense tuttis with fine-tuned layering, economy within largesse. He’s at home with large concepts, too: entropy, transience and, in Knotted Tongues, “glottal catastrophe”.