As Sir Harrison Birtwistle approaches his 70th birthday in 2004, celebrations of his music are scheduled throughout Britain and Europe. Last week, at the Royal Northern College of Music's Birtwistle Resonances festival, the composer made a rare appearance at the podium. For the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra's all-Birtwistle concert, he conducted his Bach Measures, eight arrangements of chorale preludes for chamber orchestra.
Less deliberately sonorous than Webern's, but far subtler than Schoenberg's, Birtwistle's transcriptions are beautifully crafted explorations of Bach's elegantly weaving lines. And though there is always a sense in which Bach transcriptions feel like tributes, Birtwistle's scoring is unique to his own style. The results can be miraculous: O Mensch, Bewein' dein Sunde Gross has a warm, lingering tread above which alto flute, clarinet and muted trumpet form a delicate tracery, while the stately lines of Durch Adam's Fall are weirdly illuminated by shimmering vibraphone.
Both The Cry of Anubis and Exody - here masterfully conducted by James MacMillan - question the idea of linear time. Birtwistle explains Exody as a journey through a labyrinth, though there is nothing in it that obviously suggests weaving, searching music; rather, the metaphor may be interpreted as a challenge to our "normal" sense of forward motion. Exody initially feels decisive, but questions its own sense of security, with several crisis points marked by explosive climaxes and faltering lyrical voices. Rather than reaching a goal, it ends in a mood of peaceful fulfilment - more or less at the point where it started.
Anubis, too, shuns a clear sense of direction, even eschewing a dramatic role for the tuba soloist (James Gourlay). Though it is more violent and confrontational than Exody, both works have the combination of inner certainty, intellectual curiosity and honesty that underpins all of Birtwistle's music. When played as well as this, it ceases to be merely gritty and difficult and becomes real music in all its shades and moods. It may not be easy to understand, but it demands to be felt.
