Personalities | Alexander Goehr | Contemporary | Classical

b. 1932
English composer

A member of the Manchester New Music Group, Goehr studied also in Paris with Messiaen. He attended the Darmstadt Summer School in 1956, but ultimately found its orthodoxy too dogmatic. Works such as the Little Symphony (1963) instead attempt a synthesis of serial elements with modality and traditional formal models. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) has been a persistent preoccupation, evident in such works as … a musical offering (J.S.B. 1985) … and the Symphony with Chaconne (1985–86). In the mid-1990s he reached back further into the Baroque period for inspiration with Arianna, a recomposition of a lost opera by Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643).

Recommended Recording:
Piano Concerto, op. 33, Peter Serkin, London Sinfonietta (cond) Oliver Knussen (NMC)

Introduction | Contemporary | Classical
Personalities | Henryk Górecki | Contemporary | Classical

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