Page 116 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK
P. 116
15 December 2021
NEWS
Knussen’s Cleveland Pictures to
premiere at the 2022 Aldeburgh
Festival
On 24 June 2022, Oliver Knussen’s unfinished Cleveland Pictures for orchestra will receive
its long-awaited premiere as part of the Aldeburgh Festival. The work will be performed
twice by Knussen’s regular collaborators the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ryan
Wigglesworth as part of special day devoted to Knussen’s music.
From Rodin and Fabergé to Goya and Turner, each movement of the Cleveland
Pictures brilliantly translates a different item from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of
Art into sound. Even in its incomplete form, at 15 ½ minutes the work ranks as one of
Knussen’s most extensive orchestral statements. Of seven projected movements, four exist
complete, two exist as fully-orchestrated fragments, and one exists only as a 10-bar sketch in
short score:
I. Portail avec Penseur (Rodin)
II. Calabazas (Velásquez)
III. Dans les vagues (Gauguin) [a fragment]
IV. Two Clocks (Tiffany/Fabergé)
V. St. Ambrose (Goya)
