British composer and conductor Oliver Knussen has died age 66, his publisher has announced.
Knussen was one of the most influential and performed composers of his generation, for many decades a vital presence on the UK music scene –celebrated as a conductor, curator and artistic director, and for his generous support and patronage of a generation of younger composers who included Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson and Ryan Wigglesworth.
“Olly was the greatest possible mentor, the most big-hearted of friends,” said composer and conductor Wigglesworth today. “Right now, the loss is simply too immense to comprehend. What a privilege for all of us whose lives have been filled by his love, generosity, advice and guidance. And how lucky we are that he leaves his musical jewels and toy boxes for us to continue to cherish.”
Knussen began composing as a teenager – his first symphony was premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in 1968 conducted by the young composer himself, which brought him a great deal of press attention and, more happily, a commission from Benjamin Britten for the 1969 Aldeburgh festival.
He studied with John Lambert, and Gunter Schuller in Tanglewood where he went on to be head of contemporary music from 1986 to 1993. Between 1983 and 1998 he was Aldeburgh festival’s co-artistic director, and he also had relationships with groups including the London Sinfonietta and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. His list of published works is short, due in part to his infamous self-censorship.
“I’m not a composer who can just sit down and dash something off,” he told Fiona Maddocks in 2012. “I need lots of time to think, and these days I won’t let go unless I’ve really done what I set out to do.”
Knussen’s second symphony was premiered at the Proms in 1984; he has appeared at the festival most years since either as a composer or a conductor. His best-known compositions include Ophelia Dances, Flourish with Fireworks and concertos for horn and violin, as well as a double bill of operas based on Maurice Sendak’s fantastical children’s books Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! Requiem: Songs for Sue, a tribute to his late wife, was premiered in 2006. “It’s not a huge work [in length]” he told an interviewer, “but it’s a big piece emotionally.”
All these scores epitomise Knussen’s bejewelled, concise stye, music with roots in early 20th-century modernism whose apparent fluency seems to belie the tortuous creative processes that often lay behind it.
Broadcaster Tom Service said: “Oliver Knussen’s sheer brilliance as composer and conductor, his support for generations of younger composers and musicians, with whom he created a performance practice for music from Elliott Carter to Helen Grime – made him an essential part of our musical life. His music is one of the life-enhancing glories of the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries.”
One of Knussen’s final public appearances was at last month’s Aldeburgh festival, where he – its dedicatee – conducted the UK premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s song setting The Borrower. Roger Wright, chief executive of Snape Maltings, said: “Knussen was one of the most important musicians of our time. His concerts at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival just a fortnight ago were another reminder of his stature as a conductor, bringing fresh insights to 20th century repertoire and premiering new work by fellow composers. His support for younger generations of composers through his mentoring and nurturing was unique, and his compositional legacy is remarkable – a relatively small output but one which is of outstandingly high quality.”
Caroline Newton, executive producer at Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, where Knussen was artist-in-association, added: “He was, quite simply, a force of nature in the best possible way. Always creative, always playful, but with the highest standards and the best musical ears we have ever encountered.” Andrew Burke, Chief Executive & Artistic Director, London Sinfonietta said: “Olly helped create, and then lead as Music Director, an era at the London Sinfonietta that is now a shining part of our history. His performances with us are some of the best we have ever given. And his music some of the most inventive and engaging we’ve ever played. He was a man of towering, uncompromising musical integrity.”
Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage said: “Olly was the greatest musician I’ve ever known. He was a major British composer and conductor – by far the best of his generation, with ears even better than Boulez’s. He was also my closest friend, with such a kind heart, and was like my Dad. The loss to me but also to us all is incalculable.”
