I heard the first performance of The Triumph of Time live on BBC Radio 3 (on June 1, 1972), Lawrence Foster conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall. Even via a transistor radio and an earpiece, and as a fourteen-year-old on the lowest rung of musical appreciation if keen to explore, I was compelled by this music, and it received a great ovation from the audience that night, rave comments, too, later*. I have heard it several times since (including Elgar Howarth’s recording and not least a remarkable/hair-raising account conducted by Vernon Handley in the mid-nineties, RPO/RFH, sandwiched between Elgar and Vaughan Williams**) and with increasing admiration. I’m now pleased to add this masterpiece to my Column.
*“sculpted, dream-like and mesmeric”.
*“flawless”.
*“one of the most important orchestral scores to have been composed by an Englishman”.
*“one of his most disturbing pieces, a vast adagio of Mahlerian compass and inexorable tread”.
**Afterwards ‘Tod’ Handley told me that The Triumph of Time is “music of genius”.
Coming soon on Bis: http://www.colinscolumn.com/nash-ensemble-records-chamber-works-by-harrison-birtwistle-for-bis/, a notable collection of some of Birtwistle’s chamber music.
At the time, circa 1973-4, Boulez was under exclusive contract to CBS UK (not CBS worldwide – the Americans were not keen on him then), who turned it down, to Pierre’s barely concealed anger. I was working for CBS UK at the time and was miffed at the company’s decision (although Boulez’s recordings almost invariably sold badly), principally because it was the first work by a British composer Boulez wanted to record. CBS were only too pleased to release him to make this one recording for another label – a bad mistake on the company’s part. But the critical reception to this music was not universal in its praise.
His finest and greatest work in my humble opinion.
Agreed Mr Clark, but Earth Dances and the opera Gawain have equal claims as to finest and greatest.