Knussen Chamber Orchestra

One of my two world premieres at Aldeburgh this week has been Planet a 14-minute piece for chamber orchestra. It felt to me totally right that the performers were the Knussen Chamber Orchestra. This is a group of players from the Royal Academy of Music, where Oliver Knussen taught composition for the last five years of his life (he lived, and indeed died, in Snape itself.)

A small group of high level professional players take part (Clio Gould led on this occasion) so it's a big learning opportunity for the students, and I was struck by the seriously concentrated atmosphere of the rehearsals under Ryan Wigglesworth. Ryan himself founded the orchestra, in collaboration with Aldeburgh, as a living memorial to Olly Knussen. I could only reflect on how much OK would have enjoyed knowing about all this, and indeed making a few slyly humorous but also incisively helpful comments about our musical efforts.

Pictured - KCO in Snape Maltings, just before kick-off.