George Benjamin: Three Inventions

On this CD:

1. Upon Silence, for mezzo soprano and Five Viols
Composed by George Benjamin
Performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra with Susan Bickley, London Sinfonietta
Conducted by George Benjamin

2. Three Inventions for chamber orchestra
Composed by George Benjamin
Performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra with Susan Bickley, London Sinfonietta, John Wallace
Conducted by George Benjamin

3. Sudden Time
Composed by George Benjamin
Performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra with Susan Bickley, London Sinfonietta
Conducted by George Benjamin

4. Octet
Composed by George Benjamin
Performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra with Susan Bickley, London Sinfonietta
Conducted by George Benjamin

5. Upon Silence for mezzo soprano and Seven strings
Composed by George Benjamin
Performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra with Susan Bickley, London Sinfonietta
Conducted by George Benjamin

George Benjamin: Three Inventions, Music, George Benjamin, George Benjamin, London Sinfonietta, John Wallace, Susan Bickley, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music, Miscellaneous Vocal Music, Music for Chamber Orchestra, Octet for Mixed Instruments without Keyboard, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Vocal
George Benjamin: Three Inventions
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • The Rediscovery of Sound
  • Mystery, unpredictability, thy name is... Benjamin?!
  • Beautiful, important music; wish there were more Benjamin.
 George Benjamin: Three Inventions

Manufacturer: Nimbus Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

OctetsOctets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
London Philharmonic OrchestraLondon Philharmonic Orchestra | ( L ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:
  1. George Benjamin: Shadowlines; Viola, Viola; Three Studies; Piano Sonata
  2. George Benjamin: Palimpsests
  3. George Benjamin: Piano Sonata
  4. A Mind of Winter
  5. Anderson: Alhambra Fantasy; Khorovod; The Stations of the Sun

ASIN: B0000064AX
Release Date: 1998-02-17

Tracks:

  1. Upon Silence
  2. Three Inventions For Chamber Orchestra: Invention I
  3. Three Inventions For Chamber Orchestra: Invention II
  4. Three Inventions For Chamber Orchestra: Invention III
  5. Sudden Time
  6. Octet
  7. Upon Silence

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars The Rediscovery of Sound.......2004-10-22

I put this on again today, with headphones, and closed my eyes, and lay under the covers.

What marvellous soundscapes. What nameless beauties unfolding. "Three Inventions" is, for me, one of the peaks in contemporary classical music.

This is like discovering a new continent. Benjamin does not have a single cliched notion in his brain.

And the recorded sound? Demonstration class.

Discs like this make me dread the day I will lose my hearing.

5 out of 5 stars Mystery, unpredictability, thy name is... Benjamin?!.......2001-11-05


I bought this one out of a sense of duty. Classical albums with pictures of the composer on the front cover are almost invariably picayune, and the name "George Benjamin" sounds more like some justly forgotten president than that of a human pitchfork for cosmic beauty. But that's exactly what Benjamin is. The man labors for years on each of his less-than-numerous orchestral works -- "Sudden Time" took him over a decade to complete -- and while this occasionally just means that the divine spark wasn't there, I'm happy to report that Benjamin's bloody struggle with the muse is nearly invisible behind the velvet curtain of sound he conjures up on this mesmerizing disc. Benjamin may have the rigor and compositional acumen of Elliot Carter, but his music sings instead of scowls -- only Carter's relatively relaxed concertos, especially the one for oboe, come close to this magic. As much as I know he'd cringe to read this, I have to say that Benjamin is closer in spirit to romantic eccentrics like Rued Langgaard, Granville Bantock or Berlioz.


If that entices you, and it should, please don't let it put you off that the same composition appears twice on this CD, once with five viols and again with seven strings. I'm normally impervious to vocal works in classical music, generally preferring pop singers to warbling divas who have had all the individuality trained out of them, but "Upon Silence," as sung by Susan Bickley, deserves its encore -- it's as lush and languid, in its modernistic way, as anything I've heard since Berlioz's "Nuits d'Ete." It's like the face of a beloved that changes constantly over the years while always remaining somehow itself... and as this description implies, Proust would have had a field day with it. The same goes for "Sudden Time," a piece that, as Benjamin himself says in the booklet notes, was inspired by a thunderclap that stretched out to infinity in his mind as he dreamt one night, and is therefore about "a sense of elasticity." Dry terminology be damned -- it's Benjamin's preeminent soundscape to date, a sinuous and insinuating musical enigma that wends its way along like a prehistoric watersnake through a Henri Rousseau river. Here, as with giants like Xenakis and Norgard, is where painstaking craft meets raw intuition.


All in all, this endangered disc -- Nimbus just went out of business, so get this and their two issues of William Mathias's symphonies fast -- is one of my happiest discoveries in the classical realm. Benjamin was recently knighted by the French despite his English heritage, comparative youth and slim output. Long may the Chevalier ride.

5 out of 5 stars Beautiful, important music; wish there were more Benjamin........1999-12-09

It's a shame that George Benjamin produces such a small output of music. Along with Oliver Knussen, another Brit who doesn't compose enough, Benjamin should be the inheritor of Elliott Carter's mantle. His music is full of complexity and yet beautiful, and it's channelled into meaningful gestures. This cd is highly recommended. "Upon Silence," the vocal work, is mesmerizing. Both orchestral works are absolutely masterful. Buy the cd--the only drawback is that you'll find yourself wishing for more Benjamin.

Music Track:

  1. Gerard Pape: Selected Works
  2. Grieg: Peer Gynt, Holberg Suite [Import]
  3. Grieg: Sonatas for Violin and Piano
  4. Haydn: 6 "Erdody" Quartets, Op. 76
  5. Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 93 - 95 [Import]
  6. Inner Voices
  7. Janacek: In the Mists / From the Street / On the Overgrown Path 1
  8. Janacek: Msa Glagolskaja & Sinfonietta / Varady, Doufexis, Prolat, Rose, Gast; Imbal
  9. Jewish Songs from the Prague Ghetto
  10. Julius Reubke: Sonatas For Piano And Organ

Music Track

music track

Recommended Music:

Everybody Down

Morning Favorites: Music to Wake Up To

Album Review: 18th Century Viola Concertos

Music: In Concert [Live]

Lost Songs [Import]

Now and Then

Love Songs [Original recording remastered]

Howells & Leighton: Queen's College Choir

Mariachi Latinoamericano [Explicit Lyrics]

Road Less Travelled

Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

Jenn Stang - Live! at the Grape Street Philadelphia [Live]

Las Rebajadas Sonideras

Jesus and Me: The Collection

I Did It Steinway