Claire Edwardes

From the modal Oockooing Bird written when he was a teenager to the monumental The Axe Manual, Harrison Birtwistle’s piano works stretch across his entire compositional career. Whether written for a large public forum or as occasional pieces for friends and family, all the works on this disc reveal a composer committed to exploring the sonorities and physicality of the modern piano in new and exciting ways.

"Few composers write for piano, or piano and percussion with such a distinctive take on things as Birtwistle. The smaller works are charming, and very interesting as a record, but buy this CD for the kaleidoscopic performance of the Axe Manual and the dazzling excitement of Harrison's Clocks. A first rate CD. Make sure to turn to the volume up!” Richard Whalley

"By the standards of recent Birtwistle it is an austere, mostly forbidding piece - a study in rhythmic layering in which the keyboard and the tuned percussion, the vibraphone and marimba, are treated like a single instrument, though one whose perspectives are constantly changing." Andrew Clements, The Guardian

"Like those powerfully conceived compositions, it turns the fascination with tone-colour and texture into an absorbing musical drama.” Gramophone Magazine

"And the surprises continue here. The title work, The Axe Manual, is "a compendium of rhythmical devices" according to the composer, and is also a joking nod to Emmanuel Ax, who commissioned the work. It opens with a sort of surreal tango, with Hodges and Claire Edwardes in perhaps a semi-lethal embrace, but all highly entertaining. Much of the score contains irresistible drive, its rhythmic patterns alternating between high energy and virtual stasis. Like much of Birtwistle’s work, this one well repays repeated hearings and is, like much of the material here, great fun as well.” Bruce Hodges, Music Web International