The house that Oliver Knussen had at Snape, Suffolk, was once described on Radio 3 as a chaotic mass of scores, recordings, books and objects of all kinds. Disorder, in short. But his music was supremely ordered, consisting mostly of skilful but smallish pieces.
Among the best of these is Ophelia Dances for orchestra and Ophelia’s Last Dance for piano. His musical tribute to his wife on her death, Requiem: Songs for Sue (2006), inspired some of his finest musical invention and has a powerfully expressive structure.
Meirion Bowen
Michael Vyner, the artistic director of the London Sinfonietta until his death in 1989, told me he once asked Oliver Knussen what it had been like, as a very young composer, to meet Igor Stravinsky. Knussen had replied, “All I could think was: this man saw Tchaikovsky.”
Keith Salway
