Biography
US/UK composer Geoffrey Gordon’s contributions to the contemporary music repertoire have been and continue to be exceptional. Intense and luxuriant harmony, passionate melody and superb handling of instrumentation and sonic textures define his music. His works include orchestral and chamber music—vocal and instrumental —as well as scores for theater, dance and film. His music has been called “darkly seductive” (New York Times), "complex, richly-satisfying " (BBC Music Magazine), “luminous and ecstatic” (Gramophone), "taut and exhilarating…
Music from Malmö - New Concertos for Bass Clarinet
The Malmö Symphony Orchestra, soloist Carl Johan Stjernström and conductor Joachim Gustafsson perform Geoffrey Gordon's Prometheus for bass clarinet and orchestra on a disc of new bass clarinet concertos on the Tocatta NEXT label. Prometheus, after the Kafka treatment of the Greek legend, is a co-commission of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, and Minnesota Orchestra.
Mythologies and Mad Songs
Acclaimed UK record label Orchid Classics to release Mythologies and Mad Songs, the new recording of orchestral works by composer Geoffrey Gordon, featuring the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia, with legendary conductor Martyn Brabbins and soloists Dimitri Mestdag and Laurent Ben Slimane.
"Richard Strauss once suggested that Elektra should be conducted like Mendelssohn’s ‘fairy music’. And if you’ve ever wondered what such light-footed fantasy might sound like if translated into the sound world of a virtuoso post-Straussian orchestra – well, so, apparently, has Geoffrey Gordon. His 2017 tone poem Puck – fleeing from the dawn is exactly that: a featherweight Shakespearean caprice written (to coin a phrase) on the point of a needle, and played with dazzling élan by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins."
-Gramophone/Richard Bratby (August 2024)
“The orchestral music of Geoffrey Gordon is especially vivid, at the same time both dramatic and poetic. These qualities make great demands on performers, but demands that are satisfying in their challenge. Recording the various pieces was very enjoyable and the presence of Geoffrey at the sessions was both inspiring and stimulating.”
-Martyn Brabbins
MYTHOLOGIES AND MAD SONGS
With works inspired by William Blake, Shakespeare and Franz Kafka - in addtion to the intrepid early 20th c. explorations of Peary and Shackleton - Mythologies and Mad Songs presents four mesmerizing orchestral works by celebrated British-American composer Geoffrey Gordon, each exquisitely captured in performance by the distinguished Philharmonia and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the masterful guidance of legendary conductor Martyn Brabbins. A unique and exceptional fusion of Gordon's compelling artistry, the soloists' and orchestras' unparalleled precision, skill and emotive depth, and Brabbins' interpretive brilliance, Gordon’s works find a perfect home with these two renowned orchestras ...on Orchid Classics.
Produced in association with BBC Radio 3 and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.