Anima Mia to be featured on BBC Four's Inside Classical

20 November 2024

The world premiere of Geoffrey Gordon's new orchestral work, Anima Mia, a BBC Radio 3 commission on behalf of the BBC Philharmonic, to be featured on BBC TV Four's Inside Classical. 

Anima Mia, a symphonie concertante for bassoon and orchestra, inspired by the work of visionary Swiss artist H R Giger, premieres November 30, 2024, with conductor John John Storgårds and soloist Roberto Giaccaglia at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, England, on a program with works from Arvo Pärt, Frank Martin and Edward Elgar. 

 

GEOFFREY GORDON (profile of the composer from the BBC Philharmonic program guide....)

‘Expression, expression, expression,’ replied the US-born composer Geoffrey Gordon when asked to describe his music in just three words. He wasn’t joking. There is not a note of Gordon’s music that isn’t intended to make a deep and immediate impact on its listeners – to paint pictures, to stir emotion and, above all, to fire the imagination.


Gordon’s own imagination is a gloriously lively place. His musical voice might be singular – whether writing for a solo violin or revelling (with Berlioz-like flamboyance and precision) in full orchestral Technicolor. But his particular brand of genius loves company. Gordon has written concertos for cor anglais, bass clarinet and bassoon. Dive into his vivid, glistening scores and you might find yourself bumping into Karl Marx, H. R. Giger, Shakespeare or Marc Chagall.


Expansive and eclectic, Gordon belongs to a distinctly American tradition (he’s been Composer in Residence at the Aaron Copland House not once, but twice). It might be going too far to call him a 21st-century Romantic: after all, he grew up playing rock guitar in Detroit. But his music riffs exuberantly off the whole Western canon, in all its fantasy, darkness and wonder – and leaves no doubt that he simply loves the sound it makes.


Profile © Richard Bratby
Richard Bratby is chief classical music critic of
The Spectator and writes on music and culture for
Gramophone.