This is a live recording of composer Geoffrey Gordon's work for solo harp, Jeux de Création, commissioned for Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra principal harp, Anne-Sophie Bertrand. The studio recording of this work will be released on the Naxos label (the CD will also be called Jeux de Création) in October 2021.

PROGRAM NOTES:
Jeux de Création, for solo harp, takes inspiration from the aesthetic sound world of the 1920’s, as seen through the lens of the composer’s own contemporary classical language. Thematic material drawn from two landmark works of the era - Claude Debussy’s Jeux and Darius Milhaud’s La Création du Monde – are woven into the fabric of this expressive modern score of eight virtuoso minutes. Extended techniques, including xylophonics, harmonics, palm clusters and flutter glissandi, are interwoven with more traditional harp gestures to draw a vivid portrait of musical creation games.

Geoffrey Gordon
17 May 2021

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“Jeux de Création by the American composer Geoffrey Gordon is a brilliant, even spectacular work in all respects.”

- Pizzicato (November 2021)


"French-American harpist Anne-Sophie Bertrand plays a diverse program of music for harp, going back as far as E.T.A. Hoffmann, the older colleague and promoter of Beethoven, and as far forward as American composer Geoffrey Gordon.

Absolutely the most interesting piece on this entire album is Gordon’s Jeux de Création, music that is not just modern but very creative and highly atmospheric."

- The Art Music Lounge (November 2021)

GORDON - Jeux de Création for solo harp

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, chamber and vocal works, recognised and performed by the world's top musicians and ensembles.  His music has been called "darkly seductive" (The New York Times), "complex, richly-satisfying " (BBC Music Magazine), “stunning” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “iridescent and glowing” (Chicago Tribune), “taut and exhilarating” (Classical Ear), “haunting” (Strings Magazine), "gripping" (Bachtrack), "fierce and uncompromising" (MusicWeb International) and “magnificent” (Fanfare).  The Philharmonia identifies “his infectious style" and “an ear for melody”; the New York Times his “zest for sonic experimentation”.  

Recently and upcoming, the BBC Philharmonic will premiere Mr. Gordon's new bassoon concerto, Anima Mia, during the 2022-23 concert season; the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta will premiere a jointly commissioned chamber concerto for Bb clarinet and ensemble, Fumee; and the Antwerp Symphony will premiere Mr. Gordon's Mad Song, which they commissioned for soloist Dimitri Mestdag. 

In 2018, the Philharmonia gave the premiere of Geoffrey’s Gordon’s bass clarinet concerto “Prometheus” after the treatment by Franz Kafka, at the RFH, with US and Nordic premieres following in 2019 with the Minnesota Orchestra and Malmo Symphony.   His superb setting of Keats' “Ode to a Nightingale” for choir and cello premiered in May 2018 in Copenhagen by Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir and a new CD of three of his major cello works, Cello Libris,  was released on the BIS label in early 2020, featuring the Copenhagen Philharmonic under Lan Shui.  His song cycles, “Peter Quince at the Clavier” and “Sonnets from Neruda” premiered in March 2018 at the Arnold Schoenberg Center, Vienna, and in October 2017 the Munich Philharmonic under James Gaffigan premiered his trumpet concerto, "CHASE," after the sculptures of Giacometti.  His cello sonata “FATHOMS” premiered at Carnegie Hall in  December 2015  and his “Winterleben” for horn, mezzo and piano (commissioned for Los Angeles Philharmonic principal horn, Andrew Bain), premiered in August 2015 as part of the 47th International Horn Symposium in Los Angeles.  Honoured by a number of residencies internationally, he has twice served as composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House and is winner of 2017 Mario Merz Prize for Music Composition. In 2018, he was commissioned by the Curie Institute in Paris, part of the Muse-IC project. A new chamber work, featuring musicians from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, premiered at the  Salle Cortot Theatre in Paris in March, 2019. 

Future performances and commissions include new works for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and many others.

Find more links to Geoffrey Gordon's music, as well as bio and reviews etc. at www.geoffreygordoncomposer.com

NEW CD, Cello Libris, out on BIS Records!  
Find it here:
https://bis.se/performers/moldrup-toke/cello-libris-works-by-geoffrey-gordon

GORDON - Jeux de Création for solo harp

Geoffrey Gordon Composer