Pulse Shadows
(1989-96)Paul Celan, translated by Michael Hamburger (E,G)
Solo S-string quartet-2cl-vla.vlc.db
3 movements from each constituent cycle are published by Universal
Edition. The complete work is available on hire from Boosey & Hawkes.
"Pulse Shadows is a consummation of Birtwistle's art... His word-setting has a toughness that keeps faith with the poetry, and his jittery quartet idiom a virtuosity nowhere more apparent than in Todesfuge, a spectacular (spectral) version of a late Beethoven fugue."
Sunday Times