Score 0-571-51459-6 on sale, parts for hire

Flourish with Fireworks, written in August and September 1988, is neither more nor less than its title implies – a two-minute celebratory ‘opener’ for Michael Tilson Thomas’ first season as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. But it is, therefore, a triple homage: to Michael, who has been a close and supportive friend to me and my music for 18 years, since we met backstage at his British debut with the LSO and subsequently at Tanglewood in 1970; to the LSO itself – the orchestra which was ‘home’ to me as a child, when my father was principle double bass and Pierre Monteux the principal conductor, and was later the first major orchestra to play my music in public; and lastly to Stravinsky, a composer for whom Michael Tilson Thomas and I have shared a special affection. The ‘Fireworks’ of the title are Stravinsky’s earlier ones, and the music is built form the initials of the LSO (A, E-flat, G) and MTT (E, B, B) subjected to constant variation, sometimes of a kind not unknown to the later Stravinsky.

© Oliver Knussen