Susanna Eastburn's Playlist

Susanna Eastburn is Chief Executive of Sound and Music. She is also President of the International Association of Music Information Centres, on the Board of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and a Trustee of Trinity College London. Previous roles have included Director of Music at Arts Council England, Executive Director of LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre), Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and International Promotions Manager at Music Sales Ltd. She is a keen chamber music and plays the viola.

Peter Maxwell Davies: The Twittering Machine (from Five Klee Pictures)

I grew up in Cornwall in a musical family, and amongst other things played in the Cornwall Youth Orchestra. Our enlightened conductor (Graham Treacher) programmed this during my first year of membership, when I was a excruciatingly shy 11-year-old at the back of the second violins. The wonder and shock I felt at playing music that was newly written – and by a composer who was ALIVE – made a profound impression on me. Which in some ways is still playing out now – the idea that music is a living artform, and the importance of championing new music and its creators, is a hugely inspirational driver for me.

Per Nørgård: Symphony no.2

When I started compiling this playlist, I quickly realised that it was going to be quite personal, rather than my top tips or any kind of ‘top ten’. Having said that: if you don’t know Per Nørgård’s music yet, you have a wonderful treat ahead of you. I was fortunate enough to work closely with him (for his music publisher) at a time when there was a lively interest in his music in the UK, and it makes me sad that we hear less of it now. There are many pieces I could have chosen but in the end I have gone for a relatively early piece and one in which his musical discovery – the ‘infinity row’ - is heard in pure form.

Judith Weir: Moon and Star

There’s an element of chronology in this playlist. I also had the enormous privilege of working with Judith in my publishing days and this was one of the works that was premiered during that time. I hesitate to describe any of her pieces as ‘typical’: but this does exemplify her highly distinctive musical voice and imagination. That ability to be distinctive, to create music unlike anyone else’s, is what I’m always seeking when listening to new music. Discovering genuinely original new voices is one of the best bits of my job; as is creating the right environments for those voices to discover themselves.

Kaija Saariaho: Lonh

I worked very closely with Kaija in the late 90s and this was one of the most important relationships of my working life; I think because at that time, her musical language, and the international interest in it, was just beginning to truly take off, and needed careful handling to ensure that she not only had the physical and psychological time and space to compose, but also that the truly remarkable works she composed during that time were given the best possible performances. Lonh was one of a body of work she composed in the lead up to her first opera, L’amour de loin, which was premiered in Salzburg in the summer of 2000.

Richard Ayres: No 31: NONcerto for Trumpet (Elegy for Alfred Schnittke)

Rebecca Saunders: Fletch

Aldo Clementi: Due Canoni

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDA4hsX6QN0

Joanna Bailie: Five Famous Adagios

Olga Neuwirth: Who Am I

Thomas Adès: Arcadiana (O Albion)

English Country Garden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlpPEDuwO3w

My current obsession.