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Commissioned by Cheltenham International Festival of Music and Melinda Maxwell with support of the PRS Foundation

  • cor anglais and percussion
  • 14 min

Programme Note

Sphinx is scored for cor anglais and nine tuned gongs, and lasts approximately fourteen minutes. It is austere in texture and takes the form of an extended riddle, the answer to which may be the one and only appearance of A# right at the end of the piece played by the cor anglais (It is the quietest, highest, and possibly the longest note that the cor plays). It is dedicated to Susanna Eastburn.

Media

Holt: Sphinx

Reviews

Simon Holt's Sphinx trumped even Michael Berkeley's depiction of musical exoticism. The piece creates a magical musical partnership in which tuned gongs provide a delicate halo around the music of a cor anglais. The work is suffused with silence, and Melinda Maxwell and Richard Benjafield made a mysterious ritual from the cor anglais's florid lines and the gentle peal of the gongs.
Tom Service, The Guardian
28th May 2003

Discography

Frozen River Flows

Frozen River Flows
  • Label
    Oboe Classics
  • Catalogue Number
    CC2021
  • Ensemble
    new noise
  • Released
    2011

Melinda Maxwell Vol.2

Melinda Maxwell Vol.2
  • Label
    Dutton
  • Catalogue Number
    Dutton CDLX7180
  • Soloist
    Melinda Maxwell, Oboe, Cor Anglais / Anna Barton, Oboe / Alexia Pelling, Oboe / Richard Benjafield, percussion / Stephen Gutman, piano / Hugh Webb, harp