Summary: Julian Anderson is the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Composer in Residence, and his new, three movement orchestral work 'The Discovery of Heaven' is premiered on 24 March 2012. The title of the work comes from a 1992 novel by Dutch author Harry Mulisch, and in this interview Anderson explores how a piece of music can reflect a book without having a direct narrative connection. He reveals how his own musical language absorbs the eclectic influences of Japanese Gagaku music, Mongolian overtone chanting, Gregorian chant and the battle between percussion and melody heard at the end of the first movement of Nielsen's Symphony No. 5. The Discovery of Heaven was jointly commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. The March release on the LPO Label is of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe ballet, recorded in 1979 with Bernard Haitink and taken from the BBC archive. The podcast ends with a preview of the new CD.
