My Son the Composer

When Conductor Istvan Kertesz was taken ill prior to a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra last week, the management asked Composer Oliver Knussen if he would lead the premiere of his Symphony No. 1.

Knussen agreed, even though he had never conducted a major orchestra before. At the concert, his arm gestures often looked more like karate chops than cues, and his beat faltered briefly in the second movement. But for the most part, he did amazingly well, and his new work--an uninhibited, brightly colored score built around a twelve-tone row--made a handsome impression on the Londoners in the audience, who applauded tumultuously for ten minutes in the obvious belief that they had witnessed a very special kind of event.

They had. Knussen is only 15. He began his First Symphony just before his 14th birthday and finished it six months later. What impressed the public, critics and professionals alike was the symphony's bold self-assurance, its thoroughly contemporary sound and free use of serial techniques, its lack of conscious imitation--even though it does contain a few friendly pokes at Mahler and Messiaen, "who," says the youngster, "use the cymbal, bass and drum in a vulgar way."

Pianist-Conductor Daniel Barenboim, who is taking the London Symphony to the U.S., immediately arranged to have Oliver conduct his piece at Manhattan's Carnegie Hall this week. Andre Previn was shown the score and decided to perform it next season with the Houston Symphony. "I would have taken it to be the work of an adult," said Previn, 39. "The fact that it was written by a boy of 14 is amazing and frightening."

Not the least of those awed was the young composer's father, Stuart Knussen, 44, the L.S.O.'s principal double-bass player. "I was terrified," said he. "But it was like somebody else was conducting. I couldn't relate the music or the conducting to my little boy."

All told, Knussen's little boy has written 60 works for orchestra and a variety of instrumental combinations, and is just now finishing Symphony No. 2. But he is pleasingly matter-of-fact about his precociousness. "I don't like all this prodigy rubbish," he says. "I just started early."

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