Premiered in 1985 Song Offerings for soprano and chamber ensemble of eight players remains one of Harvey’s most celebrated works. An intimate cycle of four ecstatic Tagore poems, this 17-minute work abounds in exotic colours, torrents of gleaming effects and masterful word setting.
'Poetry by Tagore becomes the occasion for a Wagnerian love-death delivered by an ecstatic soprano from out of a humming hive of instruments... creating an extended instant of joy, a marriage of sensuousness and calm.'
The New York Times (Paul Griffiths), 10 October 1997