Reviews and Interviews
Music from Humans - Podcast with Liz and Michael Cooke
Michael is a composer based in San Francisco and he has created this wonderful exploration of my large-scale work When A Child Is A Witness - Requiem for Refugees that won the The Ivors Academy Award for Community and Participation. We talk about the background to how the piece was written and some of the compositional techniques used. Composer/contemporary geeks - enjoy! #musicfromhumans
Rain: Musical Opinion Quarterly
“The turbulent beginning conjured up a storm-lashed scene with insistent, sharp stabs of ‘rain’…” Paul Conway, Musical Opinion
Gentle Flame Cantata: Midlands Classical Music Making 5 star review
(First version of the work now titled I Stand at the Door)
“This is a constantly gripping work, its choral textures and devices always arresting and communicative, its use of this Bachian orchestra colourful and resourceful…”
Inspirations
Liz Dilnot Johnson chats with American journalist Daniel Kepl about the Intricate Web album, Sky-burial, the Cello Suite, Jo Shapcott Settings and the inspirations for Scintilla. (2 October 2019)
Intricate Web: Fanfare review
“…evocative and effective, with imaginative figuration constantly presented in different lights and colour…” David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare. Read more.
Paintings and Poetry
An interview with Tim Rutherfod-Johnson, where Liz talks about Intricate Web and her work with Malvern-based artist Dora Williams
Gentle Flame CD: Chorzeit 5* review
Most fascinating is the Kyrie Eleison with organ accompaniment, and here Johnson pulls out all the choral stops: whispers and cries that ebb away in glissando, dynamic breaks, atonal clusters, and chords with eight or more voices that make the listener shiver.
Gentle Flame CD: British Music Society
…on its own terms it succeeds in conveying not only the pain of war, but, in the words of the composer, 'my Requiem aims to look forward to vision of unity and peace.'
the vigour of Magi (2021) [is] followed by the splendid folk-carol A Wild Midwinter Carol (2022)
The Windhover: My Shrewsbury review
Ex Cathedra's program spanned a remarkable range of music, from the ethereal beauty of 6th-century plainchant to the lively 20th-century tunes of Summer Holiday and La Mer. The acoustics of St. Chad's Church amplified the choir's harmonious sounds, creating a truly immersive experience.
The first half of the concert had an ornithological theme, featuring works inspired by birds. Highlights included The Windhover, a poignant setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem by composer Liz Dilnot Johnson, who was present in the audience. Other pieces celebrated the swallow, the swan, and the cuckoo, interspersed with well-chosen readings like Maya Angelou's Caged Bird which added a poignant political dimension.
Blake Reimagined: Seen and Heard International
“Blake reimagined by Liz Dilnot Johnson is ingenious. It is a reinterpretation of the famous lines by William Blake which Parry set as Jerusalem. The composer here takes both Blake’s words and some of the harmonies of Jerusalem and sets them in a very twenty-first century idiom.”
Choir and Organ Magazine
Having won the award for Community & Participation at the Ivor Composer Awards 2022, Liz talks to musician and writer Matthew Power about her professional journey as a composer.
Intricate Web: The Chronicle review
“Her starting point for the piece [Seachange (2016)] is her experiences when trying to meditate, those moments following breath when thoughts intrude, from calm to nightmares.” Jeremy Condliffe, The Chronicle. Read more.
Inflorescence: Clarinet and Saxophone Society GB
This is a conversational piece between saxophone and piano, with moments of question and answer, along with melodic lines, over a hazy, evolving piano accompaniment.
Ex Cathedra: Midlands Music Reviews
Ex Cathedra's composer-in-residence Liz Dilnot Johnson... has such an understanding of the voice, writing with a directness and sincerity that's immediately arresting, whether that be 'Lighten Our Darkness' (2023) and its clever blending of texts from the Book of Common Prayer with utterances in local dialects written by young asylum seekers living in Coventry; 'Gentle Flame' for double choir with its evocative use of fluttering consonants depicting a flickering flame; or the insistent questioning in 'Generous Winter' (a premiere) that takes as its inspiration Kate Raworth's 'Doughnut Economics'…So never let it be said that classical music lacks relevance for today's world, as Dilnot Johnson's three works testified, all of which were highly 'on point'.
Intricate Web: Tonality Systems review
“Unexpectedly, out of the ether (of BBC Radio 3) dropped a 4-minute jewel of a string quartet, and with a title that was hard to forget, Tide Purl by Liz Dilnot Johnson.” Nigel Morgan, Tonality Systems. Read more.
Colwall Requiem for Aleppo
“Time was suspended as we were awash with musical beauty that embodied both the individuality of every performer and their unanimity of intent.” Liz Garnett, Musicologist. Read more
Intricate Web: MusicWeb International review
“It is fantastic to discover a composer that has not succumbed to writing insipid post-modern music that has minimal impact and avoids stimulating the listener in any way.” John France, MusicWeb International. Read more.