Contemporary Music Score

Since the fifth season of the massively popular BAFTA-winning series BBC drama wrapped up, fans are aching for their next hit of Peaky Blinders. On November 15, UMe will release the first-ever official soundtrack to the series (currently available on BBC's iPlayer and on Netflix in more than 100 countries outside of the U.K.) that has captivated audiences across the globe. The soundtrack will be available on 2CD, 3LP and digital.

David Atherton made a fine reputation for himself as a contemporary music conductor back in his salad days with the London Sinfonietta, nowhere more so than in his three-disc (now two-CD) set of music by Kurt Weill. He certainly hasn’t lost his magic touch in the intervening years. These performances of the two symphonies sweep the (not very full) board. Swift, lean, incisive, and always exciting, Atherton reveals all of this music’s anger, irony, and bittersweet lyricism without a trace of histrionics or self-indulgence. Indeed, a certain coolness is part of the point too. And so in the marvelous Second Symphony, Atherton catches the neo-classical temper of its outer movements with impeccable wit and grace, making the passionate intensity of the magnificent central slow movement all the more shocking as a result.