New Music Show 3 LONDON SINFONIETTA 4.30pm - The Front Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall
John Cage: Suite for Toy Piano
Andrew Hamilton: Music for Losers for solo cello
Juliana Hodkinson: Stills for clarinet and piano
London Sinfonietta A dense and tiring new music experience; a good atmosphere with a large audience moving around the building and music to be heard in foyer areas as well as in the halls. Some of it was naive, some other repugnant... The edited listing above indicates what I heard; probably much of it will appear on CD. One is increasingly noting (in CDs from abroad too) that simplicities and complexities are vying, and - importantly - that "absolute music" is in decline in this century. Younger composers are relying more and more on literary, arts based and 'environmental' themes behind the notes. Posthumous mementos for Carter & Henze were beautifully played and very welcome. Some new works need pruning; Fennessy's factories (with loom shuttle sounds) was intriguing at first, but far too long; Norman's Try did so, and showed great skill in lucid orchestration of noisy climaxes, but it petered out in the end with single notes from long-suffering Sinfonietta founder pianist John Constable, who'd started the evening playing Cage's toy piano in the foyer... Best were two piano concertos with Huw Watkins in commanding form. Barry was entertaining as always, with hilarious incongruities - like Richard Ayres' NONcertos. And for long term viability, I'd back Tansy Davies' piano concerto Nature, which I hope to hear again. In it she envisions the piano as "an enormous moth, prowling in the undergrowth" - in one of the talk sessions, she thought it would be "nice" if listeners felt that imagery... I expect it'll feature in the next New Music Show CD. Peter Grahame Woolf see also guardianlondon-sinfonietta-new-music-3-review & bachtracklondon-sinfonietta-new-music-show-3 |