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Description: Baritone Roderick Williams joins Thierry Fischer as he conducts the world premiere of Simon Holt's Suenos, UK premieres by Hans Abrahamsen, and works by Louis Andriessen and Francisco Lara.
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Enigmatic dream poems: Williams gave a sensitive rendition of Simon Holt's song cycle Suenos
The London Sinfonietta's concert The Room of Dreams brought together four European composers in middle years, each with a distinctive voice but all linked in a recognisable cross-current of European music. Complexity and formality are not shunned; canons and other structures of Bach were a common theme last night. But aural variety and exquisitely heard textures are the driving force.
In Louis Andriessen's Zilver (1994), seven players are divided into two groups, the first playing sustained and chorale-like material, the other (tuned percussion including piano) firing fast, staccato chords. The effect is of a beguiling, reasoned dialogue between wisdom and impetuosity.
In Hans Abrahamsen's Schnee, stratospherically high string harmonics whispered reconditely with the top few notes of the piano (Canon 1) followed by a more robust Canon 2 in which opposing statements finally converged. Abrahamsen's sounds are so hushed you listen with sharpest ears though whether you hear music or merely effect remains uncertain. Francisco Lara (b.1968) provided bubbling, skittering, buoyant contrast with his virtuosic Kammerkonzert, receiving its UK premiere.
The highlight was Simon Holt's song cycle Suenos, a Southbank commission receiving its world premiere. Holt (b.1958), always serious and uncompromising, has a gift for the quietly, ravishingly sensuous. This setting of five poems by Antonio Machado showed him at his lyrical best, aided by Julia Bardsley's wistful, lightly illustrative visuals.
Sensitively sung by baritone Roderick Williams, these enigmatic dream poems suited the shadowy combination of dark-hued instruments including oboe d'amore, flugelhorn and accordion.
The performance was dedicated to the memory of LS flautist Sebastian Bell, so long a familiar sight on the QEH platform. The Sinfonietta, approaching its 40th birthday and here conducted by Thierry Fischer, once again proved itself one of the best contemporary music ensembles around.
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