| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 18-Oct-2012 Cadogan Hall | Stravinsky and Adams with City of London Sinfonia and Michael Collins |
 Before last night I had reserved judgement on John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music (1982), which I knew from CD but hadn’t previously heard live. It was an effect-piece, I thought, so while it had left me a little cold in recorded form, I was open to the possibility that this enormous, ecstatic major-key pile-up would blow me away in the concert hall. But while City of London Sinfonia’s gleeful rendition in Cadogan Hall last night certainly made an impression, I can’t help but continue to think that the piece is a bit daft.
Read full review... | |
| 29-Sep-2012 Kings Place: Hall One | London première of James MacMillan's Since it was the Day of Preparation... |
 The Kings Place programme booklet for Since it was the Day of Preparation… folds like a thin papery triptych. Yet, the composer’s photograph does not occupy the central panel. Indeed, gushing verbal bombast, a feature all too common in performances of new music, was pleasantly absent. James MacMillan’s programme notes were a minimal paragraph outlining the tripartite structure of his chamber work, which follows the narrative of Christ’s resurrection.Read full review... | |
| 22-Aug-2012 Greyfriars Kirk | World première of James MacMillan's Since it was the Day of Preparation... |
 At one extreme of musical preparation, early music specialists rely on research to ensure authentic performance of music by composers long dead. At the other, composers writing today might well be acquainted with the performers and consult them on the technical possibility of some passages and attend rehearsals. This is likely to have been the case for James MacMillan's Since it was the Day of Preparation... whose world première took place in Edinburgh's historic Greyfriars Kirk.
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| 15-Oct-2011 Barbican Centre: Hall | Steve Reich at 75: LSO at the Barbican |
| Steve Reich has been a Barbican mainstay of 2011. In his 75th birthday year, the composer’s significant influence on contemporary classical music was honoured with the Reverberations Festival in May. Now, the London Symphony Orchestra has dedicated this third week in October to his work including this concert of Reich works for an orchestra of symphonic proportions under the spritely baton of Kristjan Järvi. Clapping Music featured Reich himself on stage, displaying his personal and musical humour as one of the Clapping pair. Read full review... | |
