Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, CBSO Centre, Birmingham | reviews, news & interviews
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Tokyo composer turned American has style that looks medieval but sounds modern
Monday, 14 March 2011
Oliver Knussen: A career devoted too selflessly to other people’s music
This latest BCMG concert had its pleasures; and it had its irritations. Among the pleasures was a pair of works, one of them newly commissioned, by the under-performed Japanese composer Jo Kondo. The irritations were of the BBC variety: long pauses between short works while technicians in headphones faffed around with microphones and music stands, in sovereign disregard for the convenience of a large paying audience.
This latest BCMG concert had its pleasures; and it had its irritations. Among the pleasures was a pair of works, one of them newly commissioned, by the under-performed Japanese composer Jo Kondo. The irritations were of the BBC variety: long pauses between short works while technicians in headphones faffed around with microphones and music stands, in sovereign disregard for the convenience of a large paying audience.
Kondo is the inventor of a method as individual in its way as Reich’s process music or Ligeti’s micro-polyphony
Share this article
Add comment
more Classical music
Voces8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra, Smith, Voces8 Centre review - joyous Christmas music by Bach
Seasonal greatest hits selection with a spotlight on spectacular trumpeting
First Person: Natalia Franklin Pierce, Executive Director of Nonclassical, on 'creating a sense of belonging'
On bringing classical music to wider audiences - and appealing for help in a good cause
Grosvenor, Park, Ridout, Soltani, Wigmore Hall review - chamber music supergroup in perfect accord
Thoughtful programming puts quirky novelty alongside big beasts
Dariescu, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - sounds of unquenchable optimism
Conductor is his own violin soloist in one of two UK premieres
MacMillan's Christmas Oratorio, Lois, Williams, RSNO, MacMillan, Usher Hall, Edinburgh – a great composer at the top of his game
Scottish premiere of a recent masterwork
Louise Alder & Friends, Wigmore Hall review - magic carpet rides with soprano, strings and woodwind
Levitational joy in an all-French programme, with modified rapture over two arrangements
Aurora Orchestra, Kings Place review - experimental work in an immersive setting
A conceptually elegant evening that transported you to a different dimension
Morison, Immler, BBCSO, Bychkov, Barbican review - a Kafka journey and a mighty landmark
Multi-tasking maestro shines with new songs and old forms
Classical CDs: Microphones, mazurkas and mad scenes
Piano concertos, operatic intermezzi and a striking collection of songs
Grosvenor, SCO, Emelyanychev, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - lightness of touch and a sprinkling of humour
Romantic music played with period style, and the pianist finds the wit in Mendelssohn
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - championing the rich and rare
Solo qualities and thunderous climaxes in Rossini’s 'Stabat Mater'
Accentus, Insula orchestra, Equilbey, Barbican review - radiant French choral masterpieces
A familiar warhorse alongside a neglected curiosity
Comments
...
...
...