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Spring at the London Sinfonietta: Anne Ozorio looks forward to the new programme (AO)


Spring 2008 promises great new ventures for the London Sinfonietta. The Sinfonietta celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year.   It is a remarkable ensemble, whose members are passionately dedicated to performing the best new music in the world.  Being around the Sinfonietta is infinitely stimulating, because they are also keen to share their committment with audiences.  New music isn’t scary. The London Sinfonietta makes it exhilarating and challenging. Indeed, some new music can be profoundly beautiful. It just takes the Sinfonietta’s blend of high standards and enthusiasm.

This year brings several major premieres, including the Luigi Nono masterpiece “Promoteo”, an epic “dramma in musica” with multiple orchestras, voices and narrators.  They are placed on “islands” around the auditorium which reflect the landscape of Venice, where land meets water, where fragments form part of a wider horizon.  It’s an extraordinary tapestry of ancient texts, modern philosophy and sonic invention, integrating sound with the experience of theatre in the round.  No wonder it’s rarely performed. The London Sinfonietta will be joined by André Richard, the sound designer who worked with Nono himself, and other Nono specialists like the Freiburg Experimental Studio. It’s a truly major event, not to be missed.

Two more landmarks in modern music will be heard in late April : Steve Reich’s seminally influential “Music for 18 Musicians”  and Thomas Adés “In Seven Days”, which celebrates the new Royal Festival Hall. It’s a joint commission between the South Bank and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Later there’ll also be a portrait of the Italian composer Niccolò Castiglioni, and premières of new work by Karin Rehnqvist, Silvina Milstein and Michael Jarrell. These works will be performed with classics of the modern repertoire, such as Xenakis’s “Jalons” and Finnissy’s “Contretänze”.

The London Sinfonietta has made many recordings over the years, some issued under its own label.  Its Jerwood Series, funded by the Jerwood Charitable Trust, promotes the work of young composers based in the UK.   Its “Jerwood Series 3” is particularly important as it features the much admired “Or Voit Tout En Aventure” by Luke Bedford. It created a sensation from its first performance.  Subsequent hearings only confirm what a profoundly moving, original work it is, establishing the composer as a genuinely major voice.  Also on this disc are works by Ben Foskett and Jonathan Cole, much loved by Sinfonietta audiences. Now they can be heard by anyone with a CD player !  The next recording “Jerwood Series 4” includes music by William Atwood, Joanna Bailie and Richard Causton.

The Sinfonietta also performs frequently outside London. This spring, there are concerts in Bromsgrove and Canterbury, and in May, a very interesting programme in Bruges in Belgium.

Anne Ozorio

The Sinfonietta's web site is  http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/

Search “London Sinfonietta” on the MusicWeb search engine for some of the numerous reviews of London Sinfonietta concerts and recordings over the years. Here are reviews specifically of the ensemble’s own label recordings :

Takemitsu : Arc and Green

Wuorinen : Cyclops


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