Celebrating Three Masters

Please note that Oliver Knussen has replaced Ryan Wigglesworth as conductor for this concert.

BCMG closes its 16/17 season with a concert celebrating three established masters of the British contemporary scene.

Dazzling soprano Claire Booth joins BCMG to premiere Colin Matthews’ Sound Investment vocal work and perform Oliver Knussen’s Four Late Poems for solo soprano.

In 2016, Knussen was awarded both the 2016 Ivor Novello Award for Classical Music and the Queen’s Medal for Music 2015, such is the regard in which he is held. Here his music features twice – Songs Without Voices, being, literally, songs without voice.

Harrison Birtwistle is without question a leading European figure in contemporary music. Everything in his music, whether staged or not, is conceived as at least latent theatre. In Secret Theatre, one of his most performed ensemble works, instruments jostle to be heard, moving across the concert platform to emphasise their interactions without words.

“[Colin Matthews] … the Isambard Kingdom Brunel of contemporary music: master of great time machines, steamy with energy derived from pulse and from massive, surging harmony, and openly displaying their structural engineering, all finished with a craftsman’s care.”

– Paul Griffiths, author and critic