Rapidità

“French conductor Franck Ollu is bringing a host of UK premieres to his next BCMG concert in January 2015, introducing a clutch of composers new to BCMG. In this spirit, I asked Franck if there were a non-UK composer he would particularly like us to commission. He suggested Ivo Nilsson, a Swedish composer who is also a trombonist and a former artistic director of the Stockholm New Music festival. Nilsson’s music is full of nervous energy, with a bright, glittering surface. He will write a short concert opener for an 8-player ensemble as his Sound Investment commission, a piece which will form the first of an eventual six-part series of works for European ensembles. Franck’s BCMG programme will also include the UK Premiere of Nilsson’s double concerto for viola, bassoon and ensemble, which has the wonderful title Doppler Wobbler. The concert will end with Mosaïque Céleste by French composer Allain Gaussin, with whom Ivo Nilsson studied in Paris in the 1980s.”

Stephen Newbould, Artistic Director

Ivo Nilsson’s Sound Investment commission was premiered on Saturday 31 January 2015 at CBSO Centre, Birmingham conducted by Franck Ollu.

“Rapidità, inspired by the writings of Italo Calvino, was the latest of BCMG’s Sound Investment commissioned premieres. Exploring air – as breathed by the performers and as the spatial element within which music is created – the work was intriguing for being gradually conjured out of air, then growing into a denser coalescence of sound before fading back into nothing. As an exercise in acutely focused listening, this first performance was a striking opener. “ – Rian Evans, The Guardian