Alexander Goehr
… a musical offering (J. S. B. 1985) …, Op.46
Oliver Knussen
Ophelia Dances, Op.13
Ophelia’s Last Dance, Op.32
Simon Bainbridge
The Garden of Earthly Delights [BBC commission: world premiere]
Huw Watkins (piano)
Lucy Schaufer (mezzo-soprano), Andrew Watts (countertenor) & Sam West (narrator)
London Sinfonietta Voices
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Nicholas Collon
Reviewed by: Richard Whitehouse
Reviewed: 18 August, 2012
Venue: Cadogan Hall, London
The last of this season’s Proms Saturday Matinees brought a further concert of British music, on this occasion by three composers who are celebrating major birthdays over the course of this year, performed by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (which is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this autumn).
Alexander Goehr (80 earlier this month) was duly represented by … a musical offering (J. S. B. 1985) … – written to mark the tercentenary of Bach’s birth 27 years ago and an inventive homage right from the ‘Prelude’ – its astringent textures gradually coalesce into a chorale – through a sequence of pithy and characterful dance sections, to an imposing ‘Ricercare’ where the three-part ensemble of woodwind and string sextet, brass trio and a ‘continuo’ of piano, double-bass and percussion engage in an intricate dialogue whose finely sustained momentum may be more akin to Schoenberg than to Webern, but which caps the 16 minutes with a display of contrapuntal fluency firmly in the tradition of the dedicatee.
Whatever its quirks, this is an eventful (if indubitably English) response to one of the wonders of European art – with a dedicated response from Lucy Schaufer and Andrew Watts, committed singing by London Sinfonietta Voices and playing from BCMG such as benefitted from Nicholas Collon’s attentive authority.