Kings Place, London
In the last 20 years Heinz Holliger has become an increasingly rare visitor to London, and when he has appeared here it has more often been to conduct or to supervise performances of his own music than to play the oboe, though he does that better than anyone else I've ever heard. Now 71, Holliger was in residence at Kings Place for four days last week, featuring in all three roles in a series of concerts built around him and his music.
As his playing career has slowed down so Holliger's stature as a composer has steadily risen, and he's now widely recognised as one of the most important figures of his European generation. Yet many of his most significant works have yet to be performed in Britain, though the necessarily small-scale pieces heard at Kings Place filled some gaps. The concert I heard contained superb performances from an impressive lineup of predominantly young instrumentalists of trios by Holliger's teacher S�ndor Veress: beautiful fusions of folk-inflected Bart�k and 12-note Schoenberg, and of rarely heard Schumann ? the Fantasiest�cke for piano trio and the wackily beautiful Andante and Variations for two piano, two cellos and horn ? alongside early and late music by Holliger himself.
As well as the teenage, rather Hindemith-like piano Sonatina, a series of instrumental solos from Holliger's COncErto of 2000 was intertwined with some of the Soli for cor anglais composed for him by Gy�rgy Kurt�g. Those intense miniatures, as well as his own Surrog� for cor anglais and harp, which he played with his wife Ursula, were enough to show that Holliger remains as extraordinary a performer as ever, while the overlapping series of solos, deceptively simple yet naggingly memorable, built into something considerably more substantial and shapely than anyone would have suspected.
heidi montag katy perry kid cudi kim kardashian lindsay lohan
No comments:
Post a Comment