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icWolfgang Rihm at 60Tuesday 24 January 2012A celebration of one of the most prolific composers working today, including music from celebrated pupils Rebecca Saunders and Jörg Widmann.

In Portrait: Olga NeuwirthSaturday 11 February 2012A cabaret homage to cult singer Klaus Nomi who took 1980s New York City by storm. Featuring countertenor Andrew Watts as Klaus Nomi.

Perfect Constructions: the music of Conlon NancarrowSaturday 21 April 2012Explore the sound world of a musical maverick who exploited the mechanisms of the player piano.

making new music nowDiscover Writing the Future online. Visit londonsinfonietta.org.uk for more information and listen to works featured in our Music Streams.

making new music happenBecome a Pioneer and help us make new music happen. From just £35 you can support brand new commissions and ground breaking new projects whilst forming a close association with the London Sinfonietta. See londonsinfonietta.org.uk/pioneers for more information.

making new music digitalListen to three new recordings from the London Sinfonietta, including Thomas Adès's In Seven Days and Louis Andriessen's De Staat.

making new music

on stage

making new music digital londonsinfonietta.org.uk

twitter.com/Ldn_Sinfonietta facebook.com/londonsinfonietta londonsinfonietta.wordpress.com

WelcomeWelcome to the New Music Show. The London Sinfonietta has championed new music for the past 43 years. Composers who were little known years ago now have a place in contemporary culture in the UK not least because of performances and recordings by the ensemble. Tonight we are continuing this tradition. We want to present new music to an ever wider audience and we plan to build the concept of the New Music Show into next season to become a compelling one-day new music festival for London. If you have ideas for how this project may develop text NMS to 81025 with your message. We hope you enjoy tonight's concerts.

Andrew Burke, Chief ExecutiveLondon Sinfonietta

Tonight’s performersMartyn Brabbins is Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. He was Artistic Director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music 2005-2007 and Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1994-2005. He studied composition in London and conducting with Ilya Musin in Leningrad, winning first prize at the 1988 Leeds Competition. Since then Brabbins has regularly conducted all the major UK orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony, and appears annually at the BBC Proms. He is also much sought-after in Europe, Scandinavia, Australia and more recently Japan. He has also regularly conducted opera productions at the major houses in Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt,

Hamburg, Lyon, and at English National Opera. Brabbins has a long association with the London Sinfonietta. He has conducted hundreds of world premieres and has close links with many of today’s foremost composers. Martyn Brabbins is represented by Intermusica.

Enno Senft divides his work as a Principal double bass of the London Sinfonietta and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, of which he is a co-founder. Born in Germany, Enno studied in Cologne with Paul Breuer and in Vienna with Ludwig Streicher. He finished his studies with distinction and scholarships from the German Music Council and Academic Exchange Programme enabled him to work further with Franco Petracchi in Italy and Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Enno has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, in Japan and the USA. He has appeared at the Rockenhaus Festival with Gidon Kremer, Wien Modern, the Darmstadt, Hannover, Helsinki and Sermoneta Contemporary Music Festivals and at the Philharmonie in Berlin as a soloist under Roger Norrington. The Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt, the Gaudier and Nash ensembles have regularly invited him as their guest. Enno is a professor at the Royal College of Music, London.

Sound Intermedia - alias Ian Dearden and David Sheppard - is dedicated to realising visionary new art works through live performance and cutting-edge technology. Their trail-blazing initiatives and artistic collaborations continually push past the accepted boundaries of composition, sound design, live sound, music technology and interactive multimedia. Internationally

respected both as composers and performers, they collaborate with many of the world's most influential artists and organizations.

London Sinfonietta Helen Keen

+ FLUTE/PICCOLO/ALTO FLUTE/

BASS FLUTE

Melinda Maxwell OBOE

Mark van de Wiel*+

CLARINET/BASS

CLARINET

Scott Lygate CLARINET/BASS CLARINET/

CONTRABASS CLARINET Simon Haram

* SOPRANO SAxOPHONE

John Orford* BASSOON/CONTRABASSOON

Michael Thompson*+

HORN

Carly Lake HORN

Paul Archibald TRUMPET

Bruce Nockles TRUMPET

Byron Fulcher* TROMBONE

Daniel Trodden TUBA

Jonathan Morton+ VIOLIN

Joan Atherton* VIOLIN

Elizabeth Wexler VIOLIN

Vicci Wardman+ VIOLA

Eniko Magyar VIOLA

Tim Gill*+

CELLO

Karen Stephenson+ CELLO

Lynda Houghton DOUBLE BASS

Helen Tunstall*+

HARP

John Constable* PIANO

Clive Williamson SAMPLER

David Hockings* PERCUSSION

Oliver Lowe PERCUSSION*London Sinfonietta Principal Player

+player in Event 1 & Event 2

Christopher Alderton CONCERTS MANAGER

Lesley Wynne PERSONNEL MANAGER

New Music Show 2 was curated by Andrew Burke and Richard Baker.

London Sinfonietta Pioneersmaking new music happen

The creation of new music lies is at the very heart of the London Sinfonietta and the greatest discoveries rely on the commitment, generosity and vision of a passionate group of supporters. Our imagination is unlimited, but our funds are not. London Sinfonietta Pioneers play a crucial role in making new music happen.

Membership starts from £35 per year. Visit our website to find out more www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/pioneers, email us at pioneers@londonsinfonietta.org.uk or call 020 7239 9340.

Your support is vital to help us continue to lead the way, sparking the greatest innovations in music and nurturing the best musical talent as we go. Become a Pioneer and make new music happen.

London Sinfonietta would like to thank all Pioneers for their continued support of the ensemble.

Lead PioneersSir Richard ArnoldSir Vernon & Lady EllisSusan Grollet in memory of Mark GrolletLeo and Regina HepnerPenny JonasAnthony MackintoshBelinda MatthewsRobert & Nicola McFarlandMichael & Patricia McLaren-TurnerSir Stephen Oliver QCNick & Claire PrettejohnRichard Thomas & Caroline CowieChristoph & Marion TrestlerDavid and Jenni Wake-Walker

Creative PioneersIan BakerSusan BurdellAndrew BurkeRobert ClarkJeremy & Yvonne ClarkeRachel ColdicuttSusan CostelloDennis DavisElliot GrantDeborah GoldenNicholas HodgsonAndrew HuntMaurice and Jean JacobsFrank & Linda JeffsTim JossJane McAuslandStephen MorrisJulie NichollsSimon OsbornePatricia O’SullivanGeoff PeaceRuth RattenburyDavid & Alex RhodesKeith SalwayDennis StevensonIain StewartAnne StoddartEstela WelldonJohn WheatleyStephen WilliamsonPaul Zisman

Tonight’s Event 2 is being recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 22 January 2012. London Sinfonietta is grateful to Arts Council England, PRS for Music Foundation and The Holst Foundation for their generous support of the ensemble’s Music Programme 2011/12. Registered Charity No. 255095

New Music Show 2

James Olsen, Composition 1317364104 – world premiere, c.5’

To celebrate the birthday of Janet Grant

Composers today are eager to explain their pieces, and it is the titles of their pieces which are the most common starting-point

for such explanations. But why this urge to explain? There is always a dangerously fine line between an explanation and an

apology, and there is more to music than meaning, especially meaning which is expressed in a title. In an attempt to resist

the urge to explain and to write a piece which would stand by itself without apology, James Olsen chose a title which was

nothing more than a functional point of reference. The figure in the title records the exact time and date at which the piece was

completed, expressed as the number of seconds which had elapsed since midnight on 1 January 1970 UTC—a format known as

Unix time, widely used to record our countless mundane encounters with technology on a daily basis.

–MADE USING: HORN, HARP, VIOLIN, VIOLA, AND 2 CELLOS

Charlie Piper, Insomniac – world premiere, c.16’

Insomniac is made up of three short movements exploring some of the states in-between sleep and wakefulness,

experienced as a result of Insomnia. The first movement is driven by nervous energy from the outset, striving to

establish some regularity or calm but becoming increasingly agitated, darting between different materials; a mind

flitting anxiously between various incoherent, inconclusive situations. Piper’s time spent in Gotland, Sweden, where

he experienced almost continual sunlight, inspired the second movement. With a much more subdued character and

gently limping rhythms, the often surreal state of mind experienced at the peripheries of consciousness is explored.

The final movement is concerned with insomnia caused by other external influences – such as a neighbour having

an all-night party. It is boisterous and wild in nature but, as with the other movements, focused by a frustrating

obsessiveness. www.charliepiper.co.uk

–MADE USING: FLUTE (DOUBLING PICCOLO), OBOE, CLARINET (DOUBLING BASS CLARINET), SOPRANO SAxOPHONE, BASSOON (DOUBLING

CONTRABASSOON), HORN, TRUMPET, TROMBONE, PERCUSSION, PIANO, HARP, 2 VIOLINS, VIOLA, CELLO AND DOUBLE BASS.

Shiva Feshareki, Valentine’s Rhapsody – world premiere, c.7’

Part 1: “I’m done with my dying.”

Part 2: “Clouds parts just to give us a little sun.”

This piece represents a journey and personifies the feeling of triumph and self-development after a period of hardship. Valentine’s

Rhapsody is inspired by a person who has had a massive impact on its creator, and moreso, helped her help herself. Both parts

are similar tempi, however they are predominantly contrasting in terms of harmonic intensity, timbral aesthetic, texture and

mood. Although this is a piece about something beautifully positive, the only obvious release is in the final bars of the piece, to

emphasise the challenging journey to this point of self-awareness. The titles are taken from songs recently listened to by the

composer; Part 1 is a Johnny Flynn lyric, and Part 2 is by Feist. This piece is dedicated to Valentine Davies, with all my love.

www.shivafeshareki.com/

–MADE USING: PICCOLO (DOUBLING ALTO FLUTE), CLARINET, HORN, VIOLIN AND CELLO

Edmund Finnis, Unfolds – world premiere, c.7’

Edmund Finnis’ mind was on three non-musical influences while composing this piece: the shimmering grid paintings of Agnes Martin,

the near-weightless and transparent architecture of Junya Ishigami, and Italo Calvino’s 1985 lecture on ‘Lightness’ in his Six Memos for

the Next Millennium. To Finnis, both Martin and Ishigami seem to be reaching for something akin to the ideal of ‘thoughtful lightness’

that Calvino describes. This is not lightness in the sense of frivolity or superficiality, but rather the ‘subtraction of weight’ that can

bring about clarity, flexibility, precision… a letting-in of light. They create work whose subtle, elegant forms invite the perception

of fine detail. The connections between these influences led Finnis to compose a piece characterised by delicate reiterative musical

patterns (sometimes heard in sequence, sometimes superimposed) and an absence of bass or loud sounds. www.edmundfinnis.com

–MADE USING: FLUTE (DOUBLING ALTO FLUTE AND PICCOLO), CLARINET (DOUBLING E FLAT CLARINET), HORN, VIOLIN AND CELLO

Tim Hodgkinson, Hail and Flummox – world premiere, c.7’

The material for this piece grew when Hodgkinson was thinking about Judith Williamson’s book Decoding Advertisements.

He remarks, “advertisements bring signifiers into spatial proximity and invite us ‘freely’ to make the semantic connection.”

A piece of music also brings different elements into proximity, but to look for sense in its juxtapositions may lead to

confusion. Music, especially unfamiliar music, doesn’t offer ready-made participation for an already coerced subject, but

goes back to a more generative level. Even when, as here, it uses a simple alternation of ‘solos’ and ‘choruses’, it tends to

dissolve difference, to over-connect everything. Be flummoxed. www.timhodgkinson.co.uk

–MADE USING: FLUTE, CLARINET, HORN, VIOLIN AND CELLO

Isambard Khroustaliov, Zoetrope – world premiere, c.7'

“Without the possibility of difference, the desire of presence as such would not find its breathing space. That means by the

same token that this desire carries in itself the destiny of its nonsatisfaction. Difference produces what it forbids, making

possible the very thing that it makes impossible.” Jacques Derrida, Dissemination

Zoetrope is concerned with the concept of emergence; its evolution as a scientific term and its elucidation from a

phenomenological perspective. A simple mechanism that exhibits emergent properties; a two dimensional cellular

automaton, is examined and harnessed as part of the compositional framework. www.not-applicable.org

–MADE USING: FLUTE, CLARINET, HORN, VIOLIN AND CELLO

Dai Fujikura, Double Bass Concerto – world premiere, c.20’

This performance is dedicated to the memory of Lottie.

Dai Fujikura’s Double Bass Concerto draws attention to some essential characteristics of the double bass, one of which is its

powerful pizzicato, normally found in the jazz world. Fujikura treats the double bass like a huge “Shamisen” (a Japanese guitar-

like instrument,); letting the double bass play percussively, playing harshly across the strings rapidly and strumming the strings

between the left hand on the fingerboard and the scroll, as if playing a Spanish guitar on its side. The ensemble reacts to the double

bass, acting as a distorted harmonic series. www.daifujikura.com

–MADE USING: FLUTE (DOUBLING PICCOLO), OBOE, CLARINET (DOUBLING BASS CLARINET)

2 HORNS, 2 TRUMPETS, 2 PERCUSSION, 3 VIOLINS, 2 VIOLAS AND SOLO DOUBLE BASS.

Steven Daverson, Elusive Tangibility III: Clandestine Haze – UK premiere, c.7’

Like the other pieces in the Elusive Tangibility cycle, Clandestine Haze follows the idea of a musical representation of the ephemeral.

The fleeting, intangible, constantly shifting contours and the aesthetic charm that emanates from the work remain not merely

external, as an inspiration or a pretext, but extend to the level of material and its structure: blurring the boundary between tone

colour and harmony, the timbre of the instruments involved sometimes indistinguishably merge. What results is a delicate yet

compelling music of quiet strength. www.stevendaverson.com

–MADE USING: ALTO FLUTE (DOUBLING BASS FLUTE), BASS CLARINET (DOUBLING CONTRA-BASS CLARINET), TROMBONE, PERCUSSION, VIOLA, AND CELLO.

– Interval –

Francisco Coll, Piedras – c.13’

Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Piedras (Stones) was born of a surreal vision, the beginning and end

of which shaped the material of the piece. The piece is consistent in its use of extreme sonorities, creating a kind of surrealistic

landscape and distancing the sound from the origins of the ensemble. The piece continues Coll’s interest in blending the stable

with the unstable to create a peculiar tension, while remaining within a closed form. The music flows between fragmented

harmonies and melodies, supported by incisive rhythmic material. In the dreamlike central section softer sounds are used to

evoke the purest surrealist concept.

–MADE USING: FLUTE, OBOE, CLARINET (DOUBLING BASS CLARINET), BASSOON (DOUBLING CONTRABASSOON)

HORN, TRUMPET, TROMBONE, TUBA. HARP, PIANO AND 2 PERCUSSION.

The London Sinfonietta gratefully acknowledges Arts Council England,

Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the Holst Foundation, PRS for Music

Foundation and RVW Trust for their generous support of this concert.

Dai Fujikura’s Double Bass Concerto was commissioned by the London

Sinfonietta, with support from Robert Clark, Mr and Mrs Clarke,

Susan Costello, Daniel Hepburn, Nicholas Hodgson, Tim Joss,

Stephen Morris, Barry Tennison, and John Woods.

Charlie Piper’s Insomniac was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta,

with support from Susan Costello.

James Olsen's Composition 1317364104 was commissioned for the

London Sinfonietta by Elliot Grant.

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Iris ter Schiphorst, Zerstören – UK premiere, c.10’

The current situation as reflected in the news, suggests that a new form of irrationality is on the advance, and that global politics is increasingly

dominated by archaic ‘passions’ and brutal violence. These images haunt and change Iris ter Schiphorst. She describes Zerstören as ‘an attempt

to translate my psycho-somatic response to these events into sound.’ A climate prevails throughout the piece; a kind of general excitement or

tension, constantly interrupted by pseudo-passionate outbursts or, in contrast, lurking silence. www.iris-ter-schiphorst.de/english

–MADE USING: FLUTE, OBOE, CLARINET, CONTRABASS CLARINET, CONTRABASSOON, HORN, TRUMPET

TROMBONE, TUBA, PIANO, PERCUSSION, SAMPLER, 2 VIOLINS, VIOLA, CELLO, AND DOUBLE BASS.