Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Harrison

Ensemble 7Bridges, directed by Richard Rijnvos, Head of Composition at Durham University, and conducted by James Weeks, brings together some of the North East’s specialist professional performers of contemporary music, supported by Durham University, with the aim of contributing to the development of new music in the North East.

The first piece at this afternoon concert, in the beautifully restored Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall in the School of Music at Leeds University, dated from 2004: the song-cycle In Praise of Dreams, four poems by the Nobel prize-winning Wisława Szymborska translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh, composed by Birmingham-based Joe Cutler.

Festival Director Jane Anthony made a brief appearance before this concert, reminding the audience that it was dedicated to the memory of Lord Harewood, who died earlier this year. He had been a staunch supporter of Leeds Lieder+, with a great gift for spotting and developing young singers.

The London Sinfonietta presented a fascinatingly diverse programme for this concert, one of three themed ‘Remix’ evenings at King’s Place in collaboration with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Both ensembles are renowned for their expertise in music of a particular period, but this evening the stylistic boundaries were rather more blurred.