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The première of a bold new work by Luke Bedford was the highlight in a Prom concert that otherwise lacked impact and focus. 

Through His Teeth is a gripping psychological drama. Bedford was commissioned by the Royal Opera House to write a piece on the subject of Faust, to run alongside the star-studded performances of Gounod’s opera on the main stage. Heartily recommended to anybody in need of an evening of modern drama and violence.

This Wednesday, London Sinfonietta presented Luke Bedford: In Portrait – a concert with a format that seemed almost too good to be true. In a short programme combining Luke Bedford’s Wonderful No-Headed Nightingale (2011–12), Renewal (2012–13) and Gérard Grisey’s Périodes (1974), conductor Sian Edwards and the London Sinfonietta beckoned us into a world of shifting soundscapes.

One of today’s foremost violists, Lawrence Power joined a Scottish Ensemble augmented by two horns and two oboes for this typically boldly-programmed concert. The centrepiece was a new work by Luke Bedford, first composer-in-residence at the Wigmore Hall, written for the same musical forces as Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, which ended the evening.

Violist Lawrence Power, appropriately enough, produces a powerful, beautiful sound. Many public speakers would envy his musical charisma; when he begins a phrase you simply have to hear how it ends. His appearance as guest of the Scottish Ensemble saw him as joint soloist in two works and soloist proper in another.