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

Ensemble Modern devote a night at Zankel Hall to musical tracings of migratory patterns with works by ex-pat composers born in Cuba, South Africa and the United States. 

Inside Queen Elizabeth Hall, a centenary celebration of György Ligeti unfolds – a mesmerising blend of rhythmic exuberance and eerie textures, alongside pieces by Conlon Nancarrow and Unsuk Chin.

Stalwarts of American minimalism meet British Proms premieres as the London Sinfonietta checks the nation’s pulse

A brief but innovative tribute to the lasting influence of Merce Cunningham in the Linbury Theatre

Pour leur première fois au Festival Musica de Strasbourg, l'ambitieux Quatuor Béla crée son spectacle « Barbarie », tourbillonnant et fascinant voyage désarticulé dans l'intrigante histoire de la mécanisation des instruments.

Alasdair Beatson presented a dazzling programme of 20th-century piano music, with Harrison Birtwistle at its centre. 

It would probably be a mistake to take Frank Zappa’s The Adventures of Greggery Peccary too seriously. True, musically it is highly taxing in its orchestral transcription by Ali N. Askin, and there’s absolutely no denying the seriousness of Zappa as a musician generally. But this is Zappa in full-on nonsense mode.Greggery Peccary is a pig of some sort, who works in an office, or something.

Conlon Nancarrow may be most famous for his player piano studies, all of which were performed at the Southbank Centre last weekend, but his instrumental music is worth a listen too. His Third String Quartet is perhaps his most important effort for 'actual' performers rather than machines, but on Sunday night the Arditti Quartet also made a decent case for the First Quartet.

Having missed a chance to hear Conlon Nancarrow’s Player Piano Study no. 21 (Canon X) due to a spontaneous programme switch earlier in the day, I was delighted that Dominic Murcott’s arrangement of the piece for London Sinfonietta and player piano opened this concert.

This weekend saw the Southbank Centre embark on an ambitious festival programme of rarely performed composer Conlon Nancarrow. One of the main reasons Nancarrow’s music is rarely performed is that the vast majority of what he wrote was for the archaic player piano.

Good news for skeptics: modernist music can be beautiful. If what keeps listeners away from the “difficult” music written in the past century is a fear of dissonance, they can rest assured.