Werk: A Cold Spring

Oliver Knussen and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group excel in a cunningly linked group of works from the old (mid 1980s) to the brand new.

Les concerts de musique d’avant-garde sont réputés difficiles. Pourtant, le concert donné à l’occasion du 90e anniversaire de Pierre Boulez s’est déroulé devant une salle pleine, ou presque, d’un public manifestement enthousiaste.

It must be heart-warming for a young composer, sharing the bill with Beethoven and Stravinsky, to know that the programme has been named after her piece. The clear, confident writing in Helen Grime's A Cold Spring (2009) effectively conveyed the visual contrast offered by sharp-edged, bright days at this time of year.