Afternoon Performance: Fantasia: From Japan to Paris

Inspiration comes in many colours. Oliver Knussen heard a messenger from another world in the song of a Japanese cuckoo. Mark-Anthony Turnage’s viola concerto turns rough magic into poetry, and Tōru Takemitsu heard, as well as saw, the colours of his garden.

A fascination with nature, a love of the East and a shared passion for the endlessly subtle hues of French music: delicate and beautiful threads link the different pieces in this programme from Ryan Wigglesworth, soprano Claire Booth and viola virtuoso Lawrence Power. But Ravel’s luscious oriental songs – and his whirling, dizzying vision of a world waltzing on the brink – tie them all together, in a concert to touch the heart and ravish the ear.