This January’s Park Lane Group Young Artists Series is featuring 28 exceptional young performers over five concerts. Each concert further features a piece by a different contemporary composer each night, as well as one by an older, ‘Linked Composer’. On Monday the composer featured was Thomas Adès, who was ‘linked’ to Gerald Barry. The Muse Piano Quintet performed Barry's Piano Quartet no.
For many, the phrase “music competition” has an unsavoury ring to it. One thinks of the tearful children of pushy parents, the crazed violinist whose failure has pushed him over the edge or perhaps even some of the more barbaric (yet horrifyingly watchable) talent shows on TV. Fortunately there is another side to these competitions: the fantastic platform they provide to talented musicians.
