Instrument: Viola

The third concert of A Festival of New Music also suggests the conflicts and split personalities which may come from extended isolation. 

Daniel Barenboim, Emmanuel Pahud and select musicians continue their brief odyssey into new music with three striking and stimulating world premieres and a welcome touch of Boulez.

The Paris-based Quatuor Modigliani are joined by special guests for an evening of Schubert quintets in Évian-les-Bains. 

The Bergen Phil and the Edvard Grieg Choir trace music from Elizabethan themes to 20th century works on them, culminating in Pärt's Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.

In an unusual programme, with Finnish music from Rautavaara and Sibelius, separated by Walton, the Ulster Orchestra and Anu Tali find all the subtleties in the music.  

The concert paired strong new works by Joan La Barbara, Nicole Lizée and Paola Prestini with compositions by Luciano Berio and George Crumb for a satisfying evening of adventurous works for voice.

The tenor man told Thomas Hardy’s familiar verses with such probing honesty that I heard newness in all of them.