Fun in Leeds

Went to a lovely concert last night in Leeds as part of the FuseLeeds new music festival. I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to realise that there is a lot more going on in Leeds (only ½ hour away by train) than York. Ah well, at least I know it’s there now.

The concert was the BBC Symphony playing Britten, Debussy and John Adams conducted by James Conlon. My primary reason for going was to hear Britten’s ‘Les Illuminations’ sung by John Mark Ainsley, a singer I’ve been interested in for awhile now. The voice was as beautiful as I expected, if a little smaller than it seems on recordings. Ainsley is a probing, thoughtful performer and a commanding figure with a serious bearing (helped no doubt by his height and bald head – seems like kind of a bad ass if you ask me). "Les Illuminations" always seems like a bit of a novelty, being the youthful Britten’s first excursion into the French language (and bravely setting Rimbaud - most French composers don’t even attempt that). I’ve always liked the piece and it has a great youthful energy, even if it doesn’t achieve the depth of some of his later song cycles and operas. I was reminded in this piece and the "Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes that opened the program of how skilled an orchestrator Britten was. It’s certainly more illuminating (yes, pun intended) to hear his music live than on CD. But then again, what orchestral music really sounds better on CD anyway...

I regret that I am relatively unfamiliar with John Adams’ music. Last night’s piece "Harmonium", for choir and orchestra, was full of throbbing intensity, subtle rhythmic variation and at times lush stacked harmony. Listening to this piece, I could hear where Eric Whitacre learned some of his tricks (Whitacre’s unbelievably beautiful harmonic language is all his own though.) I’d be interested in hearing more Adams, in particular the new opera Dr. Atomic which premiered last summer. I’m curious to hear how he uses all of his tools in the context of a dramatic work.

The rest of the festival looks really good, with a mixture of contemporary classical music, multi-media and cross-genre collaboration. Particularly mouth-watering is Wednesday’s London Sinfonietta concert which features a group of songs by Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) and Nico Muhly (worked with Bjork) sung by Antony. For me it’s a toss-up between this concert and a concert by (friends-of-York Uni) Trio Medieval. I think I will probably go to the Trio Medieval concert because the London Sinfonietta concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 later in the month. Nice to have too many concerts to go to rather than not enough!