Celebrations for Pierre Boulez’s 90th-birthday year reach a climax in this matinee performance, in which contemporary music specialists the London Sinfonietta pair Boulez’s own music with that of young British composers Helen Grime and Christian Mason. Pierre Boulez’s Mémoriale puts the flute in the spotlight, showcasing minutiae of texture and articulation, while in Domaines it’s a solo clarinet that gives out a sustained soliloquy. The two contrasting parts of Éclat/Multiples (1970) are theoretically part of a larger work, as yet unfinished by the composer. They make for a striking contrast: the brilliant, glittering colours of Éclat set against the nervy perpetual motion of Multiples.
There will be no interval