Sinfonia 21 . David Porcelijn

This double concert, part of the music@venture festival, is a must for this radical concert series. Two of the absolute top ensembles in contemporary music present a sample of what festival curator Jonathan Harvey calls 'contemporary music with a Buddhist slant'. 'Vortex Temporum' by Gérard Grisey (1946-1998) is a three-part work for mixed sextet and is a standard of contemporary ensemble music. Fascinated by the transformation of historical material, Franco Donatoni (1927-2000) starts from a fragment of Schoenberg's 'Klavierstücke opus 23' in his ensemble piece 'Etwas ruhiger im Ausdruck'. His compatriot Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) wrote his 'Duo for violin and cello' on the basis of improvisations by his assistants. His music is inspired by Zen Buddhism and expresses the internal vibration of the sounds. The reference work 'Sept Haikai' by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) consists of seven 'Japanese postcards' for piano and small orchestra. It makes for an easy transition to 'Wo bist du, Licht!' for mezzo and orchestra by the Canadian Claude Vivier (1948-1983), whose incredibly expressive music goes straight to the heart. The programme concludes with another monument, 'Third Construction' by John Cage (1912-1992), an exotic piece of percussion that really swings.