This concert focuses on our perceptions of time, through two very different yet complementary masterpieces. The London Sinfonietta and Daniel Pioro will perform Gérard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum, a work that takes us through three time frames: ‘normal’, human time, the ‘expanded’ time of whales and the ‘compressed’ time of birds, via this pioneering spectralist composer’s virtuoso imagination. This late masterwork fulfilled Grisey’s vision of a music that transfigures our experience of time. On a symphonic scale, revealing dizzying dances and lavish harmonic language, the music carries us on a journey through boundary-breaking sound-worlds.

Another ensemble which is yet to be announced will perform the first half, which features specially created writing by Michael Morpurgo, sets out to explore ‘nature time’ in Vivaldi’s iconic series of violin concertos, The Four Seasons.

Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Gérard Grisey Vortex temporum

Daniel Pioro violin
Geoffrey Paterson conductor
Sir Michael Morpurgo narrator
London Sinfonietta
Another ensemble to be announced