KNUSSEN & HOSOKAWA

The London Sinfonietta explores the music of Oliver Knussen in the 75th anniversary year of his birth, the eminent Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa, and a range of new chamber and ensemble pieces in an afternoon of premieres and talks.

Japanese culture was a lifelong obsession for Oliver Knussen. His final work, O Hototogisu! – Fragment of a Japonisme (a double concerto for soprano and flute, with large ensemble) sets seven haikus about the Japanese cuckoo, and also incorporates ideas from Japanese Kabuki theatre. Complementing Knussen’s short work is the UK concert premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s opera The Maiden from the Sea, which tells the story of the encounter of an ancient Japanese ghost with a present-day refugee.

For the first event of the afternoon, new works by Royal Overseas League competition winner Edward Driver sits alongside a short new duet by Dai Fujikura based on a piece by Steven Gerber. Knussen believed strongly in bringing children closer to music, so a new work by Florence Anna Maunders puts young people from the North London Music Hub side-by-side in performance with London Sinfonietta and Royal Academy of Music players.

In between the concerts, from 4pm, talks contextualise Knussen, Hosokawa and the culture of Japan that binds them, before the evening concert begins at 5pm.