Further Ashore

Over on InsideCatholic.com, regular guest critic Robert R. Reilly has published his essay of our recent trip to London:

Five Composers in Three Days

Earlier this month, I stopped in London for three evenings of concerts, accompanied by meetings with five composers. I had the good company of a brilliant young German music critic, who joined me from his Munich home.

Ignatius Press has agreed to bring out an expanded and revised edition of my book, Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music (initially published by Morley Press in 2002), and [jfl] has generously consented to collaborate on it. We have already conspired on a list of composers whom we wish to add, including Walter Braunfels, Paul Juon, Robert Simpson, Rued Langgaard, Joly Braga Santos, Ahmed Saygun, Othmar Schoeck, and Joseph Jongen. If you have not heard of these composers . . . well, that is the point of writing about them.

There are also living composers whom we will include, such as British composer David Matthews, in whose music I am currently immersing myself. One reason for being in London was to meet him. We also had the good fortune to visit with Stephen Hough, the noted pianist, who is now devoting more time to composition; Robin Walker; and Lionel Sainsbury. I also introduced myself briefly to Ian Wilson after the première of his lovely string quartet piece Her Charms Invited.

First off was the Stephen Hough/Steven Isserlis recital at that temple to chamber music, Wigmore Hall...
[continue at: http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/five-composers-in-three-days.html]