The Britten Sinfonia's programme exploring Benjamin Britten's time in America captivated the audience at Kings Place, London. The concert, part of the 50th anniversary of the composer's death, focused on works by Britten and Aaron Copland, who spent the summer of 1939 together in Woodstock. The performance highlighted the fruitful period when Britten and his partner Peter Pears travelled to North America as a 'vacation from the general European atmosphere'.
Directed from the violin, Zoë Beyers led a taut, witty performance of Britten's Young Apollo. The energetic string playing and pianist Huw Watkins' mercurial scales and glissando drew audible giggles of delight from the audience. Les Illuminations showcased soprano Elizabeth Watts' expressive control, from her harshest lower register to creamy top notes, with the orchestra revelling in the score's solo lines and impish pizzicato.
Separating Britten's works, Paul Bowles' Six Piano Preludes offered a jazzy interlude, with Watkins relishing the woozy poetry of the miniatures. After the interval, Ukrainian clarinettist Oleg Shebeta-Dragan delivered a blistering performance of Copland's Clarinet Concerto, marked by breathtaking virtuosity and collective collaboration. The programme closed with Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring in its original chamber scoring, moving from crystalline vulnerability to rustic bowing and quasi-machinic precision, emerging organically from the ongoing musical conversation.
