Stan's Cafe

On Tuesday Craig and I sat in on a rehearsal with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. It was fascinating to watch the process. The speed and precision of George Benjamin’s work as conductor was exhilarating and seeing this clarity mesh with the musicians’ tight concentration truly impressive. The adroit players breezed through Francesco Antonioni’s beautiful new work Ballata with tweaks in pacing and interpretation, identifying moments of congruence and divergence the only apparent adjustments. Better value for the rehearsal room spectator was work on Benjamin’s own piece, Three inventions for Chamber Orchestra, the fiendish nature of which allowed us, for a short time at least, to see great musicians struggling.

James
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