Music of Today: Jonathan Harvey at the Royal Festival Hall

The wonderful English composer Jonathan Harvey sadly passed away in December 2012, and it has been no surprise to see performances of his pieces popping up all over the place during 2013. Fortunately, it appears that Harvey’s music will get still more airtime in 2014, kicking off with a portrait concert from the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by young Dutch hotshot Antony Hermus. This concert celebrates what would have been his 75th birthday year with performances of his piece for large ensemble Wheel of Emptiness, and violin concerto, Scena. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Harvey’s music: it is vibrant and somewhat Francophilic in tone, probably because he spent so much time working at Pierre Boulez’s research-institute- meets-contemporary-music-powerhouse IRCAM in Paris during the 1980s. That’s right - while you were spilling long island ice teas all over your drainpipe jeans at half-full New-Wave concerts, Mr Harvey was pushing the boundaries of sonic experimentation with innovative computer technologies, and his music is all the better for it. Vivid orchestral colour, pulsating energy, and mystical themes are all hallmarks of Harvey’s music, meaning that this concert is set to be an experience that is dazzling and poignant in equal turns. Do not pass up this opportunity to see the Philharmonia’s technicolour rendering of music by one of the most talented, sensitive and enigmatic English composers of the last century.

Admission for this one is free, which means that a) a lot of people working in the arts will be there, and b) you will feel no guilt at all for buying two of those tiny bottles of Appletiser at the interval instead of one. Make sure you turn up early though, because seats are bound to fill up quickly.