On 18 November Stefan Asbury joins the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at the CBSO Centre to conduct Oliver Knussen’s last composition O Hototogisu! – fragment of Jasponisme. Asbury steps in to conduct this concert in honour of Oliver Knussen, former BCMG Artist-in-Association, who sadly passed away on 8 July 2018. The piece is a fascinating setting of a traditional Japanese text for soprano, solo flute and ensemble, adapted by the composer from Haiku poems of the 17th and 19th century.
The concert also features the world premiere of the newest BCMG commissionCaravanserai, by British composer David Sawer. Caravanserai sees musical ideas passed from musician to musician along a line, like goods exchanged along the caravans of history. The rest of the programme includes Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis to mark the centenary of the death of the great composer and concludes with Harrison Birtwistle’sThree Songs from ‘The Holy Forest’ (settings of Robin Blaser’s poems The Literalist, Dear Dusty Moth and The Borrower).
