A rare opportunity awaits to experience French composer Gérard Grisey’s stunningly dark and disorientating Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, presented by the London Sinfonietta. This masterpiece offers a journey through intricate collisions of fragmented melody and harmony,
Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, which roughly translates to Four Songs for Crossing the Threshold, explores the boundary between life and death – a significance that is elevated by Grisey’s passing soon after its completion, preventing his attendance at the world premiere of the piece by the London Sinfonietta and George Benjamin in 1999.
As a pioneering figure in the spectral music movement–music intended to imitate the spectral qualities of a sound–Grisey uniquely explores sonic transformations and transfigurations, calling on microtones and rapid gong acrobatics to conjure these profound and disruptive musical worlds.
The piece stands as one of the most significant concert works of the late 20th century, written for soprano and ensemble to create a meditation on death divided into four sections: the death of an angel, the death of civilization, the death of the voice, and the death of humanity. Perhaps now, more than ever, a piece for our times.
Programme includes:
Gérard Grisey Quart chants pour franchir le seuil
Jack Sheen conductor
Nina Guo soprano
London Sinfonietta