Radius: International New Music Group

Concerts

Chamber opera double bill: 23rd September 2010

Purcell Room, London

Tickets for Purcell Room: Southbank Centre box office

Programme:

  • Francis Poulenc: La Voix Humaine - opera in 1 act
- interval -
  • Tim Benjamin: Le Gâteau d'Anniversaire - opera in 1 act (UK premiere)

Rebecca Lea director, soprano
Laura Sheerin, soprano
Emma Hall, mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Ainscough, baritone
Jamie Thompson, piano

Radius present two contrasting one-act French operas - the dark tragedy of Poulenc's classic La Voix Humaine and the fresh comedy of Tim Benjamin's Le Gáteau d'Anniversaire, recently premiered to great success at the Opéra de Marseille. Sung in French (translation provided).

La Voix Humaine

A young woman is on the telephone to her lover, who has just abandoned her and is to marry another woman. This is their final conversation. The tense and harrowing conversation is interrupted several times, with crossed lines and dropped connections heightening the tension.

Le Gâteau d'Anniversaire

Louis - an artisan baker - is sleeping, and amid fond dreams of his singular passion (bread), he 'wakes' to find two women, Marie and Antoinette, emerge from hiding under his bed to torment him - he must give up bread and make cake instead. Eventually, after various threats and a recitation of the Déclaration des droits de l'homme, he succeeds in banishing them. He is woken up (now for real) by his sisters, the twins Théroigne [de Méricourt] and Olympe [de Gouges]. It is their birthday, and he has forgotten to make them a promised birthday cake.

More information: Le Gâteau d'Anniversaire on TimBenjamin.com

Autumn 2009

21st October 2009, Purcell Room, London

Tickets: Southbank Centre Box Office

Critically acclaimed ensemble Radius performs Schoenberg's exquisite Chamber Symphony No.1, op.9, orchestrated by Webern, and Berg's Piano Sonata op.1, itself strongly influenced by the Schoenberg Chamber Symphony. Radius will also premiere a new theatrical setting of Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's 'Mrs Lazarus' by award-winning composer Tim Benjamin, featuring soprano Danae Eleni.

Southbank Centre - more information / box office

Soprano Danae Eleni Soprano Danae Eleni

Programme for 21st October 2009

  • Berg: Piano Sonata, op. 1
  • Adorno: Vier Lieder, op. 3 arr. Benjamin *
- interval -
  • Tim Benjamin / Carol Ann Duffy: Mrs Lazarus (with soprano Danae Eleni) **
  • Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, op. 9 arr. Webern
* UK Premiere
** World Premiere

Tickets: Southbank Centre Box Office

Previous Concerts: Spring 2009

18th June 2009, Wigmore Hall, London

A Celebration of Charles Darwin and Evolution

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150 years since the first publication of "On the Origin of Species", critically acclaimed ensemble Radius perform a programme featuring different approaches to "chance" in music (Cage, Boulez, Newland), glorious bird-song (Messiaen), and a new semi-staged work dramatising Darwin's letters from the Beagle, by Tim Benjamin.

Radius at Wigmore Hall June 2009 Radius at Wigmore Hall June 2009
Larger size poster (JPG, 90k)

Programme for 18th June 2009

  • Pierre Boulez: Domaines
  • John Cage: Telephones And Birds (Not Birds But Messiaen), featuring Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux
- interval -
  • Paul Newland: Monotonous Forest *
  • John Cage: Radio Music
  • Tim Benjamin: A Dream of England (A dramatic setting of Charles Darwin's letters from the Beagle) *
* World Premiere

Previous Concerts: Autumn 2008

10th November 2008, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London

Radius performs Ligeti's monumental Horn Trio (1982), a key late work by the greatly missed composer. The concert also features works by British composers Anna Meredith, Charlie Piper and John Traill, and the world premiere of Tim Benjamin's Eine Erscheinung aus den Wäldern.

Radius at the Purcell Room November 2008 Radius at the Purcell Room, Monday 10th November 2008
Larger size poster (JPG, 90k)

Programme for 10th November 2008

  • Tim Benjamin: Three Portraits (2007)
  • John Traill: Horn Trio (Hommage á Ligeti) (2008) *
  • Gyorgy Ligeti: Horn Trio (1982)
- interval -
  • Anna Meredith: Hex I/II
  • Tim Benjamin: Eine Erscheinung aus den Wäldern (2008) *
  • Charlie Piper: Bakcheia (2007) *
* World Premiere

Previous Concerts: Spring 2008

Purcell Room, Southbank, London

Sunday 25th May, 2008 @ 7.45pm

Bank Holiday Weekend Modernism!
Radius performed works by four British composers: Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Adès, Ian Vine, and Tim Benjamin, together with a rare performance of George Crumb's beautiful Eleven Echoes of Autumn. The programme featured two world premieres: The Rosenhan Experiment, a one-act music theatre piece by Tim Benjamin featuring countertenor Robert Ogden, and a new work by Ian Vine. This concert was repeated on the 21st June at the Corsham Festival, near Bath. The Purcell Room was reviewed in Music Web International and Corsham was reviewed in the Gazette and Herald.

Radius at the Purcell Room Radius at the Purcell Room, Sunday 25th May 2008
Larger size poster (JPG, 151k)

Programme for 25th May 2008

  • Harrison Birtwistle: Lied (2006)
  • Ian Vine: Gesso (2008) *
  • George Crumb: Eleven Echoes of Autumn (1965)
- interval -
  • Tim Benjamin: The Rosenhan Experiment (2008) *
    (directed by Arne Muus)
  • Thomas Adès: Catch (1991)
* World Premiere

Previous Concerts: Winter 2008

Wigmore Hall, London

Tuesday 8th January, 2008 @ 7.30pm

Radius 8:1:8
Radius will perform a programme of new works by leading composers of the new British generation, including Ian Vine, Paul Newland, Larry Goves, and Radius founder Tim Benjamin, alongside works by internationally acclaimed composers Vivier, Feldman, and Xenakis. This concert also features 50:50, a series of short commissions celebrating the 50th birthday of Simon Holt.

Tickets now on sale: at the Wigmore Hall Box Office. Cost: £8-£15, concessions available.

Download the press release for this concert

Radius at Wigmore Hall Radius return to the Wigmore Hall, Tuesday 8th January 2008
Larger size poster (JPG, 61k)

Programme for 8th January 2008

  • Ian Vine: X (2007) *
  • Claude Vivier: Paramirabo (1978)
  • Tim Benjamin: Three Portraits (2007) *
- interval -
  • Iannis Xenakis: Kottos (1977)
  • Laurence Crane: Simon 10 Holt 50 +*
    Anthony Gilbert: ecco Eco +*
    Paul Newland: time quivers +*
    Larry Goves: riviniana +*
    Ian Vine: fifty objects *
    Five "birthday cards" to celebrate Simon Holt's 50th birthday (2007)
  • Morton Feldman: Durations I (1960)
  • Tim Benjamin: In Memoriam Tape Recorder (2007) *
* World Premiere
+ Radius commission

Previous Concerts: Autumn 2007

Southbank Centre, London

19th, 20th, 21st September 2007 @ 7.45pm

In association with The London Design Festival 2007

The Corley Conspiracy Radius performing The Corley Conspiracy at the Southbank Centre
Photo: Tim Benjamin
Radius and 26 present a new opera commissioned by the London Design Festival: The Corley Conspiracy, by Tim Benjamin and Sean Starke. Also featuring music by Xenakis, Berio, Holt, and Vine, and writing by Rishi Dastidar.

Remember the two-way televisions in George Orwell's 1984?
The ones which watched you back?
Well the country that brought Orwell into the world has made his nightmare follow into the world after him.

Welcome to the suspicious world of Mike Corley.
Under threat from those in power, Corley is the victim of "interactive watching": his every move is being monitored and "they" terrorise him through radio and television broadcasts. Have the British gone mad?

Based on a true story that unfolded on Usenet bulletin boards, this new opera is a gripping portrayal of a paranoid mind that raises unsettling questions about a society under surveillance. Both disturbing and darkly comic, with new music performed by rising stars Radius, this is an event not to be missed.

Download the programme

Spring 2007

Radius will be giving the following concerts in Spring 2007.

Wigmore Hall, London

Friday 20th April 2007 @ 7.30pm

Radius: New Music from Europe, Japan and the USA
New group Radius - six outstanding young international concert artists - present a programme of new music from around the world, featuring John Cage, Louis Andriessen, Anthony Gilbert, Jo Kondo and Elliott Carter, and world premieres by Tim Benjamin and Ian Vine.

Download the programme

Holywell Music Room, Oxford

Wednesday 25th April 2007 @ 7.30pm

Tickets: Tickets Oxford / Oxford Playhouse

Programme for 20th and 25th April

The programme for the above events is as follows:

  • Ian Vine: Underpaintings (2005) *
  • Louis Andriessen: Tuin van Eros (Garden of Eros ) (2003)
  • Tim Benjamin: Prelude I (2005) **
  • Anthony Gilbert: Moonfaring (1983)
- interval -
  • Jo Kondo: Aquarelle (1990)
  • Elliot Carter: Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux II, (1994)
  • Luciano Berio: Sequenza VIII (1976)
  • John Cage: Five, (1988)
  • Tim Benjamin: Five Bagatelles (2006) *
* World Premiere at Wigmore Hall
** London Premiere at Wigmore Hall

Radius posters

The posters for some past Radius concerts are shown below. Click on a poster below to view a large version.

Radius: 20th April 2007 at Wigmore Hall, London
20th April 2007 at Wigmore Hall, London

Radius: 19th-21st September 2007 at Wigmore Hall, London
19th-21st September 2007 at Wigmore Hall, London

Radius: 8th January 2008 at Wigmore Hall, London
8th January 2008 at Wigmore Hall, London

Radius: 25th May 2008 at the Southbank Centre, London
25th May 2008 at the Southbank Centre, London

Radius: 10th November 2008 at the Southbank Centre, London
10th November 2008 at the Southbank Centre, London

Radius: 18th June 2009 at the Southbank Centre, London
Radius: 18th June 2009 at the Southbank Centre, London

Radius: 21st October 2009 at the Southbank Centre, London 21st October 2009 at the Southbank Centre, London