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
- 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
Programme for 21st October 2009
- Berg: Piano Sonata, op. 1
- Adorno: Vier Lieder, op. 3 arr. Benjamin *
- Tim Benjamin / Carol Ann Duffy: Mrs Lazarus (with soprano Danae Eleni) **
- Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, op. 9 arr. Webern
** 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 2009Larger 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
- 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) *
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, Monday 10th November 2008Larger 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)
- Anna Meredith: Hex I/II
- Tim Benjamin: Eine Erscheinung aus den Wäldern (2008) *
- Charlie Piper: Bakcheia (2007) *
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, Sunday 25th May 2008Larger size poster (JPG, 151k)
Programme for 25th May 2008
- Harrison Birtwistle: Lied (2006)
- Ian Vine: Gesso (2008) *
- George Crumb: Eleven Echoes of Autumn (1965)
- Tim Benjamin: The Rosenhan Experiment (2008) *
(directed by Arne Muus) - Thomas Adès: Catch (1991)
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 return to the Wigmore Hall, Tuesday 8th January 2008Larger size poster (JPG, 61k)
Programme for 8th January 2008
- Ian Vine: X (2007) *
- Claude Vivier: Paramirabo (1978)
- Tim Benjamin: Three Portraits (2007) *
- 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) *
+ Radius commission
Previous Concerts: Autumn 2007
Southbank Centre, London
19th, 20th, 21st September 2007 @ 7.45pm
In association with The London Design Festival 2007
Radius performing The Corley Conspiracy at the Southbank CentrePhoto: Tim Benjamin
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.
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.
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)
- 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) *
** London Premiere at Wigmore Hall
