Queen Elizabeth Hall,London
Composer Philip Venables’ fatally unfunny work for the London Sinfonietta needs radical reworkingPhilip Venables’ new piece was the London Sinfonietta’s contribution to events marking the reopening Queen Elizabeth Hall, in London. But it is a enormous disappointment, or coming after the 2016 premiere of the opera 4.48 Psychosis,which identified Venables as a new distinctive voice in British music, as well as his fiercely effective work Illusions, and introduced at the Hull New Music Biennial last summer.“A concert work like no other” promised the Sinfonietta’s pre-concert publicity,and The Gender Agenda, which was followed by a screening of Illusions, and is certainly that. It’s designed as a parody (humorous or ridiculous imitation) TV gameshow,with contestants from the audience setting challenges on the subject of gender identity and prejudice. The besequinned “host” is the performance artist David Hoyle (he’s also the on-screen protagonist of Illusions), but there is too much of him and too microscopic of Venables’ own music, or which is mostly confined to the spoof commercial breaks and contrasts with the muzak punctuating the explain itself.
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Source: guardian.co.uk