It was a busy old weekend.  In between a visit to the Anthony Gormley fog-in-a-box exhibition at the Hayward (disorientating), watching the FA cup final (disenchanting), going to the cinema to see Zodiac (discomfiting), and a trip to London Zoo (ummmm, brilliant, actually, hooray for the spider monkeys!) I squeezed in this London Sinfonietta Ligeti tribute, which also had an art installation - pictured above - and a bit of Reich thrown in as a sweetener.

Ligeti’s Self-Portrait with Reich and Riley (and Chopin in the Background) had two pianists setting about each other with short, one-handed phrases, repeating and overlapping in the best traditions of the two avant-gardists mentioned in the title.  It was like a game of piano ping-pong, and looked like it would be thoroughly infuriating to play.  The Chamber Concerto was next, and I must confess I struggled to join the dots between the four clearly delineated sections of this piece, which swung wildly between quiet introspection and excited credit card-plucked strings and clarinet chirrup. 

I’m not sure what setting this next to Steve Reich’s Sextet was meant to achieve, as the irrepressible flow, boundless rhythm and good humour of that piece made me forget all about the Ligeti within minutes.  First time I’ve seen a bowed vibraphone too, which added long resonant textures under the drums and marimbas.  The players looked like they were having a blast, particularly the drummers, who appeared about to crease up laughing at any moment, and this joy was infectious.

My good mood was to be sustained for the rest of the performance, as the night closed with Ligeti’s nonsense pocket operas Aventure and Nouvelles Aventures.  Three vocalists singing gibberish - hissing, spitting, burbling, barking, laughing, yelling through paper loudhailers - over-acting wildly all the while, in particular the bearded baritone who was giving it the full Brian Blessed.  The “percussionist” ripped newspapers, beat carpets, and threw crockery around in dramatic fashion.   They laughed.  We laughed.  They left.  We left.

P.S. Photo above of Anthony Gormley’s Space Station, with thanks to the kind member of staff at the Hayward who turned a blind eye to me crawling about underneath it with my camera