Knussen & Hosokawa

The London Sinfonietta leads an afternoon of contemporary music rooted in Japan, including the UK concert premiere of a chamber opera by Toshio Hosokawa. Looking to Japan from two directions, the London Sinfonietta explores the music of Oliver Knussen in the 75th anniversary year of his birth, eminent Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa, and a range of new chamber and ensemble pieces in an afternoon of premieres and talks. Japanese culture was a lifelong interest for Oliver Knussen. His final work, O Hototogisu! – fragment of a Japonisme sets seven haikus about the lesser cuckoo, the hototogisu , a bird that appears regularly in haiku poetry, and also incorporates ideas from Kabuki theatre.