London, King's Place: Simon Holt and Jonathan Dove at ‘Britten 100’

Since reviewing the opening of London's latest new concert hall complex, King's Place, in 2008 I have welcomed the opportunity to follow this up by reviewing subsequent premières in their purpose-built studio-style concert halls pretty well annually. For 2013 Kings Place celebrates the centenary of the birth of one of the UK's most illustrious composers, in its three-day series ‘Britten at 100’. As one of the involved presenting pianists, Andrew Matthews-Owen, aptly commented in the Kings Place brochure: ‘It's strange that people are still a little scared of Britten – I think he'd enjoy the fact that his music still has the ability to shock and unsettle us today’. Well I'm certainly not scared of any composer I'm reviewing, but on this special ‘Britten’ occasion I was at pains to point out to the powers that be that I was mostly there on 9 February to review the two probably rather more ‘quirky’ world premières by Simon Holt and Jonathan Dove rather than make any major comment about Britten as such.