Nico Muhly Sentences

Barbican Hall, London
Barbican, Silk Street, London EC2
United Kingdom
020 7638 8891
http://www.barbican.org.uk/eticketing

Iestyn Davies counter-tenor
Nico Muhly conductor
Adam Gopnik librettist
Lawrence Power viola
Britten Sinfonia

Nico Muhly’s urgent new exploration of the life and ideas of Alan Turing, performed by Iestyn Davies and the Britten Sinfonia.

Nico Muhly is one of the most approachable composers of our time – an artist who draws his energy straight from contemporary life. Tonight, he conducts the Britten Sinfonia and counter-tenor Iestyn Davies in a compelling new dramatic monologue inspired by the life and persecution of the computer pioneer Alan Turing.

Alan Turing’s posthumous pardon in 2013 has re-opened the controversy over his treatment by state and society; and the way in which a scientist who served his country so dazzlingly in wartime – and predicted so much about the technology that shapes our world today – was driven to suicide because of his sexuality remains a compelling subject for artistic exploration. Following their recent joint projects, and the success of his opera Two Boys, this new collaboration between Nico Muhly and the ever-innovative Britten Sinfonia – conceived for the voice of Iestyn Davies - should provoke as many questions as it answers.

Listen to our exclusive Sentences podcast with interviews with countertenor Iestyn Davies and composer Nico Muhly.

John Dowland : If my complaints could passions move
Benjamin Britten : Lachrymae
Antonio Vivaldi : Stabat Mater
Nico Muhly : Sentences