On and Off the Road

Keting Sun – Yǒng (World premiere)
Robert Reid Allan – Some Pictures of Guitarists (World premiere)
Gordon McPherson – Detours

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Stephen Barlow – Conductor
With Psappha: Conrad Marshall, Rachael Clegg, Dov Goldberg, Naomi Atherton, Benjamin Powell, Tim Williams, Benedict Holland, Sophie Rosa, Heather Wallington and Jennifer Langridge

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Detours is a road trip deep into memory – a set of deeply personal moments frozen in time, each one as witnessed from the driver’s seat of a car. By turns elegiac and pulsating, haunted and beautiful, Gordon McPherson’s masterpiece pays homage to everyone from Igor Stravinsky to Glen Campbell across five hypnotic movements.

Exactly 20 years after Psappha made the world-premiere recording of Detours, the group gives a rare full performance in a concert that also features two world premieres of works created for Psappha’s Composing For scheme: Robert Reid Allan’s playful portrait of the artist, written for and premiered by BBC Radio 3’s Tom McKinney; and Keting Sun’s spectral work for violin and cimbalom.