Musikfest 2: Treble Ecstasies

While the programmes of Musikfest could never be considered overly conservative – they have a tendency to champion lesser-performed works over comfortable staples – every so often they will put on a concert that, by virtue of its unusual repertoire, takes one completely by surprise and demolishes any expectations one may have had on the way in.

This year that event came in the form of a guest appearance from Kent Nagano and the WDR Symphony Orchestra, whose world-première performance of Yvonne Loriod’s La Sainte Face was closer to a spiritual experience than a concert. Loriod’s ninety-minute epic for soprano, flute, harp and orchestra – which was completed in 1945, but lay dormant for some eighty years – was not merely one of the most singular pieces one might ever hope to hear, but a work that seemed to defy any preconceived notion of…