Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the largest of its kind in Britain or Ireland, had its first change of artistic director in 23 years last April, writes Michael Dervan. Susanna Eastburn took over from Richard Steinitz, whose unusually broad tastes and easy way with composers in public interviews will be a hard act to follow. Nevertheless, the 2001 festival, which is a joint effort, is as busy and varied as ever, with 58 events planned for the next 11 days.
Irish interest focuses on Jennifer Walshe, the Dubliner who won the prestigious Kranichsteiner Musikpreis in Darmstadt last year. Her As Mo Cheann, which made a particularly strong impression at a Crash Ensemble concert in December, turned Eastburn's head, too, and she has chosen to feature it in Vamos!, a concert next Wednesday, which concentrates on music by unconventional and emerging composers.
Also, the Japanese pianist Noriko Kawai will feature Gerald Barry's Au Milieu in a recital on November 30th.
Huddersfield boasts the Lawrence Batley Theatre, a venue Dubliners can only envy; theatrical presentations this year include work by Kaija Saariaho, Heiner Goebbels and Peter Maxwell Davis, as well as the UK premiere of Lohengrin, a one-act opera by the leading Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino, who's also the focus of a portrait concert.
In addition, there is a thread covering the work of one of Britain's most radical composers, Cornelius Cardew, who died 20 years ago. The sixth "paragraph" from Cardew's The Great Learning is "for any number of untrained musicians", and the festival is allowing anyone and everyone in as performers.
There's also a focus on three Nordic composers: Arne Nordheim of Norway and Bent S°rensen and Hans Abrahamsen of Denmark. Gy÷rgy Kurtβg of Hungary, who turned 75 in February, will work on the UK premiere of his Dialogue, for string quartet and electronics, with the Arditti Quartet; he will also perform duets from Games with his wife, Marta.
The festival runs until December 2nd. Full details are on the web at www.hcmf.co.uk
