'Tributes for Tony' was an amazing birthday present, a string of world premieres at London's Purcell Room, all composed to honour one man - London composer Anthony Gilbert.
It was Gilbert's 70th birthday and, although not as famous as contemporaries such as Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies (also celebrating their 70th birthdays this year), he's clearly much loved by his peers. Twelve short works made this a glittering hour of the terse and new.
It began with a magical piece by David Lumsdaine and Nicola LeFanu, which opened with a recorded soundscape, a choir of frogs and insects, the star being a baritone Podargus strigoides or tawny frogmouth hooting in the distance, while a cimbalom played strophes of shivering dulcimer notes.
Gilbert spent an important period of his life in Australia, where the native birdsong made a strong impact on him. To honour this, Ross Edwards wrote a short piece for descant recorder that trilled and gurgled into feathery life.
'This tiny tribute piece to Anthony grew out of a startling melodic fragment of birdsong I heard quite close to the centre of Sydney,' Edwards said.
For her tribute, American Janice Misurell-Mitchell wrote a madly spirited piece for soprano called Omaggio a(n) Tony. The text was simply 'Happy birthday', 'Hossanah' and 'Anthony Gilbert'. Sung with manic gusto by Marie Vassiliou, it made Mildred Hill's traditional Happy Birthday seem like a dirge. This witty, pacy piece was craftily studded with quotes from Gilbert's own works.
There was a gutsy offering for solo trombone by Davies, Simon Wills' battered instrument blaring at us through its flared brass bell.
