Grief, virtuosity, chaos, and sunlight — SUNSET had it all, and then some.
Titled Sunset, the programme itself traced a kind of emotional arc, from intimacy and loss to absurdity, virtuosity, and finally clarity. It opened with Ottorino Respighi’s Il Tramonto, a setting of Shelley’s The Sunset, and one of the most quietly devastating works of the evening. Scored for soprano and string quartet, it tells of love abruptly cut short: a young woman awakening beside her dead lover, and carrying that grief throughout her life. Sarah Aristidou embodied this world completely. Aristidou stood centre stage barefoot, draped in a flowing, pale gown with a muted green cape, evoking something between a Greek statue and a mythological figure, her stillness as expressive as her voice. The music’s chromatic richness was matched by her ability to move between fragile lyricism and something almost recitative-like. It felt less like a performance and more like witnessing a moment suspended in time.
From this introspection, the concert pivoted into dazzling theatricality with Antonio Pasculli’s Oboe Concerto on themes from Donizetti’s La Favorita. Pasculli, often dubbed the “Paganini of the oboe,” wrote music that pushes the instrument to its absolute limits, and François Leleux rose to that challenge with irrepressible verve. Leading from within the orchestra, he brought a sense of play that transformed the stage dynamic, weaving operatic lyricism with brilliance, the oboe almost becoming a singing voice and conductor in its own right. The northern French oboe player is exuberant, communicative, and endlessly engaging. The final flourish drew immediate emphatic applause, and his Bach encore was a nod to the approaching Easter season.
If the first half had already traversed grief and brilliance, György Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre detonated into something altogether more unhinged, in the best possible way. Drawn from Le Grand Macabre, the work is a tour de force for soprano, sung by the delirious character Gepopo, chief of the secret police, attempting to communicate an impending apocalypse. Aristidou seized this with astonishing commitment. Beginning unseen, her voice emerged from the balcony behind the audience, immediately destabilising the space. As she moved through the hall, the performance became theatrical, immersive, and gleefully disruptive. By the time she reached the stage, interrupting, provoking, and playing off the conductor, Paul Watkins, the piece’s manic energy, teetering between urgency and absurdity, was fully realised. A well-timed joke from the podium, likening her character’s frantic authority to that of a Reform Party figure, landed perfectly with the audience, sharpening the work’s satirical edge. The orchestra matched her every move with remarkable precision, echoing her cries, outbursts, and sudden shifts of character with almost comic exactness that heightened the sense of chaos. Her vocal agility was staggering, but it was her dramatic instinct that made the performance unforgettable. She didn’t simply navigate Ligeti’s chaos; she revelled in it.
After the interval, Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 offered something entirely different: lightness, clarity, and a kind of youthful optimism. Composed for a modest ensemble, its charm lies in its restraint. Under Leleux’s direction, Sinfonia Smith Square captured this spirit beautifully. After the intensity of the first half, it felt like stepping into an elegant and joyful sunlight.
What made Sunset so remarkable was not just the calibre of its performers, though that was undeniable, but the way the programme itself told a story. From the transience of life in Il Tramonto, through operatic passion and virtuosic display, to Ligeti’s surreal apocalypse and Schubert’s serene resolution, the evening traced something very human. It was, in every sense, a complete experience: thoughtful, theatrical, and performed with exceptional artistry.
Sunset was a one-off performance on 29th March, presented as part of the London Chamber Music Festival. Tickets for other shows at the Sinfonia Smith Square Hall can be found here.