DAVID YEARSLEY is fascinated by the account of four composers who transformed their experiences of the second world war and the Holocaust into deeply moving works of art
Politics of the Imagination
LSO, St Luke’s London
ANSELM McDONNELL is an Irish Welsh composer based in Belfast who has composed over 90 works for orchestra, chamber groups and electronics, performed all over the world.
As curator for the event, he has a wide musical imagination with a vision to match, whose two works are central in an event that features 12 compositions by nine composers, covering a variety of styles, ranging from dubstep to Balkan rhythms, rap and beyond, all designed to stimulate the imagination around themes of playfulness, imagination with political concerns to the fore.
The core line-up on stage consists of Louise McMonagle (cello), Heather Roche (clarinet), and Matthew Farthing (percussion), working alongside rap artists Barrowclough, Joel the Custodian and Kosyne.
PETER MASON thrills to the sound of south London-born Yussef Dayes, and the galaxy of musicians drawn into his orbit
BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism
WILL STONE witnesses an experimental piano concerto inspired by the work of a young Jewish victim of the Nazis
WILL STONE enjoys a set by an artist too eclectic to be pigeonholed


