Tippett can still empty a concert hall

The first of the two concerts in the John Innes Centre (which is out of the city centre, but offers superb chamber music acoustics) didn't just have some empty seats, it was two thirds empty. Here is the culprit programme:
Tippett Piano Sonata No. 1
Gershwin 3 Preludes
Ravel Sonatine
interval
Tippett Sonata No. 2
Ives Three-Page Sonata
Bartok Excerpts from Mikrokosm0s, Book 6

It would have been so easy to have programmed the two Tippett Sonatas with two 'popular' Beethoven sonatas. The Festival organisers and Osborne didn't. They got lots of empty seats, and those that did venture outside their personal comfort zones got a marvellous, and thought, provoking evening of live music making.
If you enjoyed this post follow the overgrown path to Hildegard comes to Norwich via IRCAM and Darmstadt
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