The French Canadian Claude Vivier died in Paris in 1983, at the age of just 34. For a number of years afterwards the gruesome circumstances of his death – stabbed by a 19-year-old man he had invited to spend the night with him – and the fact that Vivier seemed to have anticipated it, seemed to be more widely known than any of his music. But his reputation has steadily grown, and though British performances of his works remain relatively rare, he is often claimed as one of the most significant composers of the second half of the 20th century.
The Southbank Centre’s series devoted to Vivier’s music provided an opportunity to assess those claims. Shared between the combined forces of the London Sinfonietta and the Royal Academy of Music’s Manson Ensemble, and Soundstreams, the Toronto-based company dedicated to promoting and performing contemporary Canadian music, the programmes took in a variety of Vivier’s works, alongside new pieces by Canadian composers, though the impression left as a whole remained unconvincing.
