For its current Southbank season the Philharmonia has installed Anna Clyne as featured composer. She is curating the orchestra’s early-evening series of new-music programmes, while her own works feature prominently in the mainstream events too – Santtu-Matias Rouvali opened his latest concert with the UK premiere of Clyne’s Color Field.
Jointly inspired by the philanthropist Melanie Sabelhaus (to whom the score is dedicated) and the paintings of Mark Rothko, the three movements are titled Yellow, Red and Orange, with a traditional Serbian melody woven through the textures in tribute to Sabelhaus’s background. It makes a satisfying triptych, with the central Red movement’s incessant, pounding percussion and vaguely martial brass framed by the rocking string harmonics of the opening Yellow and the consolatory quiet of the Orange finale.
