"I don't work out the synthesis between different styles. I just write the reality that is already there."

I had a wonderful chat with the Israeli composer Betty Olivero (above) the other week about her piece Neharot, Neharot, which is to be performed in the Proms chamber music series tomorrow. Here's the article, from this week's JC.

We talked about the sonic backdrop of life that forms a composer's style, the influence of her mentor Luciano Berio, and how the pain of the Lebanon War of 2006 (from the agonies and bereavements on both sides, in case you're wondering) found expression in this piece's imagery... The presence of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in the programme (by I Fagiolini and the Britten Sinfonia) is no coincidence. She's a sensitive, incisive, intuitive and passionately poetic musician and I'm looking forward to exploring her works.