The London Sinfonietta presents a portrait of Harrison Birtwistle at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London tonight. David Atherton conducts.

On the programme are Cortege, Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, 5 Distances for 5 Instruments and the the UK première of In Broken Images.

In the first half of the concert, Tom Service talks to Harrison Birtwistle about his music.

Watch Birtwistle in conversation with the Southbank Centre’s Gillian Moore.

Watch on YouTube.

“A sensual musical bath of sonorous reverberation and exotic resonance, music that shimmers and glints with a seductive play of instrumental timbres”

Tom Service on Pierre Boulez’ Sur Incises in today’s Guardian

In the same article, Gillian Moore, the Southbank Centre’s head of contemporary culture, asks if Boulez’ Pli selon Pli is “greatest orchestral work of the past 50 years”.

The Southbank Centre’s Exquisite Labyrinth: The Music of Pierre Boulez, takes place from Friday 30 Sept to Sunday 2 Oct.

Here’s Tom Service on the recent performance of Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain at the Lucerne Festival.

“... an hour-long ensemble work that made a shattering nocturnal impression … a monumental work”

Read the full article.

Listen to an excerpt on this page.

Wikio.co.uk has published its July overview of the top 20 music blogs.

Congratulations to Norman Lebrecht (Slipped Disc at No. 12), Tom Service (Tom Service on Classical Music at No. 16) and Gavin Plumley (Entartete Musik at No. 20) for banging the drum for classical and contemporary music.