I heard only two works: Skempton's The Light Fantastic for Chamber Orchestra and his "classic" Lento for Symphony Orchestra composed, perhaps, a year earlier. I was disappointed by both. Almost a quarter of a century from its composition Lento seems dated, a failed experiment by Skempton in using limited, consonant harmony. Nothing wrong with the conceit but the execution and invention lacks a personal idiom and originality. The performance was good.

This was the first time that I'd encountered The Light Fantastic and found the performance lacking both lightness of touch and fantasy - it remained episodic and earthbound. I had anticipated a fresher, more dance-driven interpretation. As with Lento, I found my mind wandering to influences. The pizzicato section, for instance, took me back to Frank Martin's Etudes of fifty years earlier.

Small beer - even Then & There in the early 1990s, and far too insubstantial, faded and passe for "Hear and Now"?

I find Skempton works best in tiny doses. I recall with wry amusement undermining a House Music Competition in the the school where I taught Chemistry by teaching a 100 "volunteers" to play one of his micro piano pieces - as there were points to be earned for every entry, "my" House won before a note was played, or before the Judges walked like zombies out of the Hall where they'd heard so little played so often.