It was a rainy afternoon in an autumnal London as conductor-composer Jack Sheen tuned the quietude of Gerard Grisey’s “Quatre Chants pour franchir le seuil.” The performers, the London Sinfonietta and soprano Nina Guo, were receptive as he worked with them to uncover hidden acoustic relationships, finding sounds that were at once full and soft, luminous yet almost imperceptibly hushed. At one point, he instructed: “Keep the last notes of these arpeggios like a secret.” Through such poise, the particular resonance of Grisey’s final work was found.
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