Lights, sound, music... mud-wrestling?

Far more vivid was Friday's 50th birthday tribute to Vic Hoyland by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. The contrast between the grit of Hoyland's recent piano solo music and his Chamber concerto, and the lyrical intensity of the string piece Of Fantasy was the best evidence that music is indeed live in '95, and all the better for Stefan Asbury's sympathetic direction and Rolf Hind's dazzling piano playing.