In July 2026 George Benjamin’s work was in focus at the Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije, with the composer conducting Ensemble intercontemporain and joining Pierre-Laurent Aimard for the French premiere of Divisions, for piano, four hands, on 28 July. Benjamin’s work was featured extensively at the 2013 edition of the Festival. The 2026 edition also saw the launch of Le chant à l'opéra, métaphore des émotions, a book of interviews with Gaëtan Puaud and the composer.
A term used in 17th-century English keyboard music for a set of variations, the idea of the title Divisions also applies to the physical separation of two players at one instrument. The friction and conversation that emerges between the interaction of the two players and the material assigned to them formed an essential part of Benjamin’s compositional process. The piece opens with quiet but insistent repeated notes, as fragments of melody begin to appear and, in turn, clouds of harmony. Different strands of music are played simultaneously and juxtaposed accordingly, against a slow-moving backdrop, which is disturbed by cascades and ripples.
It received its world premiere from the composer and longtime collaborator Pierre-Laurent Aimard in June 2025 at the Boulez Saal, and made its UK debut with the duo at Wigmore Hall in November 2025, as well as its US premiere at 92nd Street Y in New York. In the second half of 2026 the duo perform Divisions at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ and in Munich as part of the musica viva series, alongside Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s opera Picture a day like this. It will also appear with Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen at the 2026 London Piano Festival, introduced by the composer, and makes its Australian debut with Miles Walter and Lee Dionne on 4 September in Sydney.
On 27 July Benjamin joined Ensemble intercontemporain to conduct Into the Little Hill (2006), the first stage work he created with Martin Crimp, with soprano Jenny Daviet and mezzo Joanne Evans as soloists. The lyric tale in two parts retells the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin with searing intensity, underlining the political valences of the narrative. Benjamin’s instrumental writing is given special colour by bass flute, a pair of basset horns, mandolin, banjo and cimbalom. The 40-minute work was prefaced by Benjamin’s Flight for solo flute and Viola, viola.
Ensemble intercontemporain opened the focus with Pierre Bleuse on 25 July with Benjamin’s At First Light (1982). The 20-minute piece is scored for 14 players, inspired by Turner’s painting Norham Castle, Sunrise, and cast in three movements. In the short opening one, superimposed fanfares burst into hazy, undefined textures. After a pause the extended second movement follows, itself subdivided into several contrasted sections, full of abrupt changes in mood and tension. The concluding movement arrives without a break, and progresses in a continuous, flowing line illuminated with ever more resonant harmonies.