Wigmore Hall, London Tim Ashley Tuesday November 9, 2004 The Guardian Olga Neuwirth is generally regarded as the enfant terrible of Austro-German contemporary music. Three of her pieces formed the second half of Klangforum Wien's Wigmore debut concert; listening to them, you could not help but feel that, far from being rebellious, Neuwirth's work is essentially rooted in certain traditions of inter-war modernism. Her music blurs distinctions between pop and classical in ways that recall Ernst Krenek's and Kurt Weill's obliteration of the boundaries between jazz, classical and cabaret. She also plays anarchically with ideas of indecency, camp, sexuality and gender. Hommage à Klaus Nomi, Neuwirth's tribute to a Berlin pop star who was her teenage idol, is a joyous celebration of the countertenor as androgyne, potential drag artist and tragedy queen. It consists of jazzy cover versions of well-known arias and songs, wedging the great lament from Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas against standards by Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland. No More Secrets, No More Lies, meanwhile, combines fragments of the writings of Paul Auster to form a flippant study of love, loss and survival. Both works were delivered by countertenor Andrew Watts with the poise of a polished raconteur. In between came Spleen, a massive solo for bass clarinet that swerves between lyricism and farting obscenity, gleefully performed by Ernesto Molinari. up