Luigi Nono: Fragments of Venice is the main event at the Southbank Centre this autumn. Shared with the Royal Academy of Music and running throughout October (with a couple of further events in May 2008), it is the first festival in London to focus on the music of one of the great composers of the second half of the 20th century.

The London Sinfonietta, conducted by Diego Masson, gave the opening concert. Dedicated to the memory of Sebastian Bell, who had been principal flute of the Sinfonietta since its foundation in 1968 and who died 10 days ago, it was an understandably subdued occasion, which focused on the beginning and end of Nono's career. If Incontri, from 1955, is a typical serial product of its time, the other two pieces underlined the qualities that set Nono apart from his contemporaries throughout his career.

The Canonic Variations announced Nono on the international scene in 1950, as well as nailing his political colours to the mast by employing the note row from Schoenberg's most subversive work, the Ode to Napoleon Op 41. It is a weird hybrid of styles, indebted to Webern in its outer sections, and to Varèse in the percussion dominated central one, yet always managing to convey an authentically Italianate lyrical line. Following it with No Hay Caminos, Hay Que Caminar ... Andrej Tarkovskij, the 1987 tribute to the Russian film-maker, showed how Nono's expressive world came full circle in his extraordinarily rarefied late works, with the main orchestra calling to satellite ensembles dispersed around the hall, and their dialogue repeatedly cut short by terrifying hammer blows.

· Luigi Nono: Fragments of Venice continues at the Southbank Centre until October 31. Box office: 08703 800400.