“This is it. It’s funny about honey. You always eat honey during a war. So much honey. There is no sugar. There never is sugar during a war.” Thus begins the 50-minute Songs of Wars I Have Seen, by Heiner Goebbels, set to excerpts from the diaries of Gertrude Stein. The instrumentals are in the hands of the period band the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in tandem with the new-music ensemble the London Sinfonietta (the two joined forces 17 years ago for the world premiere at the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre). Back then, the composer—ever attentive to the theatrical potential of concert music—arranged lighting and stage direction himself. Who, if anyone, takes over those jobs this time is unclear; the schedule lists no credits. The musical elements juxtapose strains by the 17th-century Matthew Locke (that’s the Age of Enlightenment contribution) with spiky contemporary commentary (from the London Sinfonietta). We’re promised “a work that manages to prove harrowing, poignant and consoling all at once, and whose visions of war have scarcely been more relevant.” —Matthew Gurewitsch