the Loft, Q Theatre, Auckland, Sunday 9th March, 5pm
Music by James Saunders,
Eve de Castro-Robinson, Tim Parkinson, John Lely, Samuel Holloway
Performers: Luca Manghi,
flutes; Donald Nicholls, clarinets; Andrew Uren, bass clarinet;
Sam Rich, percussion; Alex McDonald, viola; Katherine Hebley, cello; David
Kelly, keyboard
Artistic director:
Samuel Holloway
Review by Jonathan
Mandeno
Under the directorship of Samuel Holloway, 175 East is
boldly putting forward more challenging new works than ever. While these can range from the sublime to the
exasperating, it is always gratifying to be given access to such radical
experiences, which provoke us to think deeply and critically about music and
art.
At Sunday’s concert the programme moved seamlessly between
order and randomisation. It is the
second time in a row UK composer James Saunders has been featured, last time
with the technically ambitious but utterly gruelling 511 possible mosaics. This
second work was in many ways the complete opposite. AT LEAST
ONE HUNDRED DEVICES BEING TURNED ON AND OFF was written for a centenary
celebration of John Cage, and did exactly what it said on the tin. The audience was faced with a kaleidoscopic
array of whirrs, hums, clicks and roars from an impressive battery of fans,
weed whackers, mixers and lightsabers which the performers darted around,
finding scintillating timbral combinations between them. Exuding a typical Cagean philosophy, much of
the process of creating music happens on the part of the listener, whose
imagination is left to make musical sense out of the sounds being
presented. As rewarding as this is, I
couldn’t help but feel that Saunders brought nothing new to the table. It was a reiteration of a statement that Cage
made over fifty years ago with works like 4’33”
and Water Walk. In the light of historical context, what was radical then seemed little more than
gimmickry now, once you looked past the visual/aural spectacle.
The snare drum was featured as a solo in two of the
evening’s works, and between them no surface of the drum was left untouched. Percussionist Sam Rich distinguished himself
by performing with accuracy and an admirable attention to detail. Eve de Castro-Robinson’s whisper was written as a eulogy to Iannis Xenakis. Part miniature and part performance art, Rich
was seated with drum cradled on lap which he lightly tapped and scraped with
fingertips, then producing a ghostly whistle across the snares, making sounds
of astonishing tenderness and moving intimacy.
With every movement measured and ritualistic, the sparseness and cunning
spacing of events helped one lose ones sense of time, despite it being the
shortest work on the programme by far.
While played on the more traditional surfaces, Tim
Parkinson’s snare drum provided an
extended exploration of the instrument’s sonic capabilities. It began with a driving repeated beat
centre-drum, then moving outwards around the skin providing a tantalising
string of morphing timbres. From the dull thud of the centre to the bell-like
overtones on the edge, every sound was treated with the precise touch of a
jeweller. Yet more sounds were explored
with snares, fingers and rimshots, and monotony was adroitly broken with
strategic pauses and deft shifts in rhythmic pattern.
Bookending the concert were two ensemble works that shared a
similar sonic plane, although their approaches were extremely different. Opening the concert was John Lely’s Symphony No.3 (The Parsons Code for Melodic
Contour). Notated using the Parsons
code, the players are given the indication to move their pitch up or down, but
by how much to move it is left to the individual. The work consisted of evenly spaced sustained
notes, and the freedom allowed to the players brought forth a rich and
constantly shifting harmonic tapestry. Such
a composition highlighted the skilled ensemble work of the players, who seemed
to relish the sonic exploration of each chord while also exhibiting the
discipline to move as one, often returning to a unison note as something of a
ritornello. The mood was hypnotic and
lulling, to the point where subtleties such as extended stretches of silence
were deafening, and where the music happened to occasionally alight on the familiarity
of a triad the effect was electrifying.
Sadly, the long runtime of the work coupled with its determined lack of
variation in rhythm, dynamics or orchestration meant it ended up overstaying
its welcome somewhat.
According to the programme notes, composer Samuel Holloway
has “been thinking a lot about literalness in music. Also: the movement in perception between
singular forms and their constituent events/objects. And: how relationships form and meaning
accrues even when you try to avoid them.”
He invited us to consider these questions with his massive work Things, an exploded jigsaw puzzle of a
piece where every page of the score was host to a single musical event, replete
with a solemn pause between each. Confrontational
in the extreme, painstakingly methodical and unapologetically long, Things nonetheless forced one out of
listening complacency to regard every single note and harmony with concentrated
attentiveness. In doing so, one became
more acutely aware of patterns and relationships forming between each event, in
spite of the gaps: A snatch of something
approaching a melodic line, notes traded between players, unisons or even the
occasional suggestion of a cadence. If
this was the object of the experiment, the bold[bald]ness of it perhaps made it
a success. However while all music has
pattern, pattern by itself is not music, and as we crept round to the thirty
minute mark I couldn’t help but think about other admittedly more airy-fairy
(but in my opinion no less essential) aspects of music. Music is also imagination, provoking or
provoked by an instinctive response.
What of music’s potential to transport the listener emotionally,
psychologically or spiritually – the things that make people remember the
experience, and the things I began yearning for. Are these more metaphysical elements able to
survive under the intense glare of Holloway’s microscope?
175 East again proved itself to be on the cutting edge, and
the expertise and dedication the performers bring to each performance is
something we are fortunate to have in Auckland. For all the challenge and intellectual
stimulation the concert provided though, perhaps the programme could have
benefited being leavened ever so slightly - if only to give the exceptionally patient
audience some respite to help them through some of the more austere moments.
A note from the editors: Please note two reviews of the same concert have been published. We recognise this is uncommon and see it as a progressive and innovative to have more than one view on an event. Please also read Celeste Oram's review
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