New ‘Music’?

I admit I was sceptical when told I would going to see a concert that was part of the Bristol new music festival, but was determined to go with an open mind. See, new music has never really been down my street, I had the ‘pleasure’ of studying Webern and Cage at A-level and I fear that this has distorted my view of new music, maybe this would show it in a new, invigorating light?

The venue was ‘intimate’, cosy even and if we’re honest our first year music group made up at least half of the audience! According to the programme notes the Bozzine Quartet are world renowned and that this performance was particularly exciting as they would be performing the world premiere of the first piece, “Und Lass Dir Jeden Tag Geschehen” by Claudia Molitor. It started out innocuously enough, with long sustained unison notes, contrapuntal sections between cello and violin, blends of pizzicato and arco playing and other such techniques. Then it got weird. The whole audience did a double take as the first violinist started whistling whilst holding a long harmonic, then to our complete surprise started to say something in German, the rest of the quartet following suit. It was certainly a different performance to anything I’ve seen before, but at times seemed gimmicky. As if the composer was trying to do weird things with the instruments and performers just to be different.

We then moved onto the Cage “Thirty Pieces for String Quartet”, the performers added an element of drama to the whole affair by performing in the four corners of the room, rather than in the traditional formation. I thought this was a neat touch and did actually add to the performance. The piece itself was certainly interesting, each part had thirty short (45 second)  pieces. The kicker however, is that they can play them in whatever time they like, slow or fast. There is no set score that links the four instruments. Yeah, it sounded very peculiar. It was encapsulating for the first ten or so pieces, as you tried to figure out who was playing what, but after that I really had switched off! Amusingly, at least ten members of the audience left after this performance, maybe they thought it was the end, or perhaps they’d had too much! 

Finally we got to James Tenney’s “Koan”, and I must say I actually enjoyed this one, to me it was certainly the most interesting. The work explored the use of microtones, each instrument moving up and down in these tiny intervals, which meant that at times you had a ‘nice’ sounding chord, but within seconds this would have changed and you could hear ringing in the air as the two notes were so horribly close together. It would have been more impressive had the players not had tuning devices attached to their instruments, but perhaps without them it would be near impossible to accurately achieve some of the sounds made. 

It is probably obvious by now that this concert didn’t live up to my hopes of changing my view on new music, I was certainly glad when it was over. However, it is always good to do things outside of ones comfort zone. As one of my friends later commented “It makes me realise how much I like Mozart and Beethoven!”

The sirens were certainly loud (Hubert would approve though)

The Chamber Choir and Madrigal ensemble came together for their lunchtime concert with a varied programme of music ranging from Josquin Des Prez to William Walton.

Although at times it was a little messy and awkward the changes between the two choirs were managed well and it meant that the programme had a nice contrast between the sizes and sounds of the two choirs. Between them the choirs covered over ten pieces, so I won’t bore you with a detailed analysis of all of them, instead picking out the highlights and notable moments.

I particularly enjoyed the opening of Ego Flos Campi, the alto section in particular led by the formidable Matthew Paine giving a stong and confident lead that set the tone for the rest of the piece. This was answered in Gaude Virgo Mater Dei with a strident male lead, the basses evidently enjoying using their lower register.

The highlight of the concert for me was the madrigal ensemble performing Philip Stopford’s beautiful Lully, Lulla. The words of which were recognisable from the well known coventry carol. The singers provided lovely contrast between the verses and brought out the text to life, the soprano solo in the final verse which should soar above the rest of the chorus felt a little weak, this aside it was a lovely performance.

We ended with Hubert Parry’s Blest pair of Sirens, which made full use of the fantastic organ that has been recently installed in the Victoria rooms. It was classic Parry, no holes barred, pure noise and left one feeling rather uplifted. The performance really benefitted from the size of the choir as they were able to make a fantastic noise and was a fitting end to what was a delightful concert.