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Magnitude Ensemble/Volkov review – Stewart Lee lends his voice to experimental evening | Magnitude Ensemble/Volkov review – Stewart Lee lends his voice to experimental evening |
(about 3 hours later) | |
This concert of new work and improvisation, put together by the pianist Tania Chen, was entitled Familiar/Unfamiliar, but there was little evidence of the former. Even the ensemble was created specifically for this concert. The best music came in the second half, which kicked off with a free improvisation for trombone and french horn by Alan Tomlinson and Martin Mayes. The two pirouetted around the space, filling the auditorium with responsive sounds and leaving a wonderful sense of one having journeyed through the insides of each instrument. | |
Sea Sponges, an improvisation by Catherine Kontz, featured Stewart Lee (better known as a comedian but also active in experimental music circles) speaking a text about the animals into an amplified hosepipe. The sounds were barely intelligible as words, and mingled with the controlled repertoire of sounds emitted by the ensemble – spurts from the wind, chings from the piano and strings, and little shimmers from the electric guitar (played with a soft timpani-mallet) – to produce a fascinating array of semi-autonomous processes that offered a glimmer of connectedness and intention. The softer sounds were echoed in John Lely's superbly calming Ensemble for piano duet, winds and strings, in which slow, layered chords evolved imperceptibly. | |
The concert also started well, with Michael Parsons's Concertante, whose first movement invoked the traditional sense of drama between solo piano and ensemble by using cluster chords to build up a sense of dynamic space, much of the "music" occurring in the interplay between sounds decaying at different rates. | The concert also started well, with Michael Parsons's Concertante, whose first movement invoked the traditional sense of drama between solo piano and ensemble by using cluster chords to build up a sense of dynamic space, much of the "music" occurring in the interplay between sounds decaying at different rates. |
The contributions of James Saunders and Chris Newman, however, were more interesting to read about than to listen to. Newman's piece consisted of broken-up bits of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, played without expression, each phrase capped by a rhyming word, drawn from Newman's poems and spoken by Lee. The first two words, "pain" and "inane", were well chosen. | The contributions of James Saunders and Chris Newman, however, were more interesting to read about than to listen to. Newman's piece consisted of broken-up bits of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, played without expression, each phrase capped by a rhyming word, drawn from Newman's poems and spoken by Lee. The first two words, "pain" and "inane", were well chosen. |
• Spitalfields Music Summer festival in London continues until 21 June. | • Spitalfields Music Summer festival in London continues until 21 June. |
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