ICMC

More good news this week. Strike! has been selected for yet another outing, this time at one of the concerts forming part of ICMC (International Computer Music Conference) 2010 in New York.

This has turned out to be my most successful piece in terms of international performances and, in fact, performances in general. I really should get round to writing a new electroacoustic piece to submit for the next round of conferences, but for the next 12 months I'm committed to working on commissions for a number of instrumental pieces.

Green Angel

On Saturday night, I attended the semi-staged, first third of a new opera in production, called Green Angel. This opera was based on the 2003 novella of the same title by Alice Hoffman, with libretto adapted by Adam Strickson and music by Lauren Redhead.

The adaptation and staging was based on ideas of Noh theatre and so was very static and stylised. Dramatically, rather than rely on narrative, the piece seems to concentrate more on the racking up of the emotional intensity. Musically, there seemed to be an emphasis on noise and percussion that seemed to link it with Noh and Kabuki theatre quite well.

Performances were generally quite good, especially as the cast and ensemble had only had 2 - 3 days to learn and rehearse a challenging score. Aniko Toth (soprano) played/sang the lead role as Ash very well indeed, managing to maintain a high degree of intensity in her performance throughout the piece.

My only disappointment was that the performance was incomplete, as I found myself quite engrossed in the whole production and it would have been great to see it play out to the end. The good news is that the whole production will be performed at The Stage@Leeds next year.

Olga Neuwirth: Remnants of Songs...an Amphigory

I make a point of trying to listen to BBC Radio 4's Hear and Now show each week in an attempt to keep abreast of what's going on in the music world. Usually, Saturday night isn't the best time to be focusing on serious music (not in my house anyway), so I normally listen on iPlayer the morning after.

This Saturday's show focused on British and Austrian composers and featured a number of good pieces by composers I was not too familiar with.

The piece that stood out was by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth, already pretty well known thanks to her opera based on David Lynch's Lost Highway. I like the way that this piece played with ideas of memory and recall in its use of quotation. I particularly like the use of As Time Goes By that was effortlessly woven into the texture, while at the same time being clearly recognisable. A wonderful evocation of our relationship between our present selves and our memories.

Here's a review of the piece I found on the Boosey & Hawkes website that describes the work much more articulately than I can:


Remnants is essentially a 20-minute, five-movement concerto for viola and orchestra with a fiendishly difficult solo part, written especially for violist Antoine Tamestit and breathtaking in its virtuosic range. After long, lyrical high arcs on the viola, the orchestra jumps in with exotic percussive effects. Every now and then, a snatch of something tonal and vaguely familiar drifts in. The first movement builds to a glistening cha-cha. The shimmering, unearthly second movement is interrupted by huge, dissonant brass chords. The third movement features chimes, sirens, apocalyptic drums, and the feeling of the world collapsing set against snatches of rhythmic patterns and odd whiffs of tonality. The gorgeous fourth movement is dominated by a big, lyrical viola solo with a grab-holdable melody. The final section virtually follows traditional concerto form, with dialogue between soloist and orchestra, and builds to an audacious, richly-textured finale suggestive of Mahler at his most kitschy. But the work is entirely original, astoundingly complex and, ultimately, gloriously rewarding and uplifting." (Larry L. Lash, MusicalAmerica.com, 08 Dec 2009)

Sonic Artists in Wales

Strike! is to get another outing at the end of the month at the Sonic Artists in Wales conference held at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama from 25 - 26 March.

As well as having Strike! performed, I will also be presenting a paper I have written with Adam Stansbie, entitled Space-Time Relations in Acousmatic Music.

The conference looks like being great fun and will even include the Arditti Quartet.

More to follow when the full programme is announced.

H. K Gruber Conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester 28 February 2010

Saturday night saw H.K. Gruber conducting the BBC Philharmonic in a programme of Weill, Gruber and Stravinsky at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

H. K. Gruber is known for his specialism in the music of Kurt Weill and first up was his Little Threepenny Music, a suite of music from the Threepenny Opera. Gruber certainly conducts with great enthusiasm and effuses a love of the music. However, despite the excellent performance, it still did not help me to overcome my lack of interest in Weill's music.

After an annoyingly long wait while to chairs were rearranged on stage, Gruber took the stage again, this time to conduct the U.K. premiere of his own composition, Busking. This piece was described in the programme as a concerto for trumpet, accordion and banjo, although in performance it appeared to be a trumpet (Håkan Hardenberger) concerto that augmented the chamber orchestra with the less conventional accordion and banjo.

The final part of the programme was Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, followed by an encore of Scherzo a la Russ.

As an extra treat, Gavin Waite (piano) and Zoe Milton-Brown (soprano) performed eight songs, from Alan E. Willaims' 12 Stories High song cycle, in the bar after the main concert.