***
Kaija
Saariaho’s instrumental writing is incredibly exciting and sophisticated, Nocturne is especially so and it proved to
be an awesome opener. The rhythmically-loose, choppy, folk-style music moves
into and out of broad musical gestures concomitant with spectral music:
diaphanous trills between open strings and harmonics at a pace that prevents
the lower pitches from ‘speaking’ properly; playing extremely close to the
bridge in order to coax out a shimmering, unpredictable range of overtones
(violist Garth Knox* calls this ‘irising’); looking to the sounds themselves to
find an organising principle– all completely mesmerising in performance. The
very strong hints of Scandinavian folk music were almost as striking, check out
Benedicte Maurseth’s latest release Overtones to hear what I mean - similar soundworlds! Violinist
Jacqueline Shave brought the work to life: a moving interpretation of a hefty
composition.
Light and Matter was the second of two Saariaho pieces
on the programme. The composer notes the influence of ‘the changing light and
colour of Morningside Park’, especially ‘the continuous transformation of light
on the glinting leaves’. The beautifully intricate, delicate instrumental
writing and its evolution into dense, nebulous music certainly invites the
listener make comparisons between the programme note and the composition - the
hidden complexity of musical sound being used as a metaphor for light. The
looming, resonating piano made me much more aware of the temporal nature of
timbral sound: the attack and decay of its’ sounds drawing attention to one of
the central precepts of the composition – gradual transformation. The trio gave
a superbly assured performance of a difficult composition, the same being the
case with the remaining works.
 |
| Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho |
The Debussy suffered from a slight tuning issue with the cello’s low C but
this did nothing to detract from the performance as a whole. I was particularly
fortunate as I heard the sonata performed in rehearsal prior to the concert
where there was no such problem, it was played impeccably on the first attempt
and I was the only audience member at the time… which was nice (no iPhones or
whispering). Caroline Dearnly’s vivacious performance and Huw Watkins’s
perfectly-matched pianism cut through the bricky tone of the concert hall with
ease, an extremely secure, visually-engaging performance that, along with the
final piece, served to concretize the concert as a success.
 |
| Fauré |
The Fauré was, along with Nocturne, the best performance
of the concert. Well-paced, gorgeously subtle rubato in the strings;
crystal-clear, perfectly appropriate accompaniment from the piano; the visual
presence and fantastically lyrical performance from the cellist, especially in
the first movement, really brought the piece to life. The interplay of the cello and violin gave the work a wonderful narrative drive, the performers
responded to each other’s phraseological nuances, a dialogue that set their parts
away from the piano – refreshingly liberal.
As excellent as the performances were, I was far less
concerned with the Debussy and Fauré. To my mind there’s something considerably
more interesting in the compositions created by living, working artists: they
are able to defend and discuss their works, contribute to new depths of
expression, new ways of making, and new ways of thinking. There is so much
music one can engage with and the major, most frequently performed repertoire
constitutes a very, very small piece of an outrageously tasty, terrifyingly
large, yet-to-be-fully-discovered pie.
It is extremely reassuring to see a successful
professional ensemble commission works and dedicate so much to contemporary
classical music. It was particularly pleasing to hear, firstly, a living
composer’s music as the centerpiece of a concert and, secondly, a female
composer’s music as the centerpiece of a concert – living composers and women
are woefully underrepresented in classical music** (see Bachtrack’s most recent survey). It seems outrageous that the two things are uncommon enough to be
worthy of notice. Also, having lived in a few other cities I can say with some
certainty that new music does not get its deserved share of performances,
especially performances by musicians as committed and excellent as those in
Britten Sinfonia. The people of Cambridge are very lucky to have this music
available and should endeavor to make the most of it, however demanding it may
seem on first hearing!
*Explore Garth Knox's Viola Spaces here.
**Click here to read an article from The Guardian exploring our current male-dominated classical music industry.
**Click here to read an article from The Guardian exploring our current male-dominated classical music industry.
David Roche (Sinfonia Student 2014-15)
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