Fortrose Community Theatre, 1 June 2007

Hebrides Ensemble.

The Hebrides Ensemble’s inspired performance in Fortrose took the audience on a journey from the comfort of Bach to unfamiliar soundscape with accomplished ease.

A new commission by Scottish based composer David Fennessy “gut, hair, skin, air” (a piece for string trio, percussion and electronics) was for me the absolute highlight of the programme closely followed by the second J.S. Bach offering of the evening; “Prelude and Fugue, Organ Sonata No2 S.526.” Strange partners perhaps – but a masterstroke of artistic direction which heightened the qualities of each in contrast.

The immediate effect of Fennessy’s piece is visceral, with dry fingertips rasping over the skin of a drum emerging out of silence. Percussionist Oliver Cox gave a compelling performance producing unique and varied sound. This irregular rhythm added an edge of tension to the work. Wetting the tips of the fingers produced a drawn out sound and resonance stopped by an open hand or pressing down with the upper body onto the tense drum skin. This is theatrical sound, as much about the art of performance as music and producing a physical response more akin to installation.

There were times during the performance when the soundscape created a spatial quality that felt as if the drum itself had surrounded the audience in a vast shield then shrunk to contain itself inside the individual listener’s eardrum. The scale of sound was utterly fascinating described by the composer in terms of magnification; “the smallest gesture becomes heightened and often it is the simplest musical element – an open string or a steady pulse -that can reveal its endless intricacies.”

“gut, hair, skin, air” incorporates a masterful range of sounds including electronics from John Harris, intense depths of the cello from Hebrides Ensemble Artistic Director William Conway and high strings from Alexander Janiczek (violin) and Catherine Marwood (viola). It is a thoroughly engrossing, challenging and satisfying contemporary work which nurtures the listener and calls for the highest levels of control and technique in performance.

György Kurtág’s “pas a pas nulle part” (step by step nowhere) opened the second half of the concert and presented a set of poems by Samuel Beckett for baritone voice, strings and percussion. Though the performances were excellent the episodic nature of the composition did not satisfy my need for a greater sense of coherence present (even in dissonance) in the earlier Fennessey piece. Richard Burkhard’s voice ranged impressively from whispered text and heightened sweetness to imploding baritone and Oliver Cox was brilliantly stretched (quite literally) by the sheer range of percussion on stage. Strings in discordant unison, forceful drums, Japanese, Burmese and Chinese cymbals, a musical saw, a water gong and a host of other percussion instruments together with the eerie ebb and flow of silence throughout the piece made for too many contrasts. I became bored by the composer’s cleverness rather than being captivated by a great performance.

The final work of the second half; J.S. Bach’s “Prelude and Fugue, Organ Sonata No2 s.526”, transcribed by Mozart was a perfect conclusion to the evening. The beauty and structure of this piece brought the audience home to familiar aural territory and affirmed the ensemble’s reputation as “Scotland’s foremost chamber group”.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Hebrides Ensemble website