Kammermusiksaal, Philharmonie
Georges
Aperghis: Damespiel, for bass clarinet (2011)
Liza
Lim: The Green Lion Eats the Sun, for double bell euphonium (2014)
Johannes
Schöllhorn: grisaille, for cello (2013)
Vykintas
Baltakas: Pasaka – Ein Märchen, for piano (1995-97)
Liza
Lim: Axis Mundi,
for bassoon (2012-13)
John
Zorn: Merlin,
for trumpet (2016)
Rebecca
Saunders: fury, for double bass (2005)
Enno
Poppe: Haare,
for violin (2013-14)
Saunders:
shadow, for piano (2013)
Poppe:
Fell, for percussion (2016)
Saunders:
Bite, for flute (2016)
Carl Rosman (clarinet)
Melvyn Poore (euphonium)
Dirk Wietheger (cello)
Alban Wesly (bassoon)
Marco Blaauw (trumpet)
Florentin Ginot (double bass)
Hannah Weirich (violin)
Ulrich Löffler and Benjamin Kobler (piano)
Dirk Rothbrust (percussion)
Helen Bledsoe (flute)
Alas, I was only able to stay
for two out of the three sections of this lengthy Matinée concert from soloists
of Ensemble Musikfabrik. That meant that I missed out on George Lewis’s Oraculum, Toshio Hosakawa, Three Essays, and two world premieres:
Tansy Davies’s Song Horn and Enno
Poppe’s Filz. Eleven out of the
fifteen solo works still gave me much to experience, enjoy, and reflect upon.
And if, unsurprisingly, some spoke to me more from a single hearing – each one
was new to me – that does not necessarily reflect upon their ‘worth’. Indeed,
it is quite likely to say more about me and my state of alertness than anything
else. What probably goes without saying, yet should not, are the extraordinary
virtuosity, musicality, and commitment shown by all of these soloists – not least
coming on the morning immediately following a not inconsiderable concert of
music by Rebecca Saunders and Harrison Birtwistle.
In the first two pieces,
Georges Aperghsis’s Damespiel and
Liza Lim’s The Green Lion Eats the Sun,
I was struck by something at least akin to a ‘traditional’ conception of
unbroken line, not least in performance, even when silence formed part of that
line. The former, toccata-like, often high in pitch, with considerable, often
thrilling, variation in dynamic range too, nevertheless contrasted strongly,
interestingly with what seemed to me two contrasted voices, in
near-consequential dialogue, in the latter, that impression not least owed to
the two bells of the euphonium (one muted). Johannes Schöllhorn’s grisaille was slower, stiller, its
navigation through the not quite frozen waters of cello harmonics again
offering contrast with the ensuing Pasaka
– Ein Märchen for piano, in which Benjamin Kobler had, in addition to an
unquestionably demanding piano part, also to tell the story in words
(irrespective of comprehension!) It had a beguiling innocence to it, the
single(ish) piano line, shared between the hands, blossoming into something
more complex, again toccata-like. (That perhaps often will go with the
territory of works for instrumental solo.) Another work by Lim, Axis Mundi, again showed a keen sense
(to me, at least) of dialogue, in this case between the lower range of the
bassoon and something else, not quite to be straightforwardly assimilated to
higher pitch. If I could not quite escape the sense of notespinning in John
Zorn’s Merlin, for trumpet solo,
Marco Blauuw’s performance proved quite mesmerising.
The second – and, for me, final
– of the concert’s three parts alternated between Saunders and Poppe. Florentin
Ginot’s double bass playing had impressed me enormously the night before, even
amongst such a galaxy of instrumental talent; here it did so again in fury. Almost the entire range of the
instrument seemed traversed within a few seconds, and that despite the relative
leisure of the pace. That done, a dark heir to the Expressionist past revealed itself,
without overt, or perhaps even covert, ‘influence’, but at the level of
something deeper. I thought of Anselm Kiefer, but again that may just have been
me. Poppe’s Haare for solo violin
opened almost as if playing with a Bachian wedge opening, although it never quite
was. One was made to listen, perhaps almost so as to ascertain what was not repetition. If that sounds
quasi-minimalist, I am not sure that it was, but perhaps there was some sort of
relationship there. I loved the wild excess of Hannah Weirich’s vibrato (which I
presume to have been written in), suggestive almost of a theremin, not least in
glissando passages. I was a little more at a loss with Poppe’s Fell for percussion, although again
there was no gainsaying the quality of the performance. Either side of it fell
another solo piano piece, Saunders’s shadow,
and her Bite for solo bass flute. The
piano piece, played by Ulrich Löffler, again had something of an intangible
sense of association to ‘tradition’ – Stockhausen, perhaps? – without being
determined by it. There was certainly no doubting its bold, substantial quality
of utterance. The shadows of the bass flute were readily apparent, yet for
shadows to have meaning, there must be light, and so there was, in a vivid
creation, both compositional and performative (Helen Bledsoe) of chiaroscuro.
I think that, in the case of pretty
much all of these pieces, we have probably now reached a stage at which the
phrase ‘extended techniques’ has become superfluous. Composers and performers
alike, perhaps audiences too, have ensured that, not least through occasions
such as this.
