A TOUR DE FORCE
Stroma presented an intriguing programme of new and unusual works including two premiere performances.
Swiss saxophone player Lars Mlekusch was the featured performer in a new work by Michael Norris, Splinter Cells, which has a raw and grainy quality. The strong rhythmic drive, which utilised Mlekusch's agility (on alto and baritone saxes with an ensemble of lfure, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, violins, viola, cello and double bass), added plenty of tonal colour to the clever writing.
The piece is influenced by the major seminal modern work Cells by German avant-garde composer Hanspeter Kyburz which we heard later.
Grab It! by Jacob ter Veldhuis is a very quirky piece for solo tenor saxophone and ghetto blaster, with raging beats and sample sounds. It is a touch strange at first with the swirling, shrieking sax but the street sounds and chanting earthy human voices mingling with the sax is arresting, if a little too long, once the idea and point are made. Chris Watson's Carrick Bend added harp, guitar and percussion to the ensemble with Mlekusch on tenor and soprano saxes.
It is an undulating piece with imaginative flow, interweaving sounds and momentum. Untitled (Counterfeit Readymade #1) by Dugal McKinnon is derived from baritone sax improvisastions by Wellington based master saxophonist Jeff Henderson. The baritone sax of Mlekusch was joined by the vibrant marimba of Arnold Marinissen.
This too is an interesting piece, although the sax interjections of Mlekusch were not as loud and penetrating as I would have liked and didn't capture the wildness that Henderson can convey.
Cells by Kyburz was the final work — and what a striking piece it is, musically very clever and quite analytical and mathematically structured. The performance was mesmerising and technically very difficult to carry off, but McKeich and the ensemble gave an outstanding performance.
The varied percussion along with piano gave drive and momentum. Mlekusch demonstrated his astonishing virtuosity on soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. The whole was a real tour de force.
— Garth Wilshere, Capital Times, 21 August 2005
FASCINATING JOURNEY FOR BIRD-LOVERS
Contemporary music group Stroma pulled another one out of the hat (or perhaps
the bush) with their programme Diabolical Birds. Advertised as "cutting-edge
chamber music infused with a cacophony of birdsong", it was a fascinating
exploration of the different ways that composers react to stimuli.
New Zealand is rich in bird life, and playing the Mt. Bruce
tape of the real thing as the audience entered was a nice touch, setting the
scene for the aural menagerie that followed.
Philopentatonia by Julian Yu recreated the spatial effect of
birds in the tree-tops, gradually bringing them into the orbit of conventional
musical structures. In contrast, the birds in James Wood's Crying Bird, Echoing
Star were of the caged variety, held in the concert hall and given a background
of instrumental sound. The performers captured the effects of both works well,
though some uncomfortable string intonation marred parts of the Wood.
Liza Lim's Diabolical Birds were translated into the idiom
of Western art music and given a lush accompaniment, whereas the stylised bird
song in Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques moulded the music to the metrical patterns
of the birds. Ananda Sukarlan's wonderfully characterised piano playing added
enormously to the range of colours in this performance.
Manutaki by Gillian Whitehead takes the idea of flying birds
as its starting point, and its long melodic lines were given a sensitive performance,
particularly in the sections featuring Bridget Douglas on flute, Pat Barry on
clarinet and Rachel Thomson on piano.
The highlight of the evening was the first performance of Jack Body's
In the Curve of Song. An extraordinary and magical sound world surrounded
taped
readings of old Anglo-Saxon texts, with Madeleine Pierard providing unearthly
vocal and theatrical additions, and Stroma's instrumentalists forming a seamless
aura of sound in support.
MODERN CLASSICS BRING DOWN HOUSE
Wow.
Last night, a comfortably filled Marama Hall reverberated
to the ensemble Stroma, and the many sounds of modern classical music.
Stroma was formed in 1999 by Michael Norris, Bridget Douglas,
Hamish McKeich and Phillip Brownlie. Michael Norris is the Mozart Fellow at
the University of Otago, Bridget Douglas is the NZSO principal flute. Hamish
McKeich was our conductor for the evening.
The programme began with the world premier of Flute
Quintet (2002) by Lachlan McKenzie, which featured the first of many
stunning performances by Bridget Douglas. Flute Quintet is McKenzie's
honours composition work, for which he must have passed with flying colours
or there is no justice in the world.
Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti featured through the programme.
His first pieces on the bill, Continuum (1968) and Hungarian
Rock (1978), highlighted Donald Nicholson's outstanding ability and phenomenally
dexterous fingers on a harpsichord.
The highlight of the evening in my opinion were both of
Michael Norris' compositions. His first, Wind Shear (1999) is a solo
piece for flute, which he dedicated to Bridget Douglas, who returned the compliment
by playing the piece with her whole body. She swayed in to notes like an alluring
snake charmer. The world premier of the Michael Norris piece Scintilla
(2002) brought the first half to a close, and the house down, for the first
time.
Part two began with Three Poems of Janet Frame
(2002) by the late Jack Speirs. The piece is a fitting tribute to a man whose
influence at the university, and in Dunedin music in general, will continue
for some years. Soprano Kate Lineham sang the poems beautifully.
The last word was left for Gyorgy Ligeti. His milestone
piece, Chamber Concerto for 13 Players (1970), is one of the foremost
pieces of 20th century composition. The music flows, soars, shrieks and crashes,
sometimes simultaneously. His use of cross rhythms and micropolyphony (the
simultaneous playing of many chromatic tunes with small intervals), make the
piece vary from easy on the ear to ear splitting.
The night ended with many hands sore from clapping, matching
many hands sore from playing.
CHAOTIC BEAUTY
STROMA had subtitled its concert Jazz ain't Dead, it just Smells Funny
and, as always, they produced an innovative programme of six new works, premieres
and commissions under conductor Hamish McKeich.
Being part of the Wellington Jazz Festival the ensemble
performed works with an avant garde, "new music" feel.
Stroma commissioned New Zealand composer Miriama Young for
her work Learning to Breathe on The A Train ln three easy Movements.
With clever references to classical jazz works, it has lovely blues elements
for piano and winds, with great saxophone from Rachel McLarin.
Somewhere Submarine, by London-based David Prior, was a NZ premiere.
Partly electronic work with vibrant, live piano, it resulted in striking sounds
from pianist Donald Nicholson and provided a clever, atmospheric work.
Franco Donatoni's Hot! — another NZ premiere
—- starts with mellow piano, double bass and drums, then heads to hot
sax and brass. Wild and strident, it was vibrant with wit and humour.
The Netherlands' Theo Loevendie brings wonderful sensibility to his Bons
for improviser and chamber ensemble. Jeff Henderson's tremendous saxophone
improvisations were exciting, the sax wailing over the harp, winds and piano.
The second world premiere commission Short Song Cycle
for Chamber ensemble, by NZer Victoria Kelly, is a setting of Bill Manhire's
Love Poem. It starts spare on strings with intensely beautiful cello.
Singer Jordan Reyne created a moving sound world while lovely instrumental
writing added flavour. The words were not clear, but the effect beautiful.
New York composer John Zorn provided the climactic work
For Your Eyes Only, witty and clever, it was great fun. With a large
ensemble, it has a powerful, chaotic opening and is interspersed with fragments
from all genres - Latin American, big band, circus and brass band. Heavy pounding
moments lead to rich lyrical ones, then flavours from the different genres,
as well as rare trombone and piano lines with sweeping strings. Numerous percussion
and sound effects - even a slamming door - added flavour and fun. Even in
chaotic cacophony it was vibrant and exhilarating.
INTERESTING WORKS FEATURE OF CONCERT OF WORLD PREMIERES
Billed as a high energy event, the intention behind this concert was that
"changing certain concert giving habits and adding quick variation of
moods would give the listener a sense of excitement". There was certainly
a sense of excitement and energy, though that probably came from the fact
that it was a concert of interesting works, played well.
Some of the visual element seemed superfluous - drifting shapes on
a screen don't add much to good music, though David Downes's three video pieces
were visually intriguing in themselves. The lighting used to highlight the
performers in Don McGlashan's Work Songs was also effective at enhancing
the percussion choreography. Percussion group Strike were in good form in
this work, doing what they do best. The two world premiere performances in
the programme both featured the Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro in
a solo role. Ends Meet by Luis Tinoco, for marimba and string quartet,
was notable for its delicate, minimalist textures and controlled energy, and
almost Schönberg-like melodic lines. The quartet from Stroma was a good
match for the soloist.
Psyzygyzm by John Psathas was a very different piece, combining
a wide range of styles - noisy percussion, ethnic melodies, big band sounds,
atmospherics, and more. The individual sections worked well, and some were
very beautiful, but the overall connection between sections was not totally
convincing. Of the other works played, Frank Zappa's The Black Page #2
made an interesting cross-over piece: take away the underlying beat and the
rest could easily fit into one of Stroma's normal contemporary classical concerts.
And the rhythmic layering and complexity of Xenakis's Rebonds B for
solo percussionist and Steve Reich's Nagoya Marimbas for two marimba
players were noticeably more engaging to the ear than the more easy-listening
style of Joseph Schwantner's marimba work Velocities.
MUSICIANS TAKE IT TO THE EDGE
What: Velocities: Stroma, Strike, Pedro Carneiro (marimba), conductor: Hamish
McKeich. Psyzygysm (John Psathas) and other pieces by Joseph Schwantner,
Don McGlashan, Luis Tinoco, Frank Zappa, Iannis Xenakis, Reich and audio-visual
compositions by David Downes
Where: Town Hall Reviewed by: Lindis Taylor, Evening Post, Wellington
I was intrigued that this concert of contemporary music was to be found not
in the music section of the Festival brochure but in the rather-hard-to-define
group of performances sponsored by Air New Zealand. Every festival needs a
concert of this kind, and this one was stunning. And it attracted a good house,
another matter of congratulation for the Festival, for I've attended a lot
of concerts of this kind of music with very few paying customers: they say
festivals encourage you to push tastes to the edge.
David Downes' talent for matching science-derived patterns with electro-acoustic
music was appropriate here: surprising and illuminating. The Town Hall stage
was lit strikingly and was fully furnished with mainly percussion instruments.
The performers were Wellington's two most adventurous ensembles - percussionists
Strike and, under the versatile command of conductor-bassoonist Hamish McKeich,
Stroma, an NZSO-derived ensemble devoted to contemporary music: they contributed
players variously, according to the music's demands; plus Senhor Carneiro.
Strike's players present their sounds with punchy choreography - as
fun to watch as to listen to, in Don McGlashan's Work Songs; Jeremy
Fitzsimons and Kristie Ibrahim were spell-binding in Reich's Nagoya Marimbas.
Without the same visual element, Stroma's players - strings and winds - have
been creating an increasing market for music that is not all that easy to
sell.
A string quartet and marimba premiered Portuguese composer Luis Tinoco's
Ends Meet, neither very radical nor important. Frank Zappa's The
Black Page employed wind players: it too sounded passé.
The stars of the evening were Pedro Carneiro, astonishing Portuguese
marimbist who made poetry in Schwantner's magical, many-layered Velocities,
as drummer in Xenakis's Rebonds B and with the entire assemblage,
in John Psathas's Psyzygysm, a tour de force from any point of view.
It is genuine music, climaxes built from music rather than mere crescendos.
The imaginative inclusion of Carolyn Mills' harp was just one evidence that
real musical impulses, materials and structure were in use; both its excitement
and its quite were in place. Psathas's work alone would have done me: the
audience applauded long and hard.
STROMA'S PERFORMANCE COMPLETELY IN STYLE
Stroma are an important music group, and they can be immensely entertaining
as well. With members coming from the NZSO, percussion group Strike and from
freelance Wellington musicians, Stroma address music from the cutting edge
of avant-garde.
But they also remind us that for many, music composed in
the early part of the twentieth century remains daunting, and the names of
Schoenberg and Webern send shivers of apprehension down many a spine.
But Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht, just days away
from being a hundred years old, is now very user friendly, and is an essential
part of all string orchestras' repertoire.
It was originally written for just six string players, and
Stroma's performance of the original reminded us just how much more effective
it is in that form. It does not have the tonal weight of the larger group
orchestration, but the details are laid out with much greater clarity, and
any suspicions of excessive density simply do not apply,
It was beautifully played. Completely in style and with
the dynamics properly observed, one could forgive tiny moments of imperfection
- minimal rehearsal time, I suspect - in the interests of stunning authenticity.
Webern's severely minimalist Symphony Op.21 was
good for cleansing the musical palette, and Mise en Scene by the
Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl produced sounds that titillated the ear.
It included a variety of small instrumental ensembles playing with, and against,
one another, something that Olga Neuwirth's Hooloomooloo carried
some stages further.
The whole programme played to a generous, rather than a
packed house, but I'm sure all present appreciated the value of hearing such
music, and they clearly enjoyed the highly polished playing.
STROMA PLAYERS START FESTIVAL WITH A STUNNER
Stroma is a highly motivated, brilliant group of players mainly from the NZSO.
They concentrate on music of the past century. This concert, dedicated to
the Viennese school, was a stunner for the festivals opening weekend.
The opening piece, Transfigured Night, was the
earliest, from 1902, and I was surprised it did not pull a full house: an
old-fashioned, emotion-driven masterpiece. They played the original string
sextet version, somehow more immediately ecstatic than the better upholstered
orchestral version. Conductor Hamish McKeich commanded a long, expectant silence
before cello and viola made their febrile, moonlit entries - superb scene-setting:
the players maintained the music's intensity, its disturbed psychological
landscape: a marvellous, breathtaking performance.
Webern's so-called symphony, actually a nonet, could hardly
have been more different: its expressiveness so distilled that engagement
is almost impossible in normal terms. These players gave it the most dedicated,
persuasive reading I can imagine.
The other two pieces were from century's end. Karlheinz
Essl's Mise En Scene contained real music that often penetrated the
avant-garde straitjacket that composers of his generation tend to adopt: the
piece, for string quartet and six wind instruments and percussion, suggested
a film score. It was entertaining as well as intellectually interesting.
Olga Neuwirth's Hooloomooloo (was it inspired by
a Sydney bay?) is scored for 16 players and recorded tape which delivered
a disturbing oscillating tone during the first minute or so. Chaotic, random
sounds followed which evolved slowly towards coherence. Though it seemed to
concentrate more on effects than on whatever it was that caused them, it,
too, was an entertaining
STROMA GIVES FINE PERFORMANCE OF 'EXTREME' MUSIC
I suppose this memorial concert to three, quite diverse, composers who have
died recently, looked a bit piecemeal on paper, but in performance quite the
reverse was the case. Transplanted Yorkshireman Jack Speirs made an enormous
contribution to music in Dunedin, both as a conductor and as an educator,
but his compositions are less well known. Three Poems of Janet Frame,
however, reveals a superb ear for atmosphere and sonority, with the three
short songs brooding reflections on death - drawing from Speirs a well of
sympathy, full of dark landscapes of the mind. Completely understanding of
Frame's bleak "thoughts on bereavement", they also reveal music's
unique ability to delve deep into the psyche of the composer.
In its quite different way, the same is true of Douglas
Lilburn's 1957 Wind Quintet. This rarely heard classic is a masterly
display of concentration, distinguished by a superb use of counterpoint, and
it is not one note too long. The familiar phrase endings are there, giving
us the Lilburn "fingerprint", and the marvellous feeling of finish
makes it deserving of becoming a staple of the wind quintet repertoire.
But, for many, the concert would be memorable for the rare
chance to hear the music of the Greek composer lannis Xenakis. Xenakis died
earlier this year in Paris, where he worked as an architect, and his music
is an uncompromising continuation of atonalism, with even a daunting use of
quarter tones to make the journey from comfortable tonality complete. The
three works played in this concert were all composed in the 1980s - long after
most had drifted away from such unflinching atonality - but far from a parade
of intellectual aridity, they revealed a fascinating sonic landscape, full
of extraordinary sounds and boundless energy. Waarg ("work"
in classical Greek) and Thallein (from the Greek word "to sprout")
use similar forces, with the latter work making antiphonal use of piano and
percussion. What extraordinary sounds we heard, with the quarter-tone intervals
between the three brass players producing a sound of astonishing originality
in Thalleïn, and the imaginative use of all the forces was ear-tickling.
Equally ear-tickling was Donald Nicolson's amazing performance
of the Naama (flux) for amplified harpsichord. That he could play
it at all was amazing enough, but that he could make such a riveting musical
experience of Xenakis's bewildering mix of energy and formal clarity was a
miracle of dexterity and musical organisation.
But all the performances were staggeringly fine; a timely
reminder of just what the dedicated professionals of Stroma have to offer
in the fertile world of twentieth (and twenty-first) century music.
DIFFICULT CHALLENGE MET AND OVERCOME
Stroma is a group drawn mainly from the NZSO, devoted to exploring the sort
of music that doesn't get much airspace from the conventional concert promoters.
Though they present a friendly enough face and manage press publicity that
could well induce ordinary music lovers to come along, the reality is a bit
different: there's no pretending much of the music is not for the paid-up
afficionado. It was after all entitled Xtreme Music.
The theme was music by three composers who have died in
the past year or so: two New Zealanders - Lilburn and Jack Speirs, and one
formidable international figure - Xenakis. Lilburn died in June this year
and the ensemble played his attractive Wind Quintet, with a gusto
that was impressive if not necessarily always sensitive to all its charms.
Jack Speirs, who died last year, was better known as teacher
(Otago University) and conductor (Dunedin Sinfonia). His Three Poems by
Janet Frame is one of his best-known works. Not an easy listen, it derives
from Speirs' serialist phase, lending a tortured vision to Frame's bleak but
essentially humane poems. Pepe Becker sang courageously and intelligently
against (sometimes defeated by) a large wind and percussion group.
The real challenge of the evening was Xenakis, who died
in February this year. A name to conjure with, yet his works are pretty invisible
in standard concert programmes. This was a concert that attracted a number
of those seriously interested in radical, contemporary music. Not only did
Xenakis (a Romanian Greek who trained as an engineer, fought on the Communist
side in the Greek civil war, escaped to France and worked with architect Le
Corbusier) avoid traditional forms and artistic precepts, but he was also
critical of the Darmstadt school and serialism: he eschewed all the easy paths.
The concert included two works for large chamber ensemble,
Waarg and Thallein, and a remarkable piece for amplified
and prepared harpsichord, Naama. All derive from the 1980s and displayed
Xenakis' total individuality, ferocity, his rejection of traditional notions
of the role of music. To ears accustomed to his music on CD, the reality of
the sounds came as a shock. Stroma, under their conductor Hamish McKeich,
performed these difficult, complex works superbly, with utter conviction.
Donald Nicolson's brilliant performance of Naama
lifted the music to a stunning immediacy, often elucidating at least the more
straightforward of Xenakis's compositional procedures.
A SKILLED PERFORMANCE
Stroma is one of the most interesting and original ensembles to have merged
recently.
Consisting of NZSO principal winds, brass and strings (and other top professionals)
Stroma has the credentials to tackle difficult music in a variety of instrumental
combinations. They usually perform new or recent music. Here they celebrated
three key 20th century composers who had recently died.
Greek lannis Xenakis spent most of his composing life in
Paris, where he was an architect and engineer. His works are uncompromisingly
difficult for performer and listener and are rarely performed here. Xenakis
couldn't have wished for stronger advocacy than these superb players.
Waarg, although featuring just 13 players, had big blocks of sound.
Powerful at times, strident and with pulsating bite from the strings it was
full of interesting harmonics and sonorities.
Naama for amplified harpsichord has an inexorable rhythmic drive,
percussive and Pulsating along with more delicate sounds. It is full of contrasts
and unusual textures. Donald Nicolson handled its difficulties with ease in
a stunning performance.
Thallein was driven by pulsing playing from Emma Sayers
(piano) and Murray Hickman (percussion). With surging staccato strings and
shrieks and burbles from the winds it sounds chaotic, but is carefully organised.
Interspersed were the two New Zealand works - Douglas Lilbum's
lovely Wind Quintet and Jack (Malcolm) Speirs' Three Poems of
Janet Frame.
Lilbum's Wind Quintet still sounds fresh. It has
a characteristic Lilburn quality with lightness, beauty and a sombre edge.
It uses the sonorities of five winds in a most original way.
Speirs' Three Poems of Janet Frame, using winds, harp, percussion
and piano, is spiky and somewhat astringent modern but sounding dated somehow.
The three poems relate to death and the threat of nuclear warfare. Pepe Becker's
crystalline soprano has to work hard against the ensemble to be heard, but
the effect of voice against the instruments made a striking impression.
Throughout, conductor Hamish McKeich directed with skill
and precision. This was a challenging, Programme enthusiastically received
by the audience.
BEST OF 2000
"For finest chamber ensemble, I nominate Stroma"
STROMA SPARKLES IN NZ MUSIC WEEK
"The opening concert of New Zealand Music Week proved to be interesting
and varied, with works by new and established composers. Stroma, conducted
by Hamish McKeich, comprises members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
and other professional musicians. The 19 performers played in various instrumental
configurations throughout the concert.
Recent Auckland University Masters graduate, Rachel Clement's
knitting dust represents its pursuit of an impossible outcome with
effective frantic and elusive moments from Bridget Douglas on flute and piccolo,
and Ed Allen on horn. Double bass, cello, played and struck piano and percussion
provided impetus and interest.
Devil On A Wire, by Lisa Meridan-Skipp, also a
recent Masters graduate from Auckland, but now teaching at Victoria University,
used electroacoustic sounds mixed with live, rich and edgy amplified cello
(Rowan Prior) to create a new, but retro-sounding, well realised piece.
Chris Watson, a composition Masters student at Victoria
University, demonstrated his understanding of the piano in his accomplished
Piano Quintet. This was a spiky, pointillistic work with a strong
percussive drive.Emma Sayers (piano) and string ensemble the Felix Quartet
gave a performance which delighted the composer and audience.
English-born composer James Gardner, now resident in New
Zealand, provided a titillating title, Fetish Effigies, and a satisfyingly
interesting piece. Written for 10 players, the piano (Donald Nicholson, who
provided outstanding playing throughout the evening) and percussion, (Strike's
Murray Hickman) drove the work to its exciting and abrupt conclusion.
The second part of the concert began with Ross Harris' clever, whimsical and
witty Contra-Music. This featured Hamish McKeich
on a galumphing contrabassoon accompanied by two groups, each consisting of
bass clarinet, trombone and drumkit.
A complete contrast was offered by Philip Brownlee's evocative
and atmospheric work for solo flute, Harakeke. This was performed
with total commitment and virtuosity by Bridget Douglas, utilising a full
range of flute-playing techniques.
The final piece, John Rimmer's The Ripple Effect,
was tightly written and sustained its momentum. Built around the horn (well
played by Ed Allen) it was perhaps the most satisfying work of the evening
and brought this exciting and innovative concert to a rousing conclusion."
NEW ZEALAND MUSIC WEEK REVIEW
...The preliminaries done (striking what I thought was a just balance between
evoking a sense of the event’s occasion and allowing the music its place as
the evening’s true focus), Stroma and conductor Hamish McKeich took the stage
to inaugurate the week’s musical happenings, the players (to my delight) dressed
in less formal, more engaging attire than in previous concerts.
They began with Rachel Clement’s knitting dust
(2000), a kaleidoscopic composer’s-eye-view of aspects of the creative process.
After being raucously-launched by piccolo and clarinet, the argument was as
compellingly advanced by (in the composer’s own words) “furious but muted
activity form(ing) textures that are busy as well as transparent and fragile”.
I was taken as much with the “toneless” tones - the sounds of breath, and
finger-thrumming, delineating the performers’ physical interaction with their
instruments - as with the actual notes, registering at one point a mournful
unison on strings that was paid scant attention by frantically vacuous winds,
engaged as they were with “keeping busy”. The feverish bustle of the percussive,
motoric “knitting” at the end underlined the music’s essentially evanescent
nature.
Lisa Meridan-Skipp’s Devil on a Wire (2000) was
next, played by ‘cellist Rowan Prior, with the composer as diffusion artist,
the two seated adjoining what looked like a hastily-assembled collection of
amplifiers bristling untidily with wires, Meridan-Skipp herself all but obscured
by the “power-tower” effect (the composer told me afterwards that the visual
cacophony was due in part to the electronic assemblage having been unaccountably
disconnected and disturbed before the concert, necessitating some drastic
on-the-spot reconstruction). Despite the visuals, the sounds made an enormously
atmospheric impression, the visceral physicality of the ‘cello by turns contrasting
with and melting into the sonorous stratopherics of Meridan-Skipp’s realisations
and responses. A particularly striking effect was created by the ‘cello playing
long-held notes whose tones and overtones created a saturated overlapping
effect which transcended the limitations of our physical space. And the eventual
subjugation of the solo instrument (following the cello’s skitterish explorations
of different tone-intervals) by the all-pervading echo-ambience of the electronics
made for a satisfying conclusion.
More traditionally cast, Chris Watson’s Piano Quartet
(1999) impressed with its expressive range, the piano and its string cohorts
exploring all aspects of a relationship which moved freely between contest
and collaboration throughout. Sometimes the piano took the role of a Court
Jester, a pithy commentator on its companions’ preoccupations, both in dialogue
and forthright floor-holding; while at other times it dovetailed into the
ensemble, as with a particularly striking episode where a theme was pieced
together jigsaw-like, the piano’s seemingly random note-placement atmospherically
set against a backdrop of piquantly-flavoured string harmonies. It seemed
to me to be music which enjoyed itself and its performance hugely, a feeling
abundantly conveyed by the performers, Felix the Quartet and pianist Emma
Sayers.
Enjoyment, though of a sharper-edged kind, was also to be
had from James Gardner’s Fetish Effigies, a work which I’d seem Stroma
play last year, and whose interplay of startlingly differentiated sonorities
exerted a similarly ear-prickling fascination on this occasion. Again I enjoyed
the piece’s gradual agglomeration of movement, after the opening veils of
mystery were rent asunder by piercing shrieks from the winds, the galvanising
effect of which led over time to a kind of ritualised dance sequence, whose
delight gave way to wry, matter-of-fact dissolution. The epilogue, recalling
the opening, was capped by a reprise of the strident wind fanfares, a “demented
Petroushka” kind of feeling which hinted at self-parody as well as the fulfilment
(or shock) of recognition.
Ross Harris’s Contra-Music was directed by the
composer, who styled his piece a “little monster.....full of surprises and
strange angles.” For a change, Hamish McKeich took the soloist’s role, playing
the contrabassoon. The piece began with dry, toneless noises of tappings and
breathings, a kind of “clearing-of-throat” sequence which allowed the first
subterranean vibrations to bubble upwards from the nascent depths created
by the soloist in tandem with the trombones. A memorable episode featured
the solo instrument dreaming sweet contra-bassoon dreams, with accompanying
trombones and percussion creating a marvellously atmospheric spatial effect
in a sea of low-frequency languor.
The charismatic Bridget Douglas then held the audience
spellbound with Philip Brownlee’s Harakeke for solo flute, a piece
which made for ten minutes of pure enchantment. The title (meaning “flax”)
gave rise to a myriad associations involving texture, movement and environment
(wind, birdsong and insect noises) evoked by the astonishing range of sounds
produced by the soloist. Alongside these representations the composer also
explored the relationship between instrument and player, inviting comparisons
between the use of flax as a raw material for woven patterns, and the creative
timbral intricacy resulting from the interaction of instrument and human impulse.
This “fusion of function” in any performance is what gives live music-making
its special character - but here the frisson resulting from the amalgam of
ambience and energy made an unforgettable impression.
Last to come was John Rimmer’s The Ripple Effect,
a work composed in 1995. As befits a sometimes horn-player, the composer used
the instrument’s expressive range to telling effect as the long-breathed,
exploratory opening was gradually activated by the horn’s energizing effect
upon the ensemble. Rimmer threw occasional ascerbic irruptions into the middle
of lyrical musings in a way that reminded me of similar “shouting-down” utterances
in the outer movements of Nielsen’s Wind Quintet. The instrumental discourse
was enlivened by episodes such as a nicely-crafted dovetailing of melody between
instruments, with the piano waiting to act as arbiter, and an oscillating
horn interruption underpinned by percussion, representing the all-pervading
“ripple” effect, as the music’s “increasingly virtuostic” character gradually
took charge of the proceedings.
In all, the evening represented both an auspicious start
to the week’s concert series, and another success for Stroma - with consistently
interesting programmes, informative and communicative booklet notes (though
a notch or two’s increased print size would have helped those of us visually
challenged by age!), and platform presentation that’s becoming increasingly
relaxed and audience-friendly, the group’s rapidly establishing itself as
a vibrant force on the local musical scene. A nice touch was the fact that
most of the composers were present, their acknowledgement by the players after
each item adding to the festive and participatory atmosphere of the occasion.
That quality remarked on by visiting pianist/composer Frederic Rzewski during
last year’s “Sonic Broom Festival”, the willingness of our composers to communicate,
to share with and engage others, to be in the same space and breathe the same
air as people in general (a much-prized quality once possessed by those iconic
representatives of our society, our top rugby players, before professionalism
drowned it all in a self-aggrandizing mire) seems as evident (perhaps even
more so among our younger composers) as it always has been.
STROMA @ NEW ZEALAND MUSIC WEEK
"This is New Zealand Music Week, and in acknowledgment Emma Sayers of
Massey University’s Music School has organised a series of concerts,
of which this was the first.
Stroma is a collective of young Wellington-based professional
musicians, mostly from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, who are dedicated
to the performance of new music, and the concert of short works by New Zealand
composers demonstrated their considerable skills.
The music, by seven composers, was a splendid panoply of
clever and intriguing sounds received by the audience with great enthusiasm.
It is very difficult in this age of recordings radio, fillm
and television to come up with new sounds, and none of what we heard was greatly
different, as a sonic experience, from that we have been hearing for the best
part of half a century in some form or other.
But what was more significant was the individual responses
to the timbral possibilities suggested by a wide range of instruments, in
a differing array of combinations. In this respect each of the works showed
the sharp ear of the composer.
The works that took my ear were Lisa Meridian-Skipp’s
Devil on a Wire for cello and programmed electronics, James Gardner’s
Fetish Effigies, Ross Harris’s Contra-Music for low
wind instruments and percussion, and John Rimmer’s 1995 The Ripple
Effect.
Other listeners could, quite validly, have chosen differently,
and the overall experience demonstrated, in dramatic fashion, the fertility
of New Zealand’s new music scene and the skill of our performers."
HOW TO KNIT DUST
"Stroma is a new name on the New Zealand music scene. The virtuoso contemporary
ensemble, made up principally (but by no means exclusively) of members of
the NZSO, gave their first public performance during last August’s Sonic
Broom Festival, a highlight being their exquisite rendering of Toru Takemitsu’s
Rain Spell.
Then, in March, the 20th-century "classic" in
their second concert, Ligeti’s 1970 Chamber Concerto, was given
an assured reading despite the distraction of a snapped cello string. Conductor
Hamish McKeich superintended the close weaving of Ligeti’s aurally bewitching
micro-textures (exhibiting such exotic timbres as harpsichord, celesta and
portable organ).”
CONCERT REVIEW
"Although the contemporary music ensemble Stroma is a relatively new
kid on the concert block, the group are already forging strong new directions
in the performance of new music by presenting challenging programmes of contemporary
classics alongside both existing and newly commissioned works by our own New
Zealand composers.
In programming a work such as the Ligeti Chamber Concerto
(1970), the Stroma players find an opportunity to really show us what they're
made of—and what a rare privilege for a New Zealand audience to experience
this contemporary classic, live and so beautifully polished. In this concerto,
the skill of the players was really tested, and their ability to maintain
homogeneity over a prolonged period truly shone through. Under the direction
of conductor Hamish McKeich, Stroma achieved an evocative nuance of colour
and a rich yet sensitively balanced, carefully controlled dynamic."