Manchester Collective - Heavy Metal (live at the White Hotel, Salford, 11 Dec 2021)

Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 back in January, the Manchester Collective ensemble (previously featured at last year's Proms - link below) gave this concert on their home turf of music for strings, live electronics and percussion.  The programme gets off to a lively start with Bryce Dessner's Aheym (Yiddish for 'homeward'), written to suggest flight and travel.  Things then settle down momentarily for Dobrinka Tabakova's trio piece Insight (studio recording here).

The first commission of the programme follows, and is introduced by its composer Ben Nobuto.  Serenity 2.0 is intended to evoke pachinko arcades Nobuto encountered in Japan, and its blend of pre-recorded sounds with fractured strings and percussion is a highly enjoyable wild ride towards a calm conclusion.  A couple of years ago, the Proms included a piece for bassoon and distortion pedal - now, here's a cello through a distortion pedal, as the Collective's cellist Stephanie Tress performs Michael Gordon's Industry.  Then to close, we get more pre-recorded sound with live strings in the newly-minted commission Squint, composed by Sebastian Gainsborough aka Vessel.  It's a great end to an ear-bending collection of contemporary music.

link

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Manchester Collective at SGTG:

BBC Proms 2021: Górecki, Eastman, Tabakova etc

Colin Currie plays Xenakis, Nørgård, Stockhausen and more (recorded live, Friday 17 July 2020)

Solo percussion from Scottish performer Colin Currie, previously featured on this blog in one of his earliest recordings.  This recital, performed in an empty hall in Glasgow with the stage strewn with instruments (and kitchen utensils), was broadcast live as one of Radio 3's Lunchtime Concerts, and takes in seven composers in a breathtaking hour.

There's the sonically powerful material that you might expect from a solo percussion showcase, not least in the closing Rebonds B by Iannis Xenakis and in Kevin Volans' Asanga, but also pieces of wonderful subtlety, and even elements of both in the brilliant opener I Ching: Fire Over Water by Per Nørgård.  From the mellower end of the spectrum are the Dessner, Aho and Hosokawa works for marimba, and the Stockhausen piece for vibraphone.  All of it ear-bending stuff from a master of his arsenal of instruments.

link
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bonus concert - Sofia Gubaidulina's Glorious Percussion

Gubaidulina's spectacular work, which includes elements of improvisation, was performed by the Colin Currie Group and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in August of last year at the Edinburgh Usher Hall.  It was paired in this concert with music from Greig's Peer Gynt, performed by the orchestra.

link
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