Bang On A Can All-Stars / BBC Concert Orchestra - Bang On! (recorded live, 28 Feb 2020)

A fantastic concert given last Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in which the BBC Concert Orchestra were paired with the Bang On A Can All-Stars.  The group's parent organisation Bang On A Can, founded in the late 80s, have performed works by Reich, Riley, Glass and many others, as well as a famous full-album cover of Brian Eno's Music For Airports.

John Adams' The Chairman Dances proves to be the perfect curtain-raiser for the show, played just by the BBC Concert Orchestra with great swing and verve - find the original recording here.  The main event concludes the first half of the concert, with the orchestra backing the All-Stars in the European premiere of Julia Wolfe's (one of the BOAC founders) Flower Power.  Written as a tribute to 1960s counterculture, it starts in woozy drones that reminded me a bit of Fausto Romitelli, before kicking into gear and embarking on a stunning journey through rock and psychedelia, dramatic orchestral evocations of protest and social upheaval, some gorgeous reflective passages and much more.

The group and orchestra play separately in the second half, with Bang On A Can All-Stars up first.  They play Horses Of Instruction, a work written for them in 1994 by a composer I only discovered last year, Steve Martland.  Like Martland's Babi Yar on that album, the influences of muscular, driving rock and Martland's teacher Louis Andriessen are both very much in evidence, but this work is much less dark in tone.  Made me think of a more melodic version of 90s King Crimson at times.  To close, the strings of the orchestra perform Philip Glass' Symphony No. 3.  I've largely avoided symphonic Glass over the years, but for all the received wisdom of this facet of his ouevre being interminable stodge, it was an enjoyable listen and a nice reflective comedown to end such a spectacular concert. Highly recommended, especially the Julia Wolfe centrepiece.

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Steve Martland - 266 (1989)

One of the intial group of releases that launched Factory Records' short-lived Factory Classical imprint, this album contains two works by English composer Steve Martland (1954-2013).  Given the parent label's all-consuming obsession with catalogue numbers, I suppose it makes sense that all the initial Classical albums were released under numbered titles: 226, 236, 246 and so on. 

Martland had studied under Louis Andriessen, which may have provided some of the inspiration for integrating rock instruments into an orchestral score, as heard on Babi Yar (composed 1983).  Named after the ravine outside Kiev that bore witness to so many Nazi atrocities, Babi Yar is a firey, dramatic work for three orchestras.  As well as evoking the horror of the Holocaust, it's supposed to also contain hope for humanity, and the slow, dignifed Epilogue is particularly affecting.

The other work on 266 is Drill for two pianos, composed in 1987 and played here by the two Dutch pianists for whom it was written.  With equal amounts of Martland's choppy, striking rhythmic touch and really gorgeous, flowing and lyrical passages, Drill should be right up the street of anyone who likes John Adams' piano works, for example.  Martland would release a few more albums in his lifetime, before his obvious talent was tragically cut short by a heart attack at the age of 58.

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