On 31st May, there’ll be an evening of works for strings by London-based American composer Jon Paul Mayse. As the concert title (‘Faith & Memory: New Works For Strings’) suggests, it’ll be an interesting mixture of religiosity and scientific enquiry: an unusual juxtaposition, and rare in its determination to pay equal concern to both.
Producing music that’s “spacious, colorful, and often quiet, almost to the point of silence”, Jon’s already known for his interest in “memory, gesture, perception, and the expressive potentials of virtuosity” and for his interest in the crossing of disciplines, forms and modes of working. Back home in Philadelphia, he’s been an advocate and champion of various electro-acoustic and multi-media musical formats across concert halls and classical dance space as well as within opera, partly through founding the city’s Live/Wire Opera Company and its related Ensemble; he’s also written a piece for bassoon in which the player triggers and controls the stage lighting, and is looking into developing an ambisonic choral piece. But even when the technology’s not present and he’s working with traditional and purely acoustic orchestral instruments, the preoccupation with sophisticated psychological processes continues, Some of his pieces, such as the recorder trio ‘Assembly’, plays around with compositional deconstruction and reconstruction like a Lego champion; and as his website notes, he’s investigated “style and imitation in ‘Tapas’ (for cello and bassoon), color and sound in ‘Color Studies’ (for cello and percussion quartet), and faith in ‘Seven Last Words’ (for solo cello), ‘Psalm for Cello and Choir’, and his ‘String Trio’…”
Entirely acoustic, this particular London concert seems to be paring down Jon’s concerns to a manageable few, beginning with two of the aforementioned “works of matters of faith”. In the tradition of Bach and James Macmillan (in terms of cultural continuity, if not necessarily musical approach), the cello solo ‘Seven Last Words’ explores the final utterances of Christ at Golgotha. “The first movement reflect upon Christ’s physical suffering, the punishments and beatings laid upon him. The middle movement is a duet between a normal, minor elegy and a calming countermelody entirely in harmonics, depicting Mary at the foot of the cross being consoled by Christ. The final movement reflects upon the spiritual isolation Christ would have felt under the weight of the world’s sins, shown in violent cries and outbursts answered by only silence.”
Jon also explains that the preceding ‘String Trio’ is “a study of biblical Light and Darkness. Darkness is portrayed by scratch tones, extreme dynamics, and fast, nervous figurations, while Light is portrayed by harmonics, longer tones, and a rising melody, which is taken from my setting of the end of the Easter Exultet:(“May this flame, be found still burning, By the morning star, the one morning star…”). At the outset, the Light theme emerges out of scratch tones, which then crescendo into a series of alternations between hammered and harmonic chords. After a number of episodes, the piece ends with a meditation on the baptism of Christ, in which all the instruments play short harmonic notes and the Light theme appears in the viola (the Son), then cello (the Father), the violin (Descending Dove).”.
Here’s a previous performance:
The final piece – a premiere – is Jon’s ‘String Quartet’, which “explores memory, sonically and personally” and draws on both Beethoven and post-Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard for inspiration. It’s a further extrapolation of Jon’s earlier piece ”Three Errors in Recall’, which he notes “maps memory recall errors to bow technique (I know, sexy).” Here’s what the source piece sounded like…
Jon Paul Mayse: ‘Faith & Memory: New Works For Strings’ Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, Marylebone, London, NW1 6XT, England
Friday 31st May 2019, 7.00pm – information here and here
Helen Grime Day Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, Marylebone, London, W1U 2BP, England
Saturday 15th October 2016, 1.00pm/6.00pm/7.30pm – information
Wigmore Hall is devoting a whole day to the work of Scottish composer Helen Grime, who’s about to begin her term as the Hall’s first female composer-in-residence for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons.
An hour-long early afternoon concert will be entirely devoted to Helen’s chamber music, played by a five-piece ensemble of strings, oboe and piano. There’ll be two sets of instrumental works originally inspired by fine art minatures – ‘Three Whistler Miniatures’ (triggered by Helen’s encounter with James Whistler’s chalk and pastel drawings in Boston’s Isabella Stewart Museum) and ‘Aviary Sketches’, influenced by the mysterious ‘assemblage boxes’ of American artist and sculptor Joseph Cornell. There’ll also be performances of Helen’s ‘Oboe Quartet’, and her string duo ‘To See The Summer Sky’, plus the British premiere of the piano and oboe duo ‘Five North Eastern Scenes’. (Here’s a version of the Whistler piece…)
From the press release: “Helen Grime’s ‘Seven Pierrot Miniatures’ (NB – a companion piece to Schoenberg’s ‘Pierrot Lunaire’) project the composer’s uncanny feeling for instrumental tone colours and textural contrasts, whilst her ‘Clarinet Concerto’ (to be played by soloist Mark van de Wiel) is a study in virtuosity that grows more meditative as it unfolds. Oliver Knussen and Elliott Carter have been formative influences in Grime’s career; her duo ‘Embrace’ picks up the duos in Knussen’s delightful ‘Songs without Voices’, and the Carter duo, written for Knussen’s 50th birthday, mirrors this.” There’ll also be a performance of Leoš Janáček’s woodland fantasy ‘Concertino’.
There are two takes on two of those Grime pieces below:
In between the concerts, at 6.00pm, Helen will give a forty-five minute talk.
Helen Grime – Three Whistler Miniatures (for piano, violin & cello)
Helen Grime – Aviary Sketches (after Joseph Cornell) (for violin, viola & cello)
Helen Grime – To see the summer sky (for violin & viola)
Helen Grime – Five North Eastern Scenes (for oboe & piano) (UK première)
Helen Grime – Oboe Quartet (for oboe, violin, viola & cello)
(evening concert:)
Helen Grime – Embrace (for Bb clarinet & C trumpet)
Helen Grime – Seven Pierrot Miniatures (for piccolo, bass clarinet, piano, viola & voice)
Oliver Knussen – Songs without Voices Op. 26 (for flute, cor anglais, clarinet, horn, piano and string trio )
Helen Grime – Clarinet Concerto (for clarinet, piccolo, contrabassoon, harp & strings)
Elliott Carter – Au Quai (for bassoon and viola)
Helen Grime – Luna (for piccolo, oboe/clarinet, E-flat clarinet, horn, percussion & piano)
Leoš Janáček – Concertino (for piano, two violins, viola, clarinet, French horn and bassoon )
Incidentally, Helen has recently announced her first new work as part of the residency, which will be a piano concerto for Huw Watkins and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. This will be premiered at the hall in March 2017. In the meantime, here’s a dip into yet another Grimes piece (her acclaimed orchestral work ‘Near Midnight’, which already seems to be working its way into the repertoire…)
* * * * * * * *
If you’re interested in hearing Helen’s ‘Aviary Sketches’ twice in one month, the The Coriolan String Trio are including it in their Conway Hall concert a couple of weeks after Helen Grimes Day, sandwiched in between two pieces of established classical repertoire…
Conway Hall Sunday Concerts presents:
Coriolan String Trio + Adam Brown Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1R 4RL, London
Sunday 30th October 2016, 5:30 pm – information
From the Conway Hall publicity mailshot – “The Coriolan String Trio combines the forces of chamber musicians from two renowned chamber groups, with a thirst for exploring and expanding on the repertoire for String Trio. As founding members of the Finzi String Quartet, viola player Ruth Gibson and violinist Sara Wolstenholme performed internationally, broadcast and recorded together until 2012. Until 2012, Robin Michael was cellist in the critically acclaimed Fidelio Trio for over ten years, with an extensive discography and premiering over a hundred new works for the genre. Since first meeting in 2013, all three have enjoyed collaborating through Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival and projects at Kings Place, London.”
Programme:
Ludwig van Beethoven – String Trio in G Op.9/1
Helen Grime – Aviary Sketches (after Joseph Cornell)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Divertimento in E flat K563
As a bonus, “at a pre-concert recital at 5.30pm, guitarist Adam Brown will perform solo, presenting varied dance forms from across Latin America. Performed works will be recorded on a forthcoming album that will include dynamic new arrangements and exciting first recordings.” No extra details on that, but here’s Adam performing a take on a Jimmy van Heusen classic…
* * * * * * **
In between the previous two shows, The Ligeti Quartet are touring their interesting ‘Fellow Travellers’ programme at a couple of English venues.
From the Forge website:
“The Ligeti Quartet – consisting of violinists Mandira de Saram and Patrick Dawkins, viola player Richard Jones and cellist Val Welbanks – is dedicated to performing modern and contemporary music, commissioning new works, and engaging a diverse audience. Formed in 2010, they were united by their fascination with the music of György Ligeti, and have since established a reputation as leading exponents of new music.
“The title of this programme and the opening piece, ‘Fellow Traveler’, suggest socio-political and Cold War connotations. The pieces of music you will hear at this concert refer in various ways to tensions and freedom, unity through eclecticism – relevant themes in the month before the US presidential election. The concert is built around two major works by Samuel Barber and Dmitri Shostakovich, contemporaries who in this programme represent classics of the mid-20th century USA and USSR. Their music was related in language but written under very different circumstances; Barber composed his quartet in the prime of his life, buoyed by the artistic perks of The New Deal; Shostakovich wrote of his fear of mortality, in the grips of terminal illness and under Soviet scrutiny.”
The concert also includes quartet works by the polystylistic pioneer Alfred Schnittke, the polymathic jazz-and-classical composer John Zorn (from a set of intricate, witty compositions inspired by the rules and forms of sadomasochism), and the premiere of a new Duke Ellington-inspired quartet composed by another jazz musician, Laura Jurd (who’s also on tour this month).
Programme:
John Adams – Fellow Traveler
Alfred Schnittke – String Quartet No. 3
Samuel Barber – String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11
John Zorn – Cat O’Nine Tails
Laura Jurd – Jump Cut Shuffle (world premiere)
Dmitri Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 13, op. 138
The Forge, 3-7 Delancey Street, Camden Town, London, NW1 7NL, England, Monday 17th October 2016, 7:00 pm – information
In addition, the Quartet will be playing another show at the end of the month, in Aberdeenshire (as part of the ongoing Scotland-wide Sound Festival). This show will feature a different set, although one which illustrates the Quartet’s interests and preoccupations with modern and twentieth-century music.
Swoon. /swo͞on/ A verb. To be emotionally affected by someone or something that one admires; become ecstatic. Here are some people and things that make me swoon. #swoon #swoonage