Author Archives: Arcana

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About Arcana

My name is Ben Hogwood, editor of the Arcana music site (arcana.fm)

In concert – Mimi Doulton, Thando Mjandana, BCMG: Songs at Day, Songs at Night

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Mimi Doulton (soprano), Thando Mjandana (tenor), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group / Vimbayi Kaziboni

Kidane Primitive Blaze (2022)
Birtwistle Today Too (2004)
Birtwistle …when falling asleep (2018)
Kendall Tuxedo: Between Carnival and Lent (2022)
Kidane Cradle Song (2023) [BCMG Sound Investment commission: World premiere]
Anderson Mitternachtslied (2020) [UK premiere]
Anderson THUS (2023) [World premiere of final extended version]

Elgar Concert Hall, University of Birmingham
Wednesday 18 October 2023

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

A varied programme greeted attendees at tonight’s concert from Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (to be repeated in Bristol on October 29th), consisting largely of vocal pieces and directed with precise assurance by the highly regarded (justifiably so) Vimbayi Kaziboni.

Equally well regarded at present, Daniel Kidane (recently signed to Schott) was represented by two works – of which Primitive Blaze made for an effective curtain-raiser with its array of interlocking rhythmic patterns whose elaboration brought greater emphasis on a linear continuity in its wake. Both the electric guitar and tenor saxophone were prominent within this ensemble – the latter instrument emerging at the forefront in the final stages, when its plangent tones signified a closure as decisive formally as it sounded decidedly equivocal.

Next came settings by Harrison Birtwistle. To a text by the 18th-century Japanese poet Tanko (translated by Joel Hoffman), Today Too found tenor, flute and guitar evoking a twilit scene whose ominous elements are subsumed into an aura of shimmering, even sensuous stillness.

Rehearsal considerations necessitated exclusion of the David Harsent setting From Vanitas (hopefully not in Bristol) but not of …when falling asleep – Birtwistle’s last completed work, which intersperses lines by Rilke (translated by Jochen Voigt) with those by Swinburne in a sequence the more affecting for its understatement. Mimi Doulton brought a keen eloquence to the sung component, though Thando Mjandana seemed a little tentative with those spoken in parallel, and quite why the final lines of his contribution had been excluded was unclear.

Doulton returned for Between Carnival and Lent – one of Hannah Kendall’s ongoing Tuxedo series drawing on the art-print of that name by Jean-Michel Basquiat; abrupt juxtaposition of keening melisma with spoken polemic rather tending to cancel out each other as it proceeded.

Mjandana duly came into his own with the premiere of Cradle Song, Kidane’s setting of verse from the poem by Blake, though an evident desire to avoid the winsomeness associated with ‘innocence’ led to a highly rhetorical vocal line surely at odds with the semantics of this text.

The evening closed with two settings by Julian Anderson, both from his song-cycle In statu nascendi and drawing on a linguistic variety of verse in the context of an ensemble similar in line-up while not in usage to that of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. Nietzsche (in the original German) was the basis for Mitternachtslied, familiar lines here exuding an anguished elation wholly different from that encountered in Mahler or Delius. Longfellow at his most visionary was the starting-point for THUS, building gradually from speculative beginnings towards a climactic section whose visceral impact felt less a setting than an intuitive riposte to its text. This premiere of the ‘final extended version’ drew a forceful though slightly self-conscious response from Doulton, in what seems the likely culmination of the song-cycle in question.

It certainly brought to a striking close a programme whose relative short measure was more than outweighed by its variety or its intrinsic interest. Hopefully those who hear it in Bristol will be equally responsive to its enticements as those who were present at Elgar Concert Hall.

For ticket information on the forthcoming Bristol concert on Sunday 29 October, click here, and click here for more information on the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Click on the artist names for more information on Vimbayi Kaziboni, Mimi Doulton and Thando Mjandana, and on the composer names for more on Julian Anderson, Harrison Birtwistle, Hannah Kendall and Daniel Kidane

Published post no.1,986 – Sunday 22 October 2023

In concert – Pretenders @ The Electric Ballroom

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Pretenders

Electric Ballroom, Camden, London
Thursday 19 October 2023

Reviewed by John Earls. Picture (c) John Earls

Chrissie Hynde, founder member, singer and leader of Pretenders has spoken about how this latest tour has focussed on playing nightclubs rather than theatres or arenas. And this performance at London’s 1500-capacity Camden Electric Ballroom amply demonstrated how this most enduring of bands can still cut it in this environment. And then some.

Losing My Sense of Taste is not just a gripping opener to their impressive latest (and twelfth) studio album Relentless but made for a powerful start to this 100-minute show that was full of energy, poise and attitude.

There certainly wasn’t any resting on the laurels of a ‘greatest hits’ package in a set that featured much relatively recent material. And how it rocked. Boots of Chinese Plastic and Don’t Cut Your Hair from 2008’s Break Up the Concrete were played back-to-back and were fast and furious but never out of control. Just one of many examples of how tight this iteration of the band are. Special praise to James Walbourne, co-songwriter on the more recent material, who played some magnificent guitar.

Of course, Pretenders have some well-known classics too and the two encores featured not only their excellent cover versions of The Kinks’ Stop Your Sobbing and I Go To Sleep but their own Back on the Chain Gang, Don’t Get Me Wrong as well as closing with ripping versions of Precious and Tattooed Love Boys from the very first Pretenders album released some 43 years ago.

This was sharp, powerful rock and roll with a nod to a punk sensibility including shout outs to Joe Strummer and Johnny Thunders. And of course no one quite sings a ballad like Chrissie Hynde, and stunning versions of You Can’t Hurt a Fool and Tequila proved to be cases in point. She remains one of the great voices of modern music. Actually, make that just one of the great voices.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union and tweets at @john_earls

You can listen to the new Pretenders album Relentless on Spotify below:

New music – Red Snapper: Live at the Moth Club (Lo Recordings)

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A new release on Lo Recordings that is well worth your time! In the words of the label’s press release:

“Musical innovators Red Snapper release a new album on Lo Recordings. Live at The Moth Club, the follow up to 2022’s acclaimed Everybody Is Somebody long player, features nine tracks from a vast and impressive back catalogue on Warp Records and Lo Recordings and captures perfectly the energy of their celebrated sold out London show from May 2022 in Hackney.

With an incredible and genre bursting career that spans nearly thirty years, the new album demonstrates the band’s ability to constantly rework classic and new tracks, keeping them impassioned, experimental and relevant. The collection includes a version of Suckerpunch which originally appeared on their 1998 album Making Bones.’ It was released as a single on 15 September.

Have a listen below and see what you think:

Published post no.1,984 – Friday 20 October 2023

On Record: Nathan Williamson – Malcolm Lipkin: Piano Music (Lyrita)

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Malcolm Lipkin
Nocturne no.1 (1987, rev. 2000)
Nocturne no.2 (1995)
Nocturne no.3 (1999)
Sonata no.5 (1986)
Nocturne no. 4 ‘…heard in the stillness…’ (2000)
Nocturne no.5 ‘…interrupted melody…’ (2001)
Sonata no.6 ‘Fantasy Sonata’ (2002)
Nocturne no.6 ‘…glint and shadow…’ (2002)
Nocturne no.7 ‘…dancing figures…’ (2004)
Nocturne no. 8 ‘…recollections…’ (2006)

Nathan Williamson (piano)

Lyrita SRCD.414 [68’55’’]
Producer/Engineer Adrian Farmer
Recorded 13-15 October 2021 at Wyastone Concert Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth

written by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Following on from his three symphonies (SRCD.349), Lyrita here continues its coverage of Malcolm Lipkin (1932-2017) with this release featuring piano music from his later years – a cohesive body of work such as benefits from the insightful playing of Nathan Williamson.

What’s the music like?

While not lacking performances from the early 1950s onward, Lipkin remained a peripheral figure on the UK music scene until the premiere of his 1977 chamber work Clifford’s Tower (Divine Art DDA25202) – its powerfully humanist response to racial atrocity typifying the music from his maturity. The pieces on this new release appear dissimilar given their overt abstraction, but even a cursory hearing reveals many subtleties of expression arising directly out of the musical content which come increasingly into focus with each successive listen.

It was with his Third Sonata that Lipkin first came to attention, but there was a 32-year gap between its successor and the Fifth Sonata. Its two movements contrast with each other in every respect: the first, marked ‘Extremely slow’, starts then ends with a rapt inwardness that makes its ferocious central eruption more unnerving; the second, marked ‘Quite fast’, emerges as a toccata whose jazzy syncopation and technical virtuosity are carried forward to a decisive close. If the ‘Fantasy’ of the Sixth Sonata seems anti-climactic by comparison, its integrating of the nominal four movements (the ‘scherzo’ placed third) as a continuous discourse is brought off with absolute assurance. There is also a growing sense the outcome of its intriguing 15 minutes is unlikely to be that anticipated, which indeed proves the case.

It was none the less with his series of Nocturnes, composed over virtually two decades, that Lipkin made his defining contribution to piano literature. These take their cue from Chopin and Fauré, while adding a vein of ambiguity which is unique to this composer. Not least the First Nocturne with its distanced opening, hazy yet lucid evolution and ethereal close. The Second and Third pieces are respectively wistful and elegiac, then the remaining five each has a descriptive subtitle. Hence the Fourth Nocturne in its juxtaposing of the otherworldly and ominous, the Fifth with its winsome elegance, and the Sixth in its intuitive interplay of expressive types. The Seventh Nocturne has a more capricious demeanour, then the Eighth ends the series with its veiled allusiveness: ‘recollections’ in the fullest yet obliquest sense.

Does it all work?

Absolutely. Right from his first acknowledged pieces, Lipkin evinced craftsmanship of the highest order but it took time and experience to channel this into a wholly personal idiom. Such is everywhere evident in the piano music heard here, which also calls on pianism of the highest order. This it receives from Nathan Williamson (himself a composer of note), who has clearly devoted much time to evolving an all-round interpretive stance. With the Nocturnes in particular, it would hard to imagine more authoritative or sensitive readings.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The spacious though focussed sound is up to Wyastone studio’s customary standard, and there are typically comprehensive annotations from Paul Conway. It is to be hoped that Lyrita will continue its Lipkin exploration with more of the chamber and orchestral output.

Listen

Buy

You can explore purchase options for this album at the Wyastone website. For more information, click on the links for performer Nathan Williamson and composer Malcolm Lipkin

Published post no.1,983 – Thursday 19 October 2023

On Record: Sam Hayden: Solos/Duos (Métier)

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Sam Hayden
Picking up the Pieces (1991, rev. 2019) – Darragh Morgan (violin)
AXE[S] (1997, rev. 2009/19/21) – Mats Scheidegger (guitar)
Frammenti di divenire (2018) – Gianpaolo Antongirolami (soprano saxophone); Michele Selva (baritone saxophone)
Attente (2018-19) – Carla Rees (flute)
Remnants I (2018-19) – Richard Haynes (contrabass clarinet)
Remnants III (2021) – Karoline Öhman (cello), Tamriko Kordzaia (piano)

Métier MSV28622 [two discs, 84’51’’]
Producers/Engineers Mikey Parsons (Picking up the Pieces), Mats Scheidegger (AXE[S]), Francesco Sardella (Frammenti di divenire), Simon Paterson (Attente), Fabio Oehrli (Remnants I), Marcel Babazadeh (Remnants III)
Editing/Mixing Sam Hayden
Recorded 11 July 2019 at King Charles Court, London (Picking up the Pieces), 21 September 2021 at SRF Studio, Zurich (Remnants III), 7 January 2022 at Nottingham University (Attente), 25 February – 8 May 2022 at Home Studio, Zurich (AXE[S]), 13 May 2022 at Helvetiaplatz, Bern (Remnants I), 29 June 2022 at Pinkhouse Studio, Ancona (Frammenti di divenire)

written by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Métier continues its coverage of Sam Hayden (following that of his piano music Becomings) with this collection of solo and duo pieces drawn from either end of his composing career.

What’s the music like?

As one would expect from Hayden, his music brooks no compromises and takes no prisoners. Heard in the running sequence specified here, the works run chronologically with those most recent pieces coming first. The Italian saxophone duo makes the most of the volatile textural layering and fractured spectral harmony in Frammenti di divenire, then Carla Rees is no less inside the tensely expressive idiom of Attente with its multi-section discourse (whether those designated ‘IIIa’ and ‘IIIb’ are intended to be heard continuously or as alternatives is unclear).

Next come the first and third items in the Remnants series (the worklist at Hayden’s website does not yet extend after 2018, but the second is for bass trombone). The first of these finds Richard Haynes forcefully ejecting sounds and sequences that are the ‘composed’ remains of an elaborate computer-generated process, while the third pursues a more flexible though still rebarbative dialogue between cello and piano, where a variation-like evolution can be sensed as part of an ongoing and combative interplay between microtonal and conventional tunings.

The second half of this set features two large-scale works from earlier in Hayden’s output, and his involvement with the ‘new complexity’ movement then at its most potent in the UK. Despite (even because of) its title, Picking Up the Pieces unfolds as a tautly focussed entity – made more so by its initial ‘motto’ phrase that remains detectible throughout all manner of transformation on the harmonic, rhythmic and textural levels. Superbly realized by Darragh Morgan, it is among the most impressive instances of cohesion wrested from fragmentation.

If the epic which is AXE[S] does not quite achieve such an overall unity, this is likely a result of the work’s overall scale (virtually half an hour of uninterrupted music) and its tendency to discursiveness evident in those numerous types of material that are continuously crosscut in what becomes an odyssey for the instrument and its performer as much as the actual content. Having commissioned, premiered and worked towards its realization this past 25 years, Mats Scheidegger embraces the challenge of presenting this piece in all its uncompromising glory.

Does it all work?

Yes, if each listener wishes it so. As has frequently been remarked, Hayden’s work has never made any concessions to those performing or hearing it; nor has his recent involvement with spectral techniques brought any lessening of the technical rigour or expressive vehemence as has characterized his thinking for over three decades. To do so would not have necessitated a response of such unwavering commitment from its exponents, who ensure that the demands made on them become integral to the overall experience of coming to terms with this music.

Is it recommended?

Yes. The all-round excellence of these performances is matched by the focus and immediacy of the sound in each instance, together with detailed while not unduly abstruse notes from the composer. Those coming to his music afresh are not likely to remain emotionally uninvolved.

Listen

Buy

You can explore purchase options for this album at the Divine Art website. You can find out more on Mats Scheidegger at his Bandcamp page, and click here for more on composer Sam Hayden

Published post no.1,982 – Wednesday 18 October 2023