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

Switched On: Speaker Music – Techxodus (Planet Mu)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Speaker Music is the work of writer and producer DeForrest Brown Jr., who describes his work as “abstracting Blackness through information overload” or, in the first track, “Black music that sounds technological, rather than music made with technology.” He does this through a combination of live and pre-edited music.

Techxodus is designed as an epilogue to Brown’s book Assembling A Black Counter Culture, or – as he describes it again – as “an extension of the Drexciya Mythos; researching  and reimagining the artefacts and stories of Drexciya with new maps, ideas and music, in particular reflecting on the ‘Seven Storms’, seven albums that came out in quick succession around the death of Drexciya member James Stinson, which seemed to herald Drexciyans in the attack mode.”

What’s the music like?

Brown Jr. sets out the principles behind the album over a single, thickly textured chord – an oceanic drone, if you like, and the ideal way into the album. Gradually the wholeness starts to break up, with muted trumpet and flickering percussion that carries into Techno-Vernacular Phreak. The percussion cuts loose, the harmonies start to wander, and a certain tension is introduced.

The treble lines have a piercing, acidic qualities that Brown offsets with these lovely, deep-dive drones such as the one that starts Holosonic Rebellion. This track grows into a depiction of an uprising, thrilling on one hand but disconcerting on the other. The intensity grows through Dr Rock’s PowerNomics Vision, threatening to spill over as the drumming becomes more insistent and the vocals edgier. Jes Grew brings this to a peak, with thrilling walls of sound from the brass that sound like insistent train horns, broken up by the frenetic drumming. Our Starship To Ociya Syndor returns to the rich drone-based approach, with wordless voices borne on the airwaves beneath shrill sonic signals. The intensity subsides – but only a little – before the scattergun drumming and distortion combine to bring Feenin’ to a coruscating peak. Finally Astro-Black Consciousness returns us to the mood of the opening, journey complete but with the wailing of gospel voices in the middle ground.

Does it all work?

It does – because Speaker Music has a style all of his own, a fascinating intersection of experimental jazz and techno that proves difficult to break down. New technology provides part of the thrill, but also a hidden menace.

Is it recommended?

It is indeed. Techxodus is a powerful and highly emotive listening experience, which only grows in stature the more you hear it.

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In concert – Thomas Trotter, CBSO / Pierre Bleuse: Saint-Saëns ‘Organ’ Symphony; Ravel, Poulenc & Holmès

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Thomas Trotter (organ, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Pierre Bleuse

Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17, orch. 1919)
Poulenc Organ Concerto in G minor FP93 (1934-8)
Holmès La Nuit et l’Amour (1888)
Saint-Saëns Symphony no.3 in C minor Op.78 ‘Organ’ (1885-6)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 20 September 2023 (2.15pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

It hardly seems 40 years since Thomas Trotter took on the post of Birmingham City Organist in succession to the venerable George Thalben-Ball, and it was good to see his local orchestra marking the occasion with a programme which featured two staples from the organ repertoire.

Some 85 years on and it might be hard to imagine just how radical (or, better still, subversive) Poulenc’s Organ Concerto was through its juxtaposing elements both serious and populist in a continuous sequence that comes together precisely because of this stylistic incongruity. Not that Trotter betrayed any such doubts in what proved a tautly cumulative reading; aspects of the Baroque and Classical colliding with a sombre if never wantonly earnest Romanticism in which strings melded seamlessly with the soloist while timpani underpinned climactic points. Pierre Bleuse ensured a steady gathering of tension over the lengthy central span of slow(ish) music, with the final stages making the most of that music-hall element as makes the fateful ensuing recessional then baleful closing cadence more decisive in its stark emotional impact.

Organ transcription of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is not unknown, but this afternoon’s performance was of the composer’s familiar orchestral version. Bleuse (below) conveyed the reticent elation of the Prélude, and while his expressive emphases made the Forlane overly studied in its knowingness, the wistful elegance of the Minuet sounded as disarming as was Yurie Aramaki’s oboe playing. Nor was any lack of poise in the central sections of the Rigaudon, even if Bleuse’s slightly stolid tempo in those either side sacrificed some of the music’s elan.

Composer, artist and feminist Augusta Holmès left a substantial output whose ambition may outstrip its attainment but includes such gems as La Nuit et l’Amour. Originally an interlude in her symphonic ode Ludus pro patria, it had established itself as an autonomous item well before becoming a staple of late-night music programmes – its canny amalgam of sensuous harmonies and heady lyricism recalling such contemporaries as Massenet and Godard, albeit with her engagingly personal twist which communicated itself readily in this performance.

Saint-Saëns was guarded with his assessment of Holmès, but his remark on her ‘flamboyant orchestration’ feels no less applicable to the Organ Symphony such as constitutes his greatest orchestral achievement and of which the City of Birmingham Symphony has given numerous memorable outings. While not among these, this account still left little to be desired – Bleuse launching the first part with keen expectancy before steering a purposeful if slightly dogged course through the ensuing Allegro. Seated up high at the organ console (rather than adjacent to the orchestra as with the Poulenc), Trotter made the most of the Adagio’s luminous timbral registrations which complemented the similarly burnished orchestration, while there was no lack of vigour or vivacity in the ‘scherzo’ section that bursts in at the start of the second part.

It is easy to make the ‘finale’ overbearing in its grandiloquence, but Trotter resisted any such temptation – he and Bleuse conveying the impetus and excitement of this music as it headed through passages of chorale and fugue toward a peroration as satisfying as it was irresistible.

You can read all about the 2023/24 season and book tickets at the CBSO website. Click on the artist names for more information on organist Thomas Trotter and conductor Pierre Bleuse

Switched On: Sean La’Brooy – There’s Always Next Year (Analogue Attic)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

There’s Always Next Year has a very English feel to its title, though its roots lie more accurately in shattered sports fantasies. It is, says Sean La’Brooy, ‘a tribute to the misguided hopes and dreams of a sports fan. Field recordings and commentary from a range of codes weave between silky saxophone lines and piano chords in what is a textbook showcase of the classic Analogue Attic downtempo and early evening sound we’ve come to know.’

It is La’Brooy’s second solo release, a complement to his work in tandem with Alex Albrecht as one half of Albrecht La’Brooy.

What’s the music like?

One of those silky saxophone lines can be heard early on in Offseason Getaway, courtesy of Greg Carleton – who allows the instrument to wander above active yet sensitive drumming from Leo Yucht.

The music has a wider, outdoor span thanks to La’Brooy’s roomy production – and that comes into its own for the beautiful scenes painted by Curse and 3rd and 28, where the commentary field recordings only heighten the ambience. Carleton returns for a delightfully lazy contribution to the atmospheric 140 to the Pin, where the pace quickens and the style switches to deep house. There it stays for the much busier Let, with bell-like melodic loops and urgent beats.

Finally we return to a trio with Carleton and Yucht for the regret-laden title track, with airy consolation found from keyboards too.

Does it all work?

It does. Consolation for sports fans is close at hand!

Is it recommended?

Very much so – if you’ve been following La’Brooy or Albrecht, you will find much to enjoy here. It is music to slow the pace and soothe the fevered brow of modern life.

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In concert – Sheku Kanneh-Mason, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Beethoven, Shostakovich, Walton

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Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Beethoven Leonore Overture no.1 Op. 138 (1807)
Shostakovich Cello Concerto no.1 in E flat major Op.107 (1959)
Walton Symphony no.1 in B flat minor (1932-5)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Saturday 16 September 2023

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Having opened the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s season two days earlier with Verdi’s Requiem, Kazuki Yamada returned for a judicious programme comprising three ‘No. 1’s’ – two mid-20th century masterpieces and an overlooked gem from the previous century.

Beethoven’s First Leonore Overture is in fact the third such piece written in conjunction with his eponymous opera, being intended for a Prague production that never materialized. Shorter in duration and simpler in design than its two ‘successors’, it sets the scene without attempting an overview of Leonore’s dramatic essence. Yamada duly made the most of an introduction as speculative as it was searching, then steered a lively course over the main Allegro – not least a surging crescendo into the coda such as Rossini had taken to heart before the decade was out.

It was with Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto that Sheku Kanneh-Mason won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016 and thus launched a career that shows no signs of stalling. In the meantime, his take on this piece has deepened and at times darkened – the opening Allegretto exuding keen irony abetted by the incisive response from an orchestra whose single horn and double woodwind are thrown into sharp relief against modest strings. If the ensuing Moderato seemed a little measured, its stark intimacy was eloquently sustained to a yearning climax then mesmeric interplay of cello harmonics with celesta in the coda. The third-movement Cadenza emerged with real cumulative impetus, and not even the hiatus while Kanneh-Mason replaced a broken string could stem the final Allegro’s sardonic course to its decisive closing flourish.

A work that has latterly regained (at least in the UK) the reputation it enjoyed decades earlier, Walton’s First Symphony has had regular performances from the CBSO (and a recording with Simon Rattle), and this reading did not lack for commitment. Not least an opening movement such as built methodically and remorsefully from initial expectancy, through a central span of brooding stasis, to a pulverizing culmination; the only proviso being the frequent inaudibility of its underlying pulse in lower strings during the climactic stages. The scherzo seemed even finer in its tense amalgam of spite and barbed humour, its treacherous syncopation dextrously handled, while the slow movement unfolded from a wistful flute melody (affectingly rendered by Marie-Christine Zupancic) to its climax of baleful intensity subsiding into numbed regret.

The finale still tends to be seen as surrender to well-tried symphonic precedent yet, as Yamada presented it, did not eschew formal or emotional obligations. The resolute introduction, agile fugal writing and irresistible build-up to the timely appearance of extra percussion all became part of a conception vindicated by the elegiac trumpet theme (ably conveyed by Jason Lewis); leading to a peroration in which Yamada’s urging his players onward briefly risked unanimity of response while still resulting in the sheer affirmation of those thunderous closing chords.

Overall, an engrossing performance which augurs well for the CBSO’s first full season with Yamada. Next week places the spotlight on Thomas Trotter who, having done forty years as City Organist in Birmingham, takes the loft for repertoire staples by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns.

You can read all about the 2023/24 season and book tickets at the CBSO website. Click on the artist names for more information on cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and conductor Kazuki Yamada

Online Concert: Chouchane Siranossian, Leonardo Garcia Alarcón, Balázs Máté @ Wigmore Hall – Bach, Schmelzer, Farina & Walther

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Chouchane Siranossian (violin), Leonardo Garcia Alarcón (harpsichord), Balázs Máté (cello)

J.S. Bach Violin Sonata in G minor BWV1021 (1732-5)
Farina Sonata quinta detta ‘La Farina’ (pub. 1626)
J.S. Bach Violin Sonata in C minor BWV1024: Adagio; Fugue in G minor BWV1026 (before 1712)
Walther Passacaglia from Sonata no.7 (pub. 1688)
Krikor Naregatsi Improvisation on Havun Havun
Locatelli Sonata in D minor for solo violin Op.6/12 (pub. 1737)
Schmelzer Violin Sonata ‘Victori der Christen’ (c1683-4)

Wigmore Hall, Monday 5 June 2023 1pm

by Ben Hogwood

This attractive programme of works for wind ensemble began with a rarity.

September is a prominent line in the sand in the course of the classical music year. The Proms ends, everyone else gears up for the start of an Autumn season, and a fresh wave of creativity begins.

The resumption of the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert on Mondays at the Wigmore Hall is always a prominent part of the changing of the guard, and the choice to begin the new season with violinist Chouchane Siranossian, harpsichordist Leonardo Garcia Alarcón (both above) and cellist Balázs Máté was an inspired one.

The trio gave a recital based on their Bach Before Bach album of November 2021, bringing forward some of the master’s work for violin and harpsichord but putting it in the context of contemporaries Walther and Schmelzer, as well as some inspired earlier choices.

Bach himself began the programme, the Violin Sonata in G major BWV1021 featuring some effortlessly stylish playing. Siranossian has a particularly beautiful tone and a sense of ornamentation that fits this music instinctively. The same can be said for the fluent harpsichordist Alarcón, an expressive player of exceptional balance, complemented by the burnished tones of cellist Máté. A songful Adagio gave way to an enormously enjoyable, quickfire Vivace, which itself led to a tasteful, florid Largo, led by legato harpsichord. An attractive Presto finished an uplifting account.

We then had a rare opportunity to hear the music of Carlo Farina, whose work is not often heard in concert. With performances like these he deserves much better, for the Sonata quinta detta featured lively passagework and darker colours, the music glinting at the edges as the violin became prone to passionate outbursts over rich harmonies. Siranossian selected a shorter bow for this music, playing to the snappy, playful interjections.

Two Bach movements followed, cleverly linked – a deeply profound Adagio, given great depth and character by the violinist, then a virtuosic Fugue, a very tricky proposition given Bach’s writing but brilliantly played. Walther’s Passacaglia, meanwhile, was a fiery complement, setting out the main theme in relatively polite tones but then liable to explosive outbursts of virtuosity.

After all this activity came the brilliantly timed Improvisation on Havun, Havun, from 10th century Armenian monk Krikor Naregatsi. This introduced a remarkable stillness to the concert, time standing still as the violin turned ornamental phrases over a drone from the cello’s open A and D strings. Siranossian segued straight into the Locatelli, a solo sonata with daring feats of virtuosity here but retaining some of the bird-like qualities found in the Naregatsi. Her impeccable intonation and bow control were striking, but the music reached a truly exalted level in the fifth movement Capriccio ‘prova dell’intonazione’, the sky truly the limit for the violin’s highest register!

There was also a bold opening to Schmelzer‘s pictorial sonata Victori der Christen, with multiple stopping and very descriptive writing, especially in the slow and sorrowful sections. To complement the drama of the Schmelzer, Siranossian introduced the first movement of the Sonata in D major from Georg Muffat. This was another excerpt from the trio’s disc, but one whose sunny countenance was the perfect foil – and which put the seal on a remarkable concert with playing of an exceptional standard.

You can listen to Bach Before Bach via Spotify below:

For more livestreamed concerts from the Wigmore Hall, click here