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This celebratory concert (the invitees to the private reception seemed to comprise most of the substantial audience) began and finished in strength. Regrettably, we need reminders of the power and sheer quality of Rubbra's quartets, which the Dante Quartet have long championed (see performances at Blackheath and Dutton CDs) - they haven't made it to the regular repertoire; they should have. For the novelties, Covent Garden Jette Parker Young Artist, Robert Murray (pictured) drew the short stick, and heroically tackled Michael Finnissy's Brighton! (2006). Poor Murray was required to fragment the words and destroy a potentially interesting and witty text, which conflates the experience of Saxons from the Dark Ages in the locality with people of today, drawing on an 1862 history of Brighton by Erredge. As set by Finnissy, with viola and viola scratching, plinking and plonking - "spectating", so we're told - it was a dour, dire ten minutes or so. Finnissy was allotted the most space in the programme and his supporters were there in force. In the interval we overheard one admirer congratulate him saying "best ever"; another explained to me "well, it's experimental, that's what he does these days". This concert drew me back to Housman, and I should like to end by recommending the Helios re-release of Hyperion's CD of three song cycles to A E Housman's A Shropshire Lad poems [Helios DCH55187] with a fine account of Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge (Adrian Thompson) coupled with some familiar and others less so from the collection by Ivor Gurney - 'fine poet and fine composer' (Michael Hurd). Peter Grahame Woolf |
which the composer has copyrighted, so I shall not betray his secrets...