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LONDON SINFONIETTA and MANSON ENSEMBLE at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 15 March 2003 Niccolò
Castiglioni Momenti musicali; Quodlibet London Sinfonietta
RAM Manson Ensemble An interesting pre-concert, showcasing Royal Academy of Music student composers and instrumentalists, complemented what was to follow. Competent pieces by several young composers, all well worth hearing, were given by seven leading players of the London Sinfonietta, who then exchanged places with seven students, for whom no allowances needed to be made. They gave sensitive performances of subtle, Webernesque Momenti musicali by Niccolò Castiglioni (1932-96). He was a featured composer for the evening, the quasi-piano concerto Quodlibet a joyous, and often very funny, exchange between Nicholas Hodges and razor-sharp contributions from the orchestra, the whole concert directed with precision by Thomas Adès; Quodlibet is 'bright as morning' said our programme note, and it was. Gerald Barry always keeps you listening, you never know where he will go next, and his quirky pieces just stop, never overstay their welcome. Good, if minor,examples of the music of a real original, flourishing and deservedly increasingly popular at 50. Judith Weir's new LS commission, with an over-assertive trumpet and schmaltzy strings (front centre stage instead of being 'a celestial string quartet occasionally heard somewhere in the distance') was less to my taste; but you can't please everyone with every item in a contemporary music concert. The concert ended with the premiere of John Woolrich's concert suite from his 90 min score Bitter Fruit, keenly awaited since the Trestle Theatre production in December 2000. A violent 'silent opera', with masked protagonists, culminating with a stage full of corpses, Woolrich's score is remembered for its consonance with his familiar style: 'pared down aphoristic statments' and 'disconcerting paucity of notes'. The full length score was conceived to have hopefully 'a strong life of its own, and to be susceptible to other re-interpretations'. Opportunities for revival with the original company are likely to be few, more's the pity. This new 15 mins. version is all noise and climax, not successful as a concert piece, and no more likely to enter the repertoire in that guise. Perhaps he should have aimed for nearer 30 mins? (The music in the concert totalled little over 60!) What is the way forward? If the original production was videoed, a DVD would be the ideal way to disseminate and perpetuate a remarkable achievement. Otherwise, it could make a splendid CD-Rom with Extras including the detailed scenario and with Trestle Company photos? Bitter Fruit does not deserve to just disappear. Peter Grahame Woolf S&H Music Theatre Review reprinted (shortened): John WOOLRICH Bitter Fruit Trestle Theatre Company/Toby Wilsher & Russell Dean, with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Pierre-André Valade. Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1 December 2000 (PGW) The first year in the new millennium will not have yielded a more significant music theatre event than this wordless play within a play, created for the 'theatre of masks' Trestle Theatre Company, whose previous productions in Edinburgh & London have left me with a succession of indelible images and memories. Toby Wilsher calls Bitter Fruit a silent opera. John Woolrich felt liberated not to have a text. Their collaboration circumvented the frequent operatic disjunction of libretto and music jarring with the theatrical production. Woolrich wrote 'a huge piece of music' on the theme of Vulcan, the limping god who invented fire and, as the scenic realisation developed, Woolrich completed his full length score, conceived to have a strong life of its own, and to be susceptible to other re-interpretations. The story, derived from an ancient Greek myth, involves magic and unrestrained violence, a disabled, exiled son returning to wreak vengeance on his wicked parents, an automaton handmaiden who is turned into a killing machine, the protagonist finally realising he has been cuckolded and humiliated setting fire to the baronial castle - all perish. This is enacted with a density of bodily gesture which demands to be seen more than once to take in its complexity and truthfulness, a virtuoso demonstration based upon the observation of how high a proportion of communication is through body language. Woolrich is master of the pared down aphoristic statement, his pieces often brief and elliptical, with a disconcerting paucity of notes on the page. Bitter Fruit demonstrates the same characteristics, and its authorship is instantly recognisable from the beginning, but its initial understatement proves illusory as the drama of the play-within-a-play develops towards its dreadful conclusion, with a stage full of corpses as in a Restoration Tragedy, and a final conflagration matched by dramatic music with its own powerful momentum. - - This is indeed a big score and one that would repay listening to alone; a CD of this authoritative realisation is to be hoped for. - - The ingenious staging, designed for dismantling and reassembling for one-night stands, would lend itself well to photographing; what chance of a DVD of this auspicious premiere production of one of John Woolrich's most important scores? Peter Grahame Woolf
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