United Kingdom Distant Plains: Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble (Aisling Agnew [flute], Sarah Watts [clarinet], David McCann [cello], Daniel Browell [piano], Michael Trainor [violin] / Matthew Lynch [conductor]. Harty Room, Queen’s University, Belfast, 13.12.2024. (RB)
Sam Chambers – The Dismemberment of Pentheus
Luka Venter – Vestiges
Lisa Robertson – Birgisherað
Sean Doherty – Divisions II
Liza Lim – Invisibility
Geoff Hannan – Breaking News
Wang Lu – From the Distant Plains II
The Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble is one of Northern Ireland’s leading chamber music ensembles. They are dedicated to the performance of modern and contemporary compositions. The works programmed in this concert drew inspiration from a wide range of sources including Greek mythology, Mongolian Folk Music, Orkney and St Magnus, modern satirical TV and Italian Baroque music.
The concert opened with a work by Sam Chambers who is currently working on a PhD in composition at Queens University in Belfast. The Dismemberment of Pentheus is inspired by Euripides’s play The Bachhae which describes how Pentheus is torn apart by the women on Thebes during a Dionysian orgy. In Sam Chambers’s piece the different themes are torn apart and then reconstructed again. This was an attractive, high-energy, tonal work that seemed to fuse together different musical styles. Much of the work seemed to recall mid-twentieth century composers such as Bartók of Stravinsky but there were also some Romantic themes in the work. I liked it very much and it deserves a much wider audience.
It was followed by Luka Venter’s modernist Vestiges for violin, cello and flute. This work explores the vestigial traces of a hidden undercurrent of material. It was a very fragmentary avant-garde work which I found it difficult to connect with. Lisa Robertson’s Birgisherað was inspired by the life of Saint Magnus, a medieval saint who refused to fight following a Viking raid on Anglesey. Lisa Robertson is interested in combining sounds from nature and traditional music. This work started off in a serene and luminous vein although there were rhythmic undercurrents. It built to an impressive climax before dissolving into whispers and musical half lights.
The next two works were scored for solo violin and solo cello respectively and were performed respectively by guest violinist, Michael Trainor, and David McCann. Sean Doherty’s Divisions II uses a type of ornamentation or variation common in Baroque music. I was very impressed with this work and by Michael Trainor’s performance of it which made the piece sound entirely spontaneous and natural. The work opened with tranquil open-string sounds and this was followed up by more energised neo-Baroque figurations. The work came across a twenty-first century response to the great solo violin works of Bach. Liza Lim’s Invisibility requires an out-of-tune cello and for the soloist to play with two bows, the second with the hair tied around the entirety of the bow. The piece creates shimmer effects and is a study in opacity and transparency. There was no doubting the flair and execution of David McCann’s virtuosic performance (and full marks for being able to play with two bows at once!). The effects were interesting, although for me, the work was of limited musical value.
Geoff Hannan’s Breaking News is a musical satire on the television news cycle. It incorporates two popular themes from BBC News and Panorama into its frenetic cyclical textures. This was a witty, high-energy piece that was brilliantly executed by Hard Rain. Conductor, Matthew Lynch, did an excellent job keeping the entries tightly coordinated as the music became increasingly sparkling and energised. The final work on the programme was Wang Lu’s From the Distant Plains II which drew its inspiration from Mongolian folk music. It was an atmospheric piece which was again very well executed by Hard Rain. Two dancers from Maiden Voyage Dance joined the ensemble for this piece and their lithe shapes provided a perfect backdrop to the music.
Once again this was a first-rate concert by the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble featuring new pieces that deserve a much wider audience.
Robert Beattie