Review Details
LUNCHBREAK CONCERT MUSICIANS FROM THE UNIVERSITY KAY RITCHIE Flute THE SIDELINE TRIO
Alan Cooper
26 November 2009
ABERDEEN ART GALLERY
This Thursday’s Lunchbreak concert was a mixed bag in more ways than one. I have attended a number of concerts in the entry hall of the Art Gallery over the years - some of which have worked well, others not. Certain instruments do indeed sound good in that cavernous acoustic and one of those is without doubt the flute. The first half of the concert was given by the current Ogston Award holder Kay Ritchie. She opened her recital with Telemann’s Fantasia for Unaccompanied Flute, a reminder to all of us in the wake of all such solo pieces played during the recent Sound Festival that the tradition of these works goes back a long way. There was a suggestion of the techniques employed by J. S. Bach in his solo cello suites both in the first and to a lesser extent in the final movements of this piece by Telemann. I refer to the ability to create the impression of more than one line of music being played simultaneously by the solo instrument. This is achieved by threading a countermelody played at a lower or higher pitch through the main musical line. It takes some considerable skill to play this convincingly but to a performer like Kay Ritchie it is seemed like second nature. The middle movement Spirituoso was precisely that and there was no chance of the attention of the audience being diverted elsewhere even in those noisy surroundings when her playing was that electrifying.
The second piece was by Scottish composer, broadcaster and playwright John Purser. His Piobaireachd for Flute, also called Running Waters was a fascinating marriage of the traditions of Piobaireachd, solo flute writing and variations. The opening theme had transposed onto the flute the special ornamentations that are a principal flavour of Piobaireachd playing on the pipes. The following variations were a set of tellingly imaginative flights of fancy that certainly explained the idea of Running Waters, a subtitle given to the piece by a Maori audience when they first heard the piece.
Another instrument that works well in the acoustic environment of the Art Gallery is the saxophone and in the three pieces played by the Sideline Trio, the alto sax played by James Secombes sounded fine. I was reminded of the sound you get in the Paris Underground from some of the top-line buskers who play there. Apparently only their best musicians are allowed to perform. The less good ones are instantly cleared out. Bass guitarist Alan Anderson certainly played all the right notes. I could hear him very clearly indeed because the acoustic seemed to boost his volume till it was in danger of obscuring even the sax. I am not qualified to say anything at all about pianist Matt Newbiggin because from where I was sitting his music was transformed into an indecipherable jangle by the four second or more echo of the Gallery. Perhaps if the volume of the bass had been turned down and a real piano had been substituted for the amplified keyboard then the clarity and balance of the combo would have worked better. Still, the audience seemed to enjoy the programme of Autumn Leaves, Take The A Train and Blue Bossa. After all, two of these were top of the pops when they were teenagers. I wish these boys the very best and I promise to come and hear them again when they play in a more friendly acoustic environment e.g. The Lemon Tree.