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Reviews
These reviews relate to concerts in the 2004-5 Recitals Season

 

 

DISCOVERIES XXXIII

ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC IN THE MUSEUM

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

8 May 2005

Marischal Museum, Aberdeen

One of the points for consideration that arose at the Roundtable Discussion, during the final day of the Aberdeen University Music Prize, was whether more experimental forms of music, such as electroacoustic music, were best suited to performance in the traditional concert hall, or elsewhere. It was interesting therefore to find that the venue chosen for Discoveries XXXIII, were the two parts of the Museum at Marischal College. The opening piece, Bill Thompson's resonaria/in absentia, had an extra feature of interest with regard to its performance venue, that of time. What we experienced on Thursday 12 th May, was but a fragment of the whole event, since the performance was being extended over many days.

Composer Bill Thompson directed us to the display of Greek pottery in a glass case in that section of the Marischal College Museum, which is on the right hand side on approach to the Picture Gallery. Thompson had been permitted to place microphones against or inside the exhibits to record the ambient sounds coming from the jars at a very high level of recording. The composer's input to these sounds seemed to have been comparatively minimal. This in itself was interesting, since it raised the question of how much alteration had been applied to the generic sound sources by the other six composer/performers whose work we heard on Thursday.

Each of the performances created a unique sound world, and the experience for each listener must have been very different, depending on which part of the auditorium they had chosen to sit. This must, of course, apply to every performance in a conventional concert hall too, but that is rarely something that the listener ever thinks about in those circumstances, unless of course they have been allocated a seat in a part of the hall where the sound is “not good”. On Thursday, it was something that was propelled into real prominence. This was not just a function of the placing of the listener, close to, or far from, one of the many speakers in the auditorium. I found that not being able to see the “performer” who was in charge of controlling the music made their sound world seem a far more disembodied experience. It was interesting to note that quite a few of the other listeners closed their eyes during the performances. I did not, and I have to confess that for me, the pieces we heard will always be associated with the ambience of the Museum itself.

Each of the five other performers who followed Bill Thompson in the first part of the concert spoke a few words concerning the sources of the sounds they had altered, thus helping to explain the significance of some of the titles.

Pete Stollery's Peel began with largely identifiable sounds such as a ball spinning on a roulette wheel, or running water and then went on to explore how these sounds could be pared down and transformed into something quite different. Robert Dow's source sounds in Black Ice were often less easily identifiable, and for me at least, they conjured up a contrast between sounds from a natural landscape and sounds of machines, thus creating, for me, two opposing landscapes.

There was an element of more conventional music in Cut Glass Bowls by James Wyness. He had used the sounds of home made glass instruments, a sort of glass marimba as his source, so there were elements of both pitch and rhythm in his composition that were not so obviously present in the other pieces.

I wondered when Kirsty Robertson introduced her piece Circular Motion, just how on earth she was going to achieve the impression of circular motion. In fact her music did exactly what it said in the title. There were circles and arcs of circles produced partly by using the sounds of quite recognisable rotating objects and partly by rotating the sounds between the loudspeakers. I was impressed.

In Broken Nerve, Diana Simpson used the hum and crackle of electricity to create a rather alarming and threatening world that ended in a terrific storm – also impressive.

After the interval, the second half was devoted to a live electroacoustic improvisation from Alistair MacDonald, and saxophonist, Peter Dowling. The presence of a live musician, actually playing an instrument, set this piece totally apart from all the other performances. Dowling did create whole passages of what could be called conventional music, some of it with a definite jazz flavour. However, it was really the various tones and timbres of the saxophones, some of them at the most extreme edges of instrumental tolerance, that seemed to be at the core of this piece. The sounds came from three different sources. There were those created by electronics and recording, the amplified sound of the live saxophones, and here and there, some of the purely acoustic sounds of the saxophones that could be heard coming through all the textures.

I came away from Thursday's concert with plenty to think about. Two ideas come to mind. Does much of this music appeal to that part of the brain that appreciates sculpture or painting more than to the part that appreciates music? Are these composers taking us back to the very dawning of music, in manipulating raw sound sources rather than instruments, or are they taking us on a journey way into the future by teaching us to become far more sensitive in our response to sound itself. So far, I have not made up my mind.

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MUSIC FOR A SUMMER EVENING

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

8 May 2005

Mitchell Hall, Marischal College, Aberdeen

This year's competition to find Aberdeen University's Musician of the Year was focused on the world of traditional Scottish Music. There were four finalists for University Scottish Musician of the Year in the Mitchell Hall on Sunday 8 th May, two fiddle players, a pianist, and a bagpipe player. This was quite an undertaking for the judges, Roger B Williams, Director of University Music, Ian Russell, Director of the Elphinstone Institute and the North East's finest living exponent of Scottish fiddle playing, Paul Anderson. This year it was decided to have the competition first, in order to give the judges time to make their decision, however, I will leave that part till last.

Next session's concerts will begin in October with a performance by the renowned Edinburgh Quartet. They were present in the Mitchell Hall on Sunday, first of all to play Two Waltzes Op54 by Dvorak. The first in A was beautifully light and airy, the second in D, more robust and forceful, but both were expertly played by the Edinburgh Quartet. This was a suitable follow-on to the Scottish music since the keys of A and D occur regularly in fiddle music, and although Bohemian music is not the same as Scottish music both are at home with the rhythms of the dance.

Following these two attractive pieces, the Quartet stayed with the music of Dvorak, this time sitting in with the members of the University String Ensemble for Dvorak's Serenade in E Major. Dr Pete Stollery conducted the Ensemble, keeping the tempi suitably lively before the Larghetto and ensuring that contrasting entries from upper and lower strings were wonderfully crisp and exact. A little retuning before the Larghetto ensured a nice clean well-focused string sound in this slower movement before the Allegro vivace closed a fine performance of this most joyful work.

During the interval, the University Recorder Consort, Cantores ad Portam entertained the audience in the Picture Gallery but you needed to be close to them to hear through the buzz of conversation. Fittingly enough for Sunday's event, they ended their performance with several arrangements of early Scottish songs.

Neil Meldrum introduced the University Concert Band and their excellent conductor Eric Kidd. Midway March by John Williams and Darrol Barry's Lullaby for Lisa were standard concert band fare and received fine performances from this prize-winning band. The other two pieces were more challenging and unusual. I am by the American composer James Boyson Jr. had a story behind it, and a poem written by a young American band player who had died in a tragic accident. This piece followed the words of the poem, which Neil Meldrum read to the audience in advance. The music contained a section of free improvisation as well as the words I am, softly intoned by the members of the band. It was genuinely a most fascinating and effective performance. If any members of the audience had been lulled asleep by Lullaby for Lisa, then the thundering bass drum in Philip Sparke's Dundonnell would have jolted them awake. This work culminated in a rendition of the tune Highland Cathedra l.

First off among the competitors for this year's Music Prize was piper, Cameron Shepherd. His selection sounded fine to me, though I am not an expert, and Paul Anderson did criticise his use of grace notes. Nicholas Cowling's selection of Scottish tunes on the piano included Arlene Bowie by Aberdeen composer Peter Farnan and The Tongadale Reel by the splendidly irrepressible “box player” Fergie McDonald. I guess that these pieces were all Nicholas Cowling's own arrangements. If so, they were most impressive. Fiddle player Raemond Jappy, accompanied by Ian Milne opened with the slow air Chapel Keithack by William Marshall, the same opening piece chosen by Nicholas Cowling. I liked the variety of his pieces and the way one followed so smoothly after the other, an absolute essential in Scottish fiddle music. His bowing was also graceful as well as muscular and he got the feet of the audience tapping more obviously than any of the other players. The final contestant was Emma Swinnerton who played only two pieces, both of them featuring difficult grace notes throughout, which Paul Anderson singled out for special praise. I wonder whether she compromised her performance just a little by playing from the platform, which placed her at some distance from the audience? All four contestants of course were winners on Sunday, but some, as they say win more than others, and the performer acclaimed as University Scottish Musician of the Year 2005 was fiddle player Raemond Jappy.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN MUSIC PRIZE

GALA CONCERT

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

1 May 2005
Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen

The five finalists in the competition for the University of Aberdeen Music Prize were all assembled together in the Cowdray Hall, and a Quartet taken from the string players of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was assembled onstage, ready to play. The sense of excitement and anticipation in the Hall was palpable. What would the music be like? Who would emerge as the winner?

The first of the finalists to have her music performed was Si-Hyun Yi from South Korea. She studied and lectured at the University of Seoul, before coming to England to continue her compositional studies at the London College of Music.

The title of her piece was The Deadly Wind. It was in two movements, and the first certainly lived up to the title, as each instrument took up a swirling twisting line of music that sounded like fingers of wind searching and penetrating everywhere. The second movement was slower and more gentle and played out a struggle between contrapuntal music and music of a more harmonic kind. Above all, what was impressive was the way in which the maximum of atmospheric or pictorial content was made to accord with the technical demands of string quartet writing.

The second contestant was Paul Newland who has studied with such celebrated teachers as Sir Harrison Birtwhistle and Michael Finnissy. He has also studied in Japan and his piece entitled Mei had decided Japanese influence. The title refers to a custom used in the Japanese Kubuki Theatre when the action freezes onstage and the characters remain motionless for a time.

This was indeed reflected in the starts and stops of the music, where silence became part of the currency of the performance. Exploiting mostly the upper registers of the instruments, Paul Newland made much use of pizzicato, limited vibrato, harmonics and stabbing motifs in his music.

Also from South Korea, Sungji Hong has studied at Hanyang University in Seoul, the Royal Academy of Music in London and the University of York. Her piece was entitled simply String Quartet No.2. It opened with just one note, reiterated on violins, but this soon gave way to slides on the cello, then faster moving music, sometimes using skeletal textures on the strings. The cellist's fingers ran like a spider on the upper part of the fingerboard. Finally the reiterated note from the opening returned at the end, and the whole sense of the composition fell easily into place.

Vera Ivanova graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory before coming to the Guildhall School of Music to take a Master of Music degree in composition. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at the Eastman School of Music in the USA.

Her quartet was entitled Song Unsung. Like both Paul Newland and Sungji Hong, her music explored some of the techniques of string sound opened up by the more advanced 20 th century composers like swoops and so on. The most interesting part of her composition emerged where threads of melody began to arise, first on muted cello, then on the rest of the instruments.

The last composer to introduce his music was Bernard Hughes from London. A graduate of Oxford University, Goldsmiths College, London and now the Royal Holloway College, London, where he is studying for a PhD, Bernard Hughes brought a touch of good humour to the proceedings as he announced that his composition was entitled Suck it and see. He went on to explain that the significance of this was that he had never written for string quartet before, and he was just letting his composition lead him where it wanted to go. His was the most conventional of the pieces of the five we heard, but it showed a mature and gifted approach to the medium.

It was time for the judges to decide on their verdict while Paul Mealor delivered his votes of thanks to all concerned. I was sitting with Donald Hawkesworth and we both agreed that it was between the opening quartet by Si-Hyun Yi and the last by Bernard Hughes, so we were not disappointed when Hugh Macdonald announced that the winner was Si-Huyn Yi with her quartet The Deadly Wind. She will receive the commission from the BBC SSO, and her new composition is to be performed and broadcast from the Music Hall at the final concert of the Orchestra's next season in Aberdeen.

As Hugh Macdonald said, it is a cliché to state that all five contestants were worthy of a prize, nevertheless it was true. However, there were four other winners in the Hall that evening. These were the four string players from the BBS SSO: Elizabeth Layton and Jane Nossek, violins, Andrew Berridge, viola and Rudi De Groote, cello. It was hardly credible to learn that they have not played as a quartet before now. Well, this could be the start of something special for them. There is more than one professional quartet around today who could not even have looked at what they achieved on Sunday. Congratulations!

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THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN MUSIC PRIZE

MARK O'KEEFFE – TRUMPET

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

1 May 2005
Elphinstone Hall, Aberdeen

Mark O'Keeffe is the principal trumpet of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the main attraction at the concert of contemporary music on Sunday 1 st May at 2.30pm in the Elphinstone Hall. The performance also featured the University of Aberdeen New Music Group, conducted by Paul Tierney, as well as the Choir of King's College Chapel, University of Aberdeen, conducted by Roger B. Williams.

The centrepiece, and the most exciting work in the concert, was Ricarcare una melodia by Jonathan Harvey, one of the two judges of the Aberdeen University Music Prize. In addition to Mark O'Keeffe's marvellous live playing, this work included carefully timed electronic recordings of the trumpet, controlled by Dr Pete Stollery, Aberdeen University Music's wizard of electro-acoustic music. In this work, the thrilling sound of the trumpet came at the listener from all four corners of the hall, as well as from the live player in front. It was like being in the middle of a pyrotechnic display, surrounded by explosions of trumpet sound.

Also featuring the magnificent playing of Mark O'Keeffe were two other pieces. Airborne: a monologue was by Jennifer Martin, the Learning Manager of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. This piece for unaccompanied trumpet explored some of the different sonorities of which the instrument is capable, with or without mutes. It is surely destined to become a display piece for trumpet players as it stretches both the player and the capabilities of the instrument.

Mark O'Keeffe was also featured strongly in the piece that opened this fascinating concert. Entitled The Calling of the Rising Sun, it was by music student Paul Tierney, who is also the conductor of the University New Music Group. It was a vigorous piece that made imaginative and intelligent use of brass and particularly of percussion players.

Contemporary works performed by the Chapel Choir included pieces by well-established composers like Dr John Hearne and Judith Weir. I had already heard and enjoyed John Hearne's Taladh Chriosta more than once so it was more like an old friend than something new, but Agnes Bradley sang the attractive Hebridean-style melody beautifully. She was backed by a caressingly gentle chorus. Meanwhile, Judith Weir's Like to the falling of a star, seemed to be claiming part of the territory sometimes associated with John Rutter. A relative newcomer Paul Mealor, who is the originator of the University of Aberdeen Music Prize, also took the Choir in the direction of Hebridean music, this time with clarsach, played by Laura Morley, in his composition, Between the Mountains and the Sea.

This left two compositions, both with a religious inspiration. The first was a Missa Brevis by Dr Roger B. Williams. It was beautifully sung by Amybeth Smith with Dr Williams at the piano. Hints of plainsong in the melody line made me wonder whether there is a version of this work for plainsong choir with organ.

The performance ended with Tenebrae Super Gesualdo by Peter Maxwell Davies, but before that, the Chapel Choir sang O Vos Omnes by Gesualdo himself. Not exactly a contemporary figure, Gesualdo was nevertheless a very individual composer whose music spoke more eloquently to the twentieth century than it did to his own time.

Tenebrae Super Gesualdo employed alto flute, bass clarinet, harpsichord and metallophone as well as guitar and soprano soloist. As the final piece of a celebratory concert, it was perhaps out of place, but I could imagine it being very effective as an interlude at one of the Tenebrae concerts given by Cappella Nova in St Mary's Cathedral at Easter.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN MUSIC PRIZE

ROGER B WILLIAMS - ORGAN RECITAL

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

1 May 2005
King's College Chapel, Aberdeen

Sunday 1 st May was a day packed full of activities relating to the University of Aberdeen Music Prize. It began with a Service in King's College Chapel. Then, at one o'clock, Dr. Roger B. Williams, organist to the University, gave a recital on the Chapel's wonderful new Aubertin organ. It featured works by one of the judges of the Music Prize, Robert Saxton, as well as one of seven pieces by Aberdeen composer John McLeod, and the world premiere of In the Presence of the Angels by Geoffrey Palmer.

Before the recital, Dr Williams listed the styles of music most suited to the instrument. Having already heard his performance of a piece by Messaien, I knew it was true that 20 th century and contemporary music are particularly well suited to the clarity of sound that this new instrument affords.

We were to hear the first performance in Scotland of Robert Saxton's Music for St Catharine. It began by stating and expanding on the theme of the work, unadorned on a flute stop. Initial harmonies were sparse and strident, but these soon developed into chiming figures and fanfares decorating the main theme. As the piece drew to a close, the texture developed a fugal quality before ending on a huge magnificent chord. This piece set a suitably celebratory mood for the beginning of the recital.

John McLeod's Sacrament of Baptism from his The Seven Sacraments of Poussin was receiving its first performance in Aberdeen. The format of this piece was somewhat episodic and there were some interesting examples of this aspect of contemporary music to follow during the rest of the day, including one during the finals of the competition.

In the Presence of the Angels by Geoffrey Palmer was receiving its world premiere in King's College Chapel. Palmer's style was perhaps a little more conventional than the other two pieces, which is not to say that it lacked imagination, far from it. I liked the inclusion of the male voices seamlessly singing the plainchant themes before each section of the organ music. Like the other pieces it demanded Dr Williams's most rapid and lively fingering, which he supplied with tremendous style and enthusiasm. Despite the torrential rain, I left the Chapel and headed for the Elphinstone Hall in high spirits.

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EARLY ENGLISH ORGAN PROJECT
FESTIVAL OF ORGANS AND VIRGINALS
SYMPOSIUM OF EARLY ENGLISH KEYBOARDS


RACHELLE TAYLOR

KEYBOARD WORKS OF TALLIS

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

17 April 2005
King's College Chapel, Aberdeen

The young Canadian keyboardist and expert on early English music, Rachelle Taylor, gave the third and final concert of the Symposium of Early English Keyboards on the afternoon of Sunday 17 th April. This was the final event of the Symposium and the Complete Keyboard works of Thomas Tallis (1505-c1585), whose life spanned so much of the period, made a fitting end to this magnificent series of concerts.

Once again, all four of the specialist keyboards available in King's College Chapel were called into service for the performance, and members of the Aberdeen Schola took part, letting us hear the plainsong chants on which Tallis constructed his music. Rachelle Taylor began her recital on the Wetheringsett Organ with several versions of Clarifica me pater by Tallis, Tomkins and Byrd. Regular attenders at organ recitals will of course have been aware that the possibilities for developments on given tunes are virtually infinite, however this exercise was a demonstration of how wide the possibilities are, even within a limited musical period.

For Lesson “Two parts in one”, which has been attributed to Bull, although Rachelle Taylor does not believe this to be correct, she chose the Virginal. Her recital revealed that Tallis's style often employs a very complex accompaniment to the top line. This piece would surely make a very useful study for the development of the left hand.

It was back to the Wetheringsett and to the voices of Aberdeen Schola for Ecce tempus idoneum, then on to the harpsichord for one of Tallis's most extended and testing pieces, Felix namque, the first of two of the composer's settings. A striking feature of this work was repeated chords in the right hand moving upwards, accompanied by a fiendishly busy left hand.

Rachelle Taylor made but one small excursion to the little Wingfield Organ. This was for the short pedagogical exercise, A Poyncte . It was quickly followed by Natus est nobis hodie, a short piece for Christmas Day in which the high flute sound of the small instrument, under which ran, once again, a fast moving accompaniment, was a particular attraction.

The Wetheringsett enticed Rachelle Taylor back for Veni Redemptor gentium, with the excellent male voices of Aberdeen Schola singing some of the verses. This was followed by the rich full harmonies of Ex more docti mistico, proving that this early organ was capable of resounding through the Chapel like a much larger instrument.

A short Fantasy, which Rachelle Taylor likened to the style of Orlando Gibbons, was played on the Virginal before the recital concluded on the harpsichord with Tallis's second setting of Felix namque. This wonderful piece with its joyful dance-like writing was the perfect up-beat conclusion to the concert and to the Symposium.

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EARLY ENGLISH ORGAN PROJECT
FESTIVAL OF ORGANS AND VIRGINALS
SYMPOSIUM OF EARLY ENGLISH KEYBOARDS


PIETER DIRKSEN

RECITAL OF MUSIC BY PRESTON, BLITHEMAN, BYRN AND BULL

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

16 April 2005
King's College Chapel, Aberdeen

Following on directly from Davitt Moroney's recital on Friday, Pieter Dirksen began his celebrity recital on Saturday 16 th April on the Wingfield Organ. Its surprisingly rich sound world was once again to the fore in the second and third verses of Bina caelestis by Thomas Preston (d. c. 1560). Pieter Dirksen stressed the still fluid state of research on works of this period in his introductions. The files are still open as to the real authorship of much of this music. This merely stresses the value of the ongoing discussions at the current Symposium of Early English Keyboards and their real import on the world of musical research. Discoveries are still to be made, and the bringing together of so many expert minds like this represents a unique opportunity for progress to be made.

Pieter Dirksen who hails from the Netherlands, took a much more muscular approach in his playing, and the works of the Tudor composers, Richard Farrant, Thomas Preston and John Blitheman in his hands, came across as far more solid than the flights of fancy of William Byrd's music on Friday. However, Pieter Dirksen did include three works by Byrd in his recital. Hughe Astons Grownde (spelled differently from Friday's programme) was nevertheless the same piece, which Davitt Moroney had played on the Wetheringsett Organ. Pieter Dirksen chose to play it on the virginal where its sterling properties came across just as clearly.

Dirksen's choice for the Wetheringsett Organ included John Blitheman's Gloria tibi Trinitas for part of which he used the wonderfully earthy sounds of the regal. This made the organ sound like a completely different instrument, which in a sense, it is.

Also played on the Wetheringsett , were the first three pieces which Dirksen had chosen to represent the music of John Bull, Aurora lucis rutillat and two Fantasias . As with the Fancyes of Byrd, the Fantasy pieces were proved to contain the most exciting keyboard writing. However the most startling pieces were saved for the end of the recital, this time on the harpsichord. Here Pieter Dirksen's muscular and emphatic style of playing brought out an interesting aspect of John Bull's music. This was the way in which its structure seems to relate to the surges and stops in the rhythms of the English language. My Dezire came across very much as a song without words. Each of the four pieces that followed it, seemed to progress with breathing spaces very much like spoken English. The changes in texture and shaping of the music between each pause, or intake of breath, seemed to me like changes of meaning or emphasis in speech. The more I heard of this music, the more fascinating I found it.

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EARLY ENGLISH ORGAN PROJECT
FESTIVAL OF ORGANS AND VIRGINALS
SYMPOSIUM OF EARLY ENGLISH KEYBOARDS


DAVITT MORONEY

RECITAL OF MUSIC BY BYRD

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

15 April 2005
King's College Chapel, Aberdeen

Davitt Moroney gave the first of three celebrity keyboard recitals in King's College Chapel on Friday 15 th April. It was part of a much larger event, the Festival of Organs and Virginals, bringing together keyboard experts from all over the world - performers, scholars, instrument builders and music editors, to share in a weekend of exploration and discovery covering every aspect of early English keyboards and their music.

William Byrd was Davitt Moroney's choice of composer for his recital. He divided it into four sections, choosing one of four different instruments available for each section. His first choice was a virginal built by Darryl Martin who was present in the audience to delight in his instrument being played by an expert in the interpretation of Byrd's music.

From the first notes of the Prelude in F, a special sweetness of tone was evident, whether from the instrument or its special tuning it is hard to say. No doubt both played their part. This was followed by the Pavan and Galliard in F, with Davitt Moroney's expertly delicate fingerwork bringing out all the elegance and refinement of Byrd's fantastical decorative writing.

From there, Davitt Moroney moved to the Wetheringsett Organ built by Martin Goetze and Dominic Gwynn, who was also present at the recital. The powerful “chuff” of the attack on this instrument gave a quite different perspective on the shaping of Byrd's music, especially the accompaniment to the melody line in Christe qui lux est et dies.

The more stolid writing in this and in Clarifica me, Pater, apud temetipsum stood in contrast to the cascades of notes in the Fancy in d minor and in Hugh Ashton's Ground. Here the music grew steadily in fanciful complexity with startling changes in its rhythmic undercurrents, splendidly underlined by Davitt Moroney's exciting playing.

Malcolm Rose, who designed the harpsichord on which the third section of the recital was performed, was there. Variations on The Mayden's Songe introduced some of Byrd's more theatrical music - the four sections of The Battle. Rhythmic interest featured strongly in the magical syncopation of the penultimate variation on The Mayden's Song leading into the rich chordal writing of its finale. The March before the Battle contrasted nicely with the special lilt of The Irish March, I could almost hear the Irish bagpipe emerging from the timbres of the treble notes on the harpsichord. The Trumpets and Galliard for the Victory gave us exactly what it said on the label.

For the final section of his recital, Davitt Moroney moved to the little Wingfield Organ, in some ways the jewel among all the instruments we heard in the recital. The clarity of its sound was delightful and especially in the Fancy in C it was astonishing to hear the complexity of playing that it was possible to achieve on this tiny keyboard. Davitt Moroney's concluded his recital on this instrument with a splendid Hornpipe .It left everyone in the very best of spirits.

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CAPPELLA NOVA & THE ABERDEEN SCHOLA

CONCERT FOR HOLY WEEK: LIGHT OF THE WORLD

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

23 March 2005
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral
Huntly Street, Aberdeen

Once again, The Aberdeen Schola, directed by Roger B Williams gave their firm, smoothly phrased support to Cappella Nova, directed by Alan Tavener. They provided the fine-flowing framework of Gregorian Chant which acted as introductions to the gloriously colourful polyphony of composers such as Alonso Lobo, Christobal de Morales and Tomas Luis da Victoria, all of them representing the Iberian Peninsula. Even King Joao IV of Portugal was represented by his motet Crux fidelis.

This joint musical meditation to celebrate Holy Week in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Huntly Street has become an eagerly anticipated part of the regular musical scene in Aberdeen, not only as a feast of fine vocal music, but for the magical atmosphere which it always engenders. In particular, the 9pm start somehow makes it special.

The seamless sounds of the plainchant Ubi caritas et amor was followed by an explosion of polyphonic colour in Alonso Lobo's Lamentations for Holy Saturday . Cappella Nova achieved a wonderfully comfortable balance between the clarity and pitch characteristics of the individual voices and the overall sound of the ensemble. In this music it was as if the ever-moving colours and shapes of a kaleidoscope had been magically translated into sound.

King Joao of Portugal's Crux fidelis was equally impressive and surprising too, as some of its harmonic cadences sounded like something from more than two hundred years later. However, Cappella Nova had even more startling music on offer. This year, they introduced a new element into their celebration of Holy Week in the form of two works newly commissioned by them from contemporary composer Ivan Moody. A onetime pupil of John Tavener, and like him, a convert to the Orthodox Church, these influences were at once evident in the eastern sounding harmonies of his two settings. The first, He who clothed himself… and the second, Aurora radius, based on a poem by the early Scottish poet John Dunbar both blended polyphony with fabulous sounding strident harmonies which must have been fiendishly difficult to sing. Congratulations to all of Wednesday's voices who managed to make this music sound perfectly at home with the rest of their programme.

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J S BACH: THE ST MATTHEW PASSION CRITIC'S REVIEW

CRITIC'S REVIEW
Alan Cooper

20 March 2005

University of Aberdeen Choral Society & Chamber Orchestra
St Andrew's Cathedral, King Street, Aberdeen.

The St. Matthew Passion, J. S. Bach's grandest, and arguably his finest work, appears at first glance to be constructed on a mammoth scale, what with its breathtaking opening for two choirs plus ripieno chorus and two orchestras. Yet much of the music is startling in its intimacy, with one solo voice backed by just two or three solo instruments. Bach's skill in marrying his solo voices to the most imaginative and telling instrumental accompaniments, chosen not just to match the timbre and pitch of the voice, but to drive the emotional impact of what is being sung, ensures that the music is never less than absolutely spectacular. And this was the overall impression created by the performance given on Sunday 20 th March in St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral by the University of Aberdeen Choral Society and Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Roger B. Williams.

All the essentials of the finest performance were there.

First of all, there was the choice of Neil Mackie as the Evangelist. Aberdeen is fortunate that Neil was born here, otherwise we might not be able to attract the singer who is simply the very best the world has to offer today in this most exacting role. I met him in between the two parts of the performance, and he said that first and foremost, the Evangelist is there to bring the story to life, and a harrowing story it is too. This sums up perfectly what Neil Mackay achieved. His revealingly expressive singing brought to life every raw emotional detail of the story. Secondly, another fine Aberdeen born singer, baritone Alan Watt, sang the part of Christus. His beautifully warm and smooth delivery brought a special sympathy and authority to the role. Pat McMahon, also a native of the City, brought wonderful strength and clarity to the soprano solos while Katherine Smith, who was fortunate in having at least three of the best solos in the whole work, really made them shine.

Along with these seasoned performers were some younger vocal talents. The tenor soloist, Carlos Nogueira, originally from Portugal, and the bass, Ross McInroy from Arbroath, both came to us via the RSAMD. Both seemed a little nervous in the first half, but by the evening performance, both singers blossomed, and in particular Ross McInroy's aria Komm, süsses Kreuz and his final Recitative and aria, Am Abend, da es Kühle war, had considerable emotional and artistic impact.

Simon Hart and Paul Tierney along with several singers from the chorus acquitted themselves well in the smaller parts such as Pilate, Judas and Peter and these parts, small though they are, played a crucial role in the work.

The two orchestras and their leader, the superb Dirk van Loon, made a huge contribution to the success of the performance. First, they provided a rock steady background to the music. From their ranks were drawn the wonderful sounds of the instrumental soloists. These included Dirk van Loon and Nathalie Vanballenberghe violins, cellist Gareth John whose solo with its muscular bowing lifted the bass aria so beautifully, and Shaun Dillon who provided the lovely and exotic sounds of the oboe d'amore and oboe da caccia.

Of course, putting the real meat into the music was the tireless chorus. In fact, once again, their second half performance outdid their efforts in part one. Whether guiding the emotional reactions of the audience with the chorales, or providing the drama of crowd scenes, their contribution was crucial, and on Sunday, it was particularly gratifying to be able to enjoy such a strong tenor section.

The St.Matthew Passion is a long work, yet this was a performance, which even if it had one or two “dangerous” moments regarding the first choir in part one, had no longueurs whatsoever, in fact, I was surprised and disappointed to realize that the end had come so soon.

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JOHN BUTT : ORGAN RECITAL

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper

8 March 2005
King's College Chapel

Aberdeen University Music were happy to welcome Professor John Butt back to the University where he was a lecturer during the late eighties. His recital in King's College Chapel as part of the Early English Organ Project made use both of the Wetheringsett Organ currently on loan to the University for the Organ Project and the University's own Aubertin Organ . This instrument has done so much to revitalize the concept of organ recitals at the University. There is no doubt that these have become true adventures in music, and Tuesday's recital was no exception.

Professor Butt began with the music of Orlando Gibbons, played on the smaller Wetheringsett Organ . The Prelude in G and the two Fantasias in a minor all featured the most ornate fingerwork. This stood out with perfect clarity yet gained so much in delicacy on the smaller instrument. It was just the first example of Professor Butt's remarkable fluency and facility on the keyboard, which we were able to enjoy on Tuesday.

He moved to the Aubertin Organ for the rest of his recital, beginning with two pieces by the Italian organist and composer Frescobaldi. His Recercar cromaticho did exactly what Professor Butt said it would, pushing the limits of seventeenth century harmony to its furthermost limits, which made it particularly fascinating for the 21 st century listener. With the second piece, Bergamasca, the splendidly off-centre rhythms were the main focus of interest throughout this marvellous series of variations.

Like Anton Bruckner, Henry Purcell was a gifted improviser on the organ, which seems to be the reason that neither composer left behind a large literature for the instrument. Purcell's Voluntary in G and his Voluntary in C did sound, as Professor Butt had promised, like not entirely polished or finished compositions. The Voluntary for Double Organ in d minor with its very ornate musical lines was far more satisfying.

On to the French School of the same era and Nicolas De Grigny : his set of pieces for the Mass from the Premier Livre D'Orgue were indeed Technicolor © pieces as regards the far more adventurous and self-conscious use of registration, which was always a feature of the French School, compared with the Italians or the English. Professor Butt certainly chose the finest combinations from among those on offer on the Aubertin's splendid palette. The Recit de Tierce en taille with its almost oriental-sounding timbres was particularly fascinating.

The recital ended in spectacular fashion with the music of J.S. Bach. In the Organ Sonata 4, in e minor, BWV 528 all the musical lines shone through with remarkable clarity. The Prelude and Fugue 14, in f sharp minor, BWV 883 was a fascinating version for organ of a work we are more likely to hear today on piano, or for the purist, on harpsichord. However, it was the Prelude and Fugue in e minor, BWV 548, known as The Wedge, that left the whole audience breathless with admiration. What a whirlwind of a performance it was Professor Butt did not play an encore, although many in the audience were eager for him to do so, but how could he? Nothing could have followed that marvellous piece by Bach.

 

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UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & JOSEPH LONG (piano)

CRITIC'S REVIEW

Alan Cooper
7 March 2005
Music Hall, Aberdeen

Music in the University presented their most varied and adventurous programme ever in the Music Hall on Monday 7 th March, when the Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roger B. Williams, along with a fine battery of young percussionists, directed by Lisa Nicol, brought together music by Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Edgard Varèse. This splendidly eclectic musical experience began with what was the evening's finest performance, Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Aberdeen born pianist Joseph Long as soloist, making a welcome debut for Aberdeen University Music. A pianist of remarkable sensitivity, with an extensive palette of tonal colour, literally at his fingertips, Joseph was an ideal choice of soloist for a work that presents so many different masks and moods to the audience. At times brittle and witty, then sinister or again lusciously romantic, all these changes of character and more, reflected in Joseph's fine playing, were sensitively matched by the orchestra in their performance. There was wonderfully fluent and piquant fingering from Joseph Long, and the celebrated Eighteenth Variation was approached in beautifully relaxed style. It grew and developed into a truly poetic rendition without ever being over done. When the orchestra took over the melody and swelled up to full volume, the result was all the more stunning.

The opportunity of seeing as well as hearing Ionisation by Edgard Varèse was a unique experience that opened up extra dimensions for the ears, as it was possible to see where all the percussion sounds were coming from, and so nothing was missed. Since this was probably the first time the work has been performed in Aberdeen, Dr Williams who played piano and whip in the percussion ensemble, suggested a second performance immediately after the first and it was, I think, better. The players relaxed and this seemed to add extra impetus to the underlying rhythm. However in both the recorded versions of this work that I have heard, the siren is very much louder, especially towards the end of the piece.

Soon the orchestra was back onstage for the final work, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I am not sure whether to apportion blame for an almost fatal missed entry in the first movement or praise for a truly remarkable recovery, which kept the vehicle firmly on the road. The cellos struggled a bit with their contribution to the fugal passages in the third movement too, however, those problems apart, this was otherwise a fine, spirited performance. Roger Williams really worked hard to keep the symphony on the boil and much of its success was down to him. Nevertheless the upper strings in particular and leader Bryan Dargie deserve congratulations for their fine sturdy playing which also contributed more than a little to the success of the two great works in which they played. For many reasons, this concert must surely be one that will live on in the memory of the audience.

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THE CARDINALL'S MUSICK

BYRD SONG

Alan Cooper

King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen
27 February 2005

One of the most fascinating phenomena in musical history is the sudden eruption of composer talent that happened in Russia in the nineteenth century. Something similar happened in England, but that was two hundred years earlier, during the English Renaissance. One of its brightest stars was William Byrd. Just how amazing was this talent was gloriously revealed in King's College Chapel on Sunday, 27 th February 2005 when the Cardinall's Musick, led by Andrew Carwood, made their Aberdeen debut with a recital of Byrd's music entitled Byrd Song . The ensemble is named after an entry in the accounts of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, where one item is listed as The Cardinall's Musick, since the ensemble was originally based in what was once known as Cardinal's College Oxford.

This recital was part of the Early English Organ Project, currently in progress at Aberdeen University, so Byrd's Mass for four voices was punctuated by the performance of three pieces for solo organ, by Thomas Tallis, (probably Byrd's teacher), Clarifica ma pater I, II and III . These three pieces were played splendidly by Dr. Roger Williams on the Wetheringsett organ. It is one of two magnificent reproduction instruments by Martin Goetze and Dominic Gwynn, currently on loan to King's College Chapel as part of the Organ Project. The percussive “chuff” of the wind in the pipes added character to the tones of this splendid instrument.

The first voice we heard was Andrew Carwood's, floating with magnificent clarity into the Chapel proper from the entrance at the rear. Then, the sensuous and expressive sound of Byrd's contrapuntal writing found itself perfectly at home in the almost intimate ambience of the Chapel, sung by the eight voices of The Cardinall's Musick. Every voice in the ensemble is of top soloist quality, yet the balance and blend of the voices is exquisite, almost as if the voices, together, made up a single instrument, and despite the contrapuntal complexities of the music, not a single word of the text was lost.

In the second half of the performance, the real quality of the solo voices was revealed. This was in a selection of settings by Byrd, of English texts for one, two or three voices. In this section of the programme too, came what may have been for Byrd an experimental work, full of false relations, O salutaris hostia. Perhaps its harmonic clashes shocked Byrd's contemporaries, but to the twenty-first century ear they sounded wonderfully piquant. The recital ended with the motet Christ rising again from the dead , using largely the same text that was used by Handel in the final part of Messiah. Byrd's setting was subtler than Handel's, and made a splendid conclusion to this very special recital. Andrew Carwood said that he had enjoyed his visit to Aberdeen, and hoped that it would not be long before they came back. These words were enthusiastically endorsed by Sunday's audience.

 

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SHADOWS OF THE EAST
Mika Takehara & University Balinese Gamelan Bong Kebyar

Alan Cooper

Elphinstone Hall, Aberdeen
20 February 2005

Shadows of the East, spotlighting two very different aspects of music from worldwide percussion, introduced the young Japanese marimba and percussion virtuoso Mika Takehara and the University of Aberdeen Balinese Gamelan Gong Kebyar led and presented by Paul Mealor. All the current members of the University Gamelan, one of only four in the British Isles, are music students at the University of Aberdeen School of Education. Their joint concert, shared with Mika Takehara in the Elphinstone Hall on Sunday 20 th February, was their first full-scale concert performance since the Gamelan was reformed about two years ago.

“Awesome” was the description one young concertgoer gave as his reaction to Mika Takehara's performance. Two contrasting pieces for marimba, Kodoku na Odori, composed for Miss Takehara by the Swedish composer Jesper Nordin and Mirage by Yasuo Sueyoshi employed the fartherest reaches of agility and dexterity in stick control, along with passages calling for delicacy and the ability to draw forth from the instrument, a wonderfully atmospheric sound world. However I suspect that it was the two drum and percussion pieces, Rebonds b by the Greek-born French-taught composer Iannis Xenakis, with its startlingly intricate and exciting passages for woodblocks and Echo by Paul Mealor with the wonderful throbbing intensity of its drumbeats and its use of startling vocalizations by the performer that really thrilled the younger members of the audience – and me too!

The Gamelan generated an astonishing variety of textures and complexities of both rhythm and melodic line, all from fairly basic ostinati, as layers of different instrumental timbres and tunings overlaid one another. There was loud, almost aggressive music, as in the opening Overture , or more gentle sounds as in Parabe Sang, in which voices would well up from within the instrumental textures. This use of singing was something which also proved impressive in The Tail of Ramayana in which Indonesian shadow puppets aided by a narrator, told the story which was then illustrated musically by the musicians of the Gamelan. Some of the puppets had been brought back from Indonesia, while others had been constructed by the students themselves using authentic drawings as a guide. The play, considerably shortened from the original which lasts many hours, gave the audience a taste of something truly exotic. I especially enjoyed the wonderful forest of mysterious percussion sounds and vocals that accompanied the exploits of Hanuman, the monkey. I was drawn all the way into the experience and it was a bit of a shock to exit from the Elphinstone Hall after the performance, not into the tropical heat of Bali, but into the snow-covered tundra of the lawn at King's College.

 

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Carols for All

Alan Cooper

Mitchell Hall, Aberdeen
12 December 2004

Aberdeen University Music's ever popular Christmas Concert, Carols for All, has had to expand to meet growing audience demand. This year there were two performances, one in the late afternoon, and one at the usual time in the evening, and both drew capacity audiences to the Mitchell Hall on Sunday, 12 th December. In the past, the tried and tested formula of carols old and new, popular and classical, with a good measure of audience participation has proved to be a winner, so why change?

This year, once again, the University Choral Society, conducted by Dr Roger Williams and the University Concert Band, directed by Eric Kidd filled the Mitchell Hall with the merry sounds of Yuletide rejoicing.

At the piano was accompanist George Chittenden who subtly supported many of the choral items, and he assisted Dr. Williams in gently guiding the audience into taking part in the proceedings. Actually, they did not have to work too hard with an audience which arrives ready and willing to contribute to the atmosphere that is already warmed up by the recorder players of Cantores ad Portam who were in the Picture Gallery to welcome the audience with music as they arrived. In the interval too, the Elphinstone Fiddlers kept spirits climbing with foot-tapping Scottish favorites – a real musical feast from University Music.

Extracts from Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and two of John Rutter's popular carols saw the Choral Society in fine voice with rich well-balanced singing, and Harold Darke's beautiful setting of In the Bleak Mid-Winter was given an extra charge by its solo verses being sung by soprano Ruth Gerrard and a young baritone with a voice of real quality, Paul Tierney. In a lighter vein, the Choral Society revived memories of childhood Christmases past, with Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas figgy pudding and all.

The contributions by the University Concert Band, conducted by Eric Kidd were particularly warmly received by the audience, and no wonder! In particular Prokofiev's Troika from Lieutenant Kije and possibly the best ever medley of Christmas tunes, Leroy Anderson's A Christmas Festival set the seal on another warm-hearted Christmas celebration from Music in the University.

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Organ Recital: Francis Jacob

Alan Cooper

King's College Chapel
7 December 2004

We have been privileged to hear some very fine playing at past recitals on the new Aubertin Organ in King's College Chapel, but the best yet, without the shadow of a doubt, took place in the Chapel on Tuesday 7 th December, 2004. Francis Jacob, the young French organist from Strasbourg astonished and thrilled his audience with a display of ferocious virtuosity, especially in the works which opened and closed his recital, Buxtehude's Toccata in F Major BuxWV157 and J.S. Bach's monumental Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor BWV582.

Francis Jacob tore into Buxtehude's Toccata with such violent energy and physical intensity that he made the instrument positively shout with joy right down to its most resonant pedal notes. The characteristic edge or bite of the Aubertin sound added an extra dimension of life and colour to the incisiveness of Jacob's playing, a unique meeting of instrument and player.

Even more astonishing in its power and energy was his playing of the great Bach Passacaglia. Layer upon layer of sound was built up with a palpable sense of the artist's extreme physical exertion which was fed right into the very heart of the music giving it a surge of excitement that even Bach himself could only have imagined.

Within these two towering pillars of music, the core of the recital was devoted to many different settings by J.S.Bach of the Chorale, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland. These were interspersed with other settings of the same music by Paulus Sivert who like Samuel Scheidt was a pupil of Jan Sweelinck. In some of the earlier quieter settings the “chuff” of some of the stops added a great deal to the colour of the sound. As these settings progressed, the complexity of ornamentation and counterpoint increased, leading to settings by both Bach and Sivert in which the theme was in the pedals with splendid embellishments sounding above it.

Two Voluntaries by Henry Purcell opened in the first of these, with the sense of the composer almost groping his way through dark harmonic passages, until suddenly the music opened out with confidence into the light. Lively, dance-like pieces by Louis Couperin followed, then it was back to Buxtehude for a Fuga in B before the famous Bach Passacaglia with which Francis Jacob took the audience for a “burn” in the Aubertin

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Women Composers

Alan Cooper

Picture Gallery, Marischal College
28 November 2004

MUSIC BY WOMEN COMPOSERS

Katherine Smith mezzo soprano
Roger B Williams piano

Why are there so few women composers, and none at all among the true greats? Many volumes could be written on the subject. Compare the world of literature, the novel for instance. Names like Jane Austen, the Brontes or George Eliot easily rival the most distinguished of their male contemporaries – but where is the female equivalent of Mozart, Beethoven or Tchaikovsky?

It is of course quite untrue that women composers did not exist at all until recently. We have Hildegard of Bingen dating back to the twelfth century, Barbara Strozzi in the seventeenth, and today in Scotland, a whole clutch of women composers are to the fore, some of whom outrank Scotland's male composers!

So, where are the Schumanns, the Mendelssohns or the Mahlers on the distaff side? Well, on Sunday 28th November these very women composers were to be heard in the Picture Gallery, Marischal College, in the company of Dr Roger Williams and his wife, soprano Katherine Smith. Clara Wieck, wife of Robert Schumann, Mendelssohn's sister Fanny Henschel and Alma Schindler, the wife of Gustav Mahler were all represented along with some of the top names from the pantheon of contemporary Scottish music, Thea Musgrave, Judith Weir, Janet Beat and Sally Beamish, in a glorious celebration for piano and voice of the music of women composers from Germany and Scotland.

“If Clara Schumann, Alma Mahler or Fanny Henschel had all been men, would their music not have enjoyed a much higher profile than it has?” asked Dr Williams in his introduction to the music.

He may well be right. Alma Mahler's beautiful and moving setting of words by Richard Dehmel, Die stille Stadt, in which, out of the silence of the town where darkness is falling, a child's voice in prayer is the only sound to be heard, was thoroughly compelling, and Clara Schumann's Allegretto Op21 was a delightful little Scherzo for piano solo. Clara Schumann's setting of Liebst du um Schoenheit, while not quite as magnificent as Gustav Mahler's of the same words in the Ruckert Liede,r was nevertheless a splendidly passionate piece of music.

The opening set of three songs by Clara Schumann, Walzer, Der Abendstern and Am Strand along with Emilie Zumsteeg's Morgenfreude all had beautifully fluid and passionate piano writing interpreted with a fluent freshness by Roger Williams, while Kathleen Smith's luminous soprano singing in simpler melodic writing, easily floated on top of the colourful piano textures.

In the second half of the recital, Thea Musgrave's spikey style underlined the humour of her texts in her Suite of Bairnsangs, while Judith Weir's Songs from the Exotic spelled out in the music, especially in the piano writing, what was only suggested in the texts, of the supernatural at the core of her little stories.

Janet Beat's Capriccio No1 (1999) contrasted nicely, not just with Entre Chien et Loup (1978) by Sally Beamish, but also with Clara Schumann's Allegretto from the first half of the programme.

The performance closed with a lovely song The Loom, by a woman composer from neither Germany nor Scotland. Grace Williams was a Welsh composer. The sheer beauty of this piece easily justified its inclusion in any programme.

This concert raised important questions on the subject of women in music, something that deserves further exploration. It also shone the spotlight on the question of Scottish classical music. Why do some countries blossom at certain periods and not at others? The explosion of Russian music after Glinka might be an interesting starting point for such considerations, and as with different nationalities, so with the two sexes.

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ensemblebash at The Lemon Tree

Alan Cooper
20 November 2004

ensemble bash! What a great name for a percussion group, perhaps a bit rash too though, “bash” suggesting a callous and undisciplined approach to playing. In their hugely entertaining performance in the Studio Theatre at The Lemon Tree on Saturday night, 20 th November, ensemble bash were quite the opposite of an undisciplined group. Perhaps the word “bash” taken to mean a riotous celebration or party was closer to the mark, for the obvious joy of the four participants as they swam to and fro amidst a veritable sea of percussion instruments was warmly conveyed to an ever more appreciative audience.

Aberdeen University Music's Pete Stollery introduced this amazing quartet of players whose performance on Saturday night was the culmination of a mini festival of contemporary music including student participation as well as concert performances. The fruit of a workshop held on Saturday morning in which five students collaborated with Graham Fitkin to produce a five minute percussion work entitled Try This, was heard at Saturday's concert. Featuring marimba and bowed bells, the largely gentle sounds of this piece stood up well alongside the rest of the programme, and it must have been a special thrill for the five young composers to hear their music performed for the first time by some of the best players in the field.

On the whole, the performance migrated from more ethnic, often dramatic and startling music, using instruments that were either unusual, like the wind-wands in Tengzu Paali Yelle by Paulinus Bozie – apparently pieces of string of variable length with bits of wood on the end that produced a breathy humming note when swung rapidly round by the player – or the use of plastic bags or a bunch of keys in The Art of Concealment by Christopher Fox, to the more conventional modern marimbas in Marimba Spiritual by the Japanese composer Minoru Miki and the tightly regimented square of marimbas in Graham Fitkin's Hook, a true classic of the repertoire.

There was music from all round the world, from Africa, the music of Ghanaian Paulinus Bozie or Sharo, a Ghanaian traditional piece featuring the evocative sound of talking drums – from Japan, the music of Minoru Miki – from New York, Steve Reich's Typing Music, and from Scotland, a splendidly lively piece by Cameron Sinclair, Time, Gentlemen, please.

Perhaps the most eye-opening performance was Christopher Fox's The Art of Concealment. The performers claim that they do not act but this piece opened like a musical version of Waiting for Godot though it soon developed into something from Monty Python.

What did I take away from Saturday's performance?- first of all, especially after Graham Fitkin's Hook, a firm impression of the tremendous skill in timing and co-ordinated ensemble work between the four players. Secondly, the realization that the world of percussion enfolds an almost infinite variety of instrumental possibilities – even plastic bags, but above all, that this music is superb entertainment and great fun!

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Discoveries XXXII

Woodend Barn 18 November 2004
Review: Anne Buchan

Aberdeen University Music's latest concert in the Discoveries series featured keyboardists Graham Fitkin and Ruth Wall. It took place in Woodend Barn, Banchory on Thursday 18 th November.

The evening was a showcase displaying the fusion of electro-acoustic composition with visual images. In some cases the members of the audience were invited to close their eyes and picture images in their minds eye, while in others, the composers had added image to sound, thus showing exactly what they had in mind while they were composing.

The concert opened with a performance of Pete Stollery's work Serendipities and Synchronicities. This piece was commissioned by the Reeling & Writhing Theatre Company in Glasgow as part of Standing Wave , a play about the life and music of Delia Derbyshire, a pioneer in the world of Electronic Music who is better known to the world in general for her contribution to the creation of the Dr Who Theme when she worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The theme was actually composed by Ron Grainer, but it was Delia Derbyshire's work that made it unique for its time.

The nature of Pete Stollery's piece, with its almost Tardis-like sound effects transported the listener back to days of childhood, hiding behind the sofa whilst watching Dr Who. The only thing missing was the Daleks.

Earlier in the day, Pupils from Banchory Academy had taken part in an electro-acoustic workshop with some of the composers featured in Thursday's concert. Some of the sounds featured were recognizable, such as the sound of footsteps on gravel, running taps, keys jingling or the pupils' own voices. This piece demonstrated just how accessible this type of music can be, and I am sure the pupils had great fun going about the school armed with minidisk recorders, and then playing around with the sounds to see what could be created.

The second of Pete Stollery's works to be performed was Banchory Ears, commissioned by the Woodend Arts Association which used sounds collected by the composer around Banchory itself. Knowing this, you found yourself trying to recognize the sounds and to pinpoint them to their places of origin. For example, you could hear the River Dee flowing, the sounds of schoolchildren, traffic and a lady talking about life in Banchory. The use of different levels of sound fed into the various speakers, giving the impression that the sounds were traveling around the auditorium, was extremely effective in this piece. You could feel the cars rushing past.

Resonant Image by Adrian Moore was a sound and vision piece. The Images used were very colourful and the sounds charged with energy. The music itself made the whole experience feel very dreamlike.

The final piece in this section Symbont by Matthew Adkins was very much like a dance track in places. It buzzed with activity, but was full of contrasts too, and the images by Miles Chalcraft of Berlin were very effective.

The second half of the performance was a 63 minute audio visual presentation with two live musicians on keyboards directly in front of the screen. Called Kaplan , this piece by Graham Fitkin was divided into seven distinct parts, which nevertheless flowed together and were well complemented by the visuals. There was a suggestion of a story in the video component, but the really great thing was how emotionally involved both players seemed to be in the music. Especially at the opening, it seemed to be an almost spiritual experience for them. The keyboard players Ruth Wall and composer Graham Fitkin displayed immaculate precision in matching the music to the images which made the experience very impressive. It lasted for over an hour, but for me it just flashed past.

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Organ Recital: George McPhee

King's College Chapel, Tuesday 9 November 2004
Review: Alan Cooper

It is fascinating to hear how each of the organists who gets an opportunity to play the new Aubertin organ in King's College Chapel manages to choose music that will show what can be achieved in exploiting the varied and wonderfully characteristic registrations of the instrument.

For his recital on Tuesday 9 th November, George McPhee, the distinguished Director of Music at Paisley Abbey chose Bach's great c minor Prelude and Fugue as well as a selection of music by composers of various countries who preceded Bach - some like Buxtehude and Pachelbel being his direct forerunners.

Hearing Bach's great composition after all the splendid and often delicate gems which went before, it was as if the jet plane had been invented immediately after the Montgolfier's balloon. The Aubertin organ suddenly opened up full throttle with sounds of Teutonic magnificence and George McPhee let fly with a veritable torrent of contrapuntal grandeur.

The entire performance, however, was a display of splendid organ virtuosity. It began with J.P. Sweelinck's Balletto del Granduca in which George McPhee whetted our appetites with a taste of the contrasting registrations which he used for each of the five variations.

Nicolas De Grigny's Tierce en Taille sustained a nicely decorated melody in the left hand, while the right hand played the most delicate of upper accompaniments.

The Fantasia by Orlando Gibbons introduced more rigorous contrapuntal writing, while the twelve variations of Pachelbel's Partita on the chorale melody Christus, der ist mein Leben , showed off George McPhee's refined filigree fingerwork to its best advantage.

More sturdy, but as impressive, was Buxtehude's Passacaglia in d minor, and if Frescobaldi's Bergamasca was originally intended as teaching material for young players, then these must indeed have been gifted young musicians.

Two short pieces, by John Black of the Aberdeen Sang Schule in the 16 th century, moved us back a generation and served to underline the great leap forward that music took in the hands of J.S.Bach. This was not only a splendid performance, it was a brilliantly planned programme as well.

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Gala Concert

Aberdeen Music Hall, Thursday 4 November 2004
Review: Alan Cooper

More than ever this year, Aberdeen University Music's Gala Concert was a celebration of the sheer wealth of variety on offer from Music in the University today. Even then, only six out of University Music's twenty performing groups took part in the concert on Thursday, 4 th November in the Music Hall.

On coming through the doors of the Music Hall and into the foyer, concert goers experienced a tidal-wave of exotic chimes coming from the Balinese Gamelan Orchestra - one of only four such wonders in the U.K. Then it was on to the main concert hall to enjoy a programme of music ranging from 15 th century Plainchant to Neal Hefti's Splanky , originally a hit for the Count Basie Orchestra in the late Nineteen Fifties.

Then, to finish the concert, a unique performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah , bringing together in spectacular fashion, the University Concert Band and Choral Society.

Here surely was proof that quantity can go hand in hand with real quality. Well over two hundred young, and a few not so young, musicians took part in this Gala Concert , all smoothly introduced by Fiona Kennedy who easily shepherded the audience painlessly through the onstage changes of personnel and material necessary for such a large scale undertaking.

The quality of the playing by the Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Pete Stollery, was outstanding in their performance of Beethoven's Egmont Overture. The richness and resonance of the strings came from the cleanness of their combined intonation and the confidence of their attack and general playing.

Strong, confident singing from the Chapel Choir, conducted by Dr David J. Smith gave a real bite to their performance of 15 th Century Plainchant and Bruckner's superb motet Christus factus est.

Paul Mealor conducted the combined Chamber Orchestra and Choral Society in a gloriously rich explosion of celebratory sound, Handel's Coronation Anthem Zadok the Priest.

In a total contrast of mood, the Big Band launched into Glen Miller's Moonlight Serenade. Their section featured splendid solo performances especially from trumpet and clarinet and conductor Ian Milne's swinging style gave a lift to both the performers and the audience.

After the interval, during which the Balinese Gamelan once again drew an eager crowd to the Round Room, it was time for the Choral Society to shine through in Cum Sancto Spiritu from Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle which surely on this occasion could have been retitled Petite Messe Joviale, such was the joyfulness radiated by the University's singers.

The massed forces of the award winning Concert Band, conducted by Eric Kidd were particularly impressive in Intrada, based on a melody by Thomas Tallis, well known today as a hymn tune, and the ever popular Pastime with Good Company. I especially enjoyed the blend of trumpet and cornet soloists in The Catskills by N. Hess fronting a melody which recalled the opening of Bernstein's Somewhere.

Finally it was Dr Roger B. Williams who brought the performance to a spectacular conclusion as he brought together the Choral Society and the entire Concert Band in Hallelujah from Messiah. Handel with saxophones! It was a performance which perhaps ignored the letter of the law, but one which undoubtedly embraced its spirit wholeheartedly.

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Organ Recital: David J Smith

King's College Chapel, Tuesday 12 October 2004
Review: Alan Cooper

The new season's first organ recital on King's College Chapel's new Aubertin Organ was given by David J. Smith on the evening of Tuesday, October 12 th .

Several organists who attended were looking forward in particular to hearing Mendelssohn's Sonata in c minor Op.65 No.2, the first time a recitalist had attempted a full-blown romantic work such as this on the Aubertin . Dr. Smith's performance certainly cast a fresh light on this work. The central Allegro maestoso e vivace on full organ was indeed most impressive and in the Fuga, the countersubject sang out with brilliant clarity. Some of the solo stops used elsewhere, however, had an antique patina so strong in character that they did not give the blend of sound one is used to in other performances. Was this a fault, or just a fresh slant on this music? It was for each listener to make up his or her own mind.

No quibbles at all however on the matching of instrument and music in the first two pieces in Dr. Smith's recital. The individuality and clear sounding character of many of the stops on this organ brought the part writing in Clerambault's Suite du Premier Ton (livre D'Orgue, 1710) into dazzling relief.

The ornate melodic lines of Toccata II from Primo libro di diversi capricci (1603) by Ascanio Mayone were wonderfully quirky, played with splendid fluency by Dr. Smith. In contrast, the Ricercare Primo had a deliberate steadiness, while on high flutes, the Canzon Francese Seconda provided a wonderful flight of fancy.

The two chorale based pieces by J. S. Bach, Erbarm dich mein, o Herr Gott (BWV721) and Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend (BWV709) were full of character and were followed by a suitably extrovert rendition of the Fantasia in c minor (BWV562 ).

However this was by no means all. David J. Smith is renowned for his improvisations, something that not every English organist does well – even at all. Before the Bach pieces he gave us a sturdy Prelude and Fugue in the German Baroque style and following the Mendelssohn Sonata he brought the recital to a close with a Toccata-like modern piece, full of wonderful sharp edges, twists and turns and excellent good humour.

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Gemini Ensemble

Mitchell Hall , Sunday 10 October 2004
Review: Alan Cooper

Music in the University launched a new season triumphantly on Sunday 10 th October in the Mitchell Hall with a display of truly awesome musicianship from Gemini, one of the finest chamber ensembles in Britain today.

Top of the bill on Sunday was a spellbinding performance of one of the great twentieth century classics, Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941). Written while the composer was interned in a German prisoner of war camp, tormented by cold and hunger, Gemini's riveting performance helped give an insight into how the extraordinary musical visions must have permitted the composer to escape for a while the privations of his earthly surroundings, to slip into a whole other world summoned up by the music.

From the magical sounds of birdsong, a constant preoccupation with Messiaen, or the gentle chimes of the piano and the muted strings of the second movement to the hauntingly beautiful solos for cello, clarinet and violin, this was a wonderfully atmospheric performance by all four players. There was even an undercurrent of jazzy rhythm that gave a special lift to the dance-like Intermède .

This work filled the second half of the concert, but the culmination of the first half was a new work with claims to an affinity with Messiaen's masterwork. Receiving its world premiere on Sunday, Paul Mealor's The Borders of Time (2004) could not have asked for a finer performance.

Consisting of two parts, the first, Borderlands , scored for piano trio, had at its core a particularly hard driven and dramatic piano part played with knife edge precision by Richard Egarr. In the second part, At The Still Point Of Time , violin and cello were joined this time by the gorgeous plummy tones of bass clarinet, played with remarkable control and clarity of projection by Ian Mitchell.

Paul Mealor, a lecturer in Music at Aberdeen University studied composition with Nicola Le Fanu and her Lullaby (1988) for clarinet and piano though marked by Webern-like melodic leaps was beautifully delicate with once again a splendidly sensitive and well-controlled performance on clarinet by Ian Mitchell.

Sunday's performance opened with another work by a contemporary woman composer. Piano Trio No.1 (1997) by Judith Weir. Like Messiaen's piece, this was splendidly atmospheric music. The chiming of the piano and the plainsong-like melodies of violin and cello recalled the central section of the second movement of Quatuor pour la fin du temps, thus binding together the whole performance together to perfection.

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