This was in prospect an attractive contemporary programme. A world premiere
of a 2002 composition by Joe Cutler, not yet quite
a household name; a work by an expatriate Englishwoman who lives in
Berlin, and an unfamiliar one by a respected Swiss oboist and conductor,
not really accepted in UK as a composer; predictably this mixture did
not bring in the regular, conservative Wigmore Hall clientele, but a
warm reception compensated for rows of empty seats; it could have filled
The Warehouse.
The programme was cleverly contrasted around the unusual
instrumentation for Heinz
Holliger's 12 Lieder settings of Robert Walser, composed 1990/91
and dedicated to Kurtag. Holliger
wanted it 'inimitably Swiss', so he accompanied his counter-tenor
soloist with clarinet(s), accordion and double bass, instruments of
a traditional Swiss folk band. No heart-lifting visions of snow mountains;
this is a depressed resident for whom the pervasive snow brings no joy,
verily a Swiss Winterreise. But the twelve short songs are tender
and subtle, Andrew Watts covering a range from high, masculine
tenor to baritone and with some passages in muted speech - a voice which
might be apt for the ravings of Maxwell-Davies' Mad King, but Holliger's
cycle is more considerate to the voice.
The other works had the same three instruments, with
piano. I found Rebecca
Saunders' Quartet, in a 'sustained, integrated manner, seeking
out sonic similarities in contrasted instrumentation' less abrasive
than her wont, the trio often providing a halo effect around the dominant
piano. Hear the Quartet on her portrait Kairos
CD.
Joe
Cutler allows more independence and opportunity for his expert
players to shine individually, but for a composer previously
encountered in a more extrovert vein, la hora cero .. was
unexpectedly dark - perhaps reflecting the Piazzola album that inspired
it, which I had not heard?
These were well prepared performances, and the effect
of each work was undoubtedly enhanced by the warm acoustic of Wigmore
Hall, far preferable to some of the venues in which London's new music
loyalists regularly gather to support each other. The Holliger cycle
should certainly be recorded and the whole programme, unified by its
instrumentation, would make an excellent, thought-provoking CD. Any
takers amongst our enterprising small British record companies for a
programme that is pointedly not nationalistic?
Peter Grahame Woolf
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