The Internet can provide welcome surprises. Receiving
a new CD from Orbestra, an enterprising and unique 'cross-over'
group based in Oxfordshire, which I championed in the early '90s, I
looked up their website http://www.indexo.pionexnet.co.uk/orbestra/
and was flattered to discover my own review of a Purcell Room concert
series of theirs, reprinted in full from the defunct Strictly Off
The Record, the progenitor of S&H - (see About
Seen&Heard
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Here are some edited excerpts from it:
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THE
ORBESTRA
ENSEMBLE
and Peter Cowdrey
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- its name is a conflation of orb (signifying the whole
world) and orchestra. - - The Orbestra Ensemble
is the most interesting group I've encountered in many months
- - "composer in residence" Peter Cowdrey (b. 1963), one
time pupil of Oliver Knussen, Cambridge scholar and traveller,
a self effacing pianist and expert percussionist - - alongside
classical skills at a high level they play a multitude of ethnic
instruments. Peter Cowdrey's sister Liz plays violin and bassoon
and she sings. Several members are multi instrumentalists and
lend their voices as required. Paul Bevan (trombone) and Kevin
Murphy (clarinet) turn their hand to exotic percussion instruments
from time to time. - - - Patricia Cuberos was their charismatic
singer, with many vocal techniques at her command - - the 50th
anniversary of Béla Bartók's death (was commemorated
by) Bartók's 3rd quartet - - in the unusual
context of Cowdrey's pieces based on Eastern European folk tunes
and Jewish songs, which he modestly characterises as "some arrangements,
some compositions, some half and half" - - Transdanubian Swineherds'
Music, based upon Bartók's 1936 recordings of peasant
musicians - - can be relished on Orbestra's thoroughly
enjoyable first CD,
Hannibal HNCD 1367.
The
Dufay Collective, in mediæval music with an Arabic flavour,
began the second concert The Middle Eastern Connection
on 31st March. The evening's centre piece was Peter
Cowdrey's ambitious and strikingly original Concerto for Violin
and Orbestra (1994), a sophisticated and individual conception
with an audacious central movement for violin alone. This begins
with an open E pedal which envelops representations of natural
sounds before braking into a wild dance inspired by a Bartók
recording of a primitive Turkish fiddle, heard in retrograde later.
- - - Look out for Orbestra's return; interest and entertainment
guaranteed.
P
Grahame Woolf
Strictly
off the Record (1995)
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The new CD of music by Peter Cowdrey, Woman's Moods,
is given by four members of the Orbestra Ensemble
and has that central solo movement from the concerto, which evokes the
Turkish kemence, and is retitled Awakening. For solo strings
there are also The North Wind Playing for solo violin (an evocation
of a fiddler on a Shetland cliff) and Hicazkar in a Turkish
makam for cello. Elizabeth Cowdrey and Jacqueline Johnson play with
verve and compelling immediacy in these recordings.
The project arose from the group's involvement in the
1995 Istanbul Festival. The liner notes writer Filiz Ali describes Peter
Cowdrey as 'like a Dervish - - content with very little and goes around
with music pouring out of the papers he carries', and says that 'this
British group knows more about Turkish music than Turks themselves do'!
Of unusual interest is a group of seven songs, to poems
addressing 'relevant' contemporary moods written in haste by the singer
Patricia Cuberos (disenchanted at the time with the usual lieder
themes of 'beauty, spirituality or nature'), and quickly set by Cowdrey.
There are technical shortcomings in the recording, probably due to financial
constraints - the studio sound for the songs is dry and the piano too
recessed for my taste. If you want to try it, for something uncommon
and - my lead criterion - unique, ORCD 2 Woman's
Moods is available from Patricia Cuberos at orbestra@orbestra.co.uk
and full texts will be supplied on request with the CD.
That CD may not be everyone's 'cup of tea' but their
first, Transdanubian Swineherds Hannibal
HNCD 1367, is a real gem which we have enjoyed listening
to again, and about which I have no reservations at all. The full team
as of 1992 is involved, and the settings of Eastern European, Norwegian
and African tunes by Cowdrey are piquant and individual, all put together
with full professionalism. This CD can also be ordered via orbestra@orbestra.co.uk
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Another Oxford connection is the ensemble Charivari
Agréable, whose appearance at the Purcell Room with
their Two
upon a Ground programme was
one of the happiest early music experiences this Spring. During the
same week that Woman's Moods came through my letterbox, I received
belatedly from Signum
a batch of the Charivari's CDs, agréable indeed! This German-Malaysian-British
ensemble was formed in 1993 at Oxford University as a core continuo
group to explore a brilliant and virtuosic style of accompanying in
the 17th & 18th centuries. The CD of their
English programme as heard at the Purcell Room,
SIGCD007, recaptures the combined refinement and spontaneity
of the live performances.
They specialise also in French music of the period.
The most bizarre story is that of Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, whose
music was published in 1747 under the name of his recently deceased
father! Jean-Baptiste had been ill advised enough to become a better
violist and composer than his father Antoine, who had him on that account
incarcerated in prison and banished from France for ten years on pain
of death! Not great music, but enjoyable as given by the augmented Charivari
Agréable Simfoinie on SIGCD008.
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Best to my ears is a French viol music collection
of music by Louis & François Couperin, Corrette,
Dumage, Duphly, Dornel & Marais, which rings the changes
deliciously upon bowed and plucked strings and keyboard instruments
of the period. They are all scholars, but not purists in any restrictive
sense, and Kah-Ming Ng describes how they adopt contemporary practice
of the period by completing the compositional process in respect
of instrumentation, ornamentation and free arrangements. The performances
and their recordings are alive with a presence close to memories
of hearing them live. Presentation and documentation are immaculate,
with the easiest of codes to follow so that you know who is playing
which instruments on each track. I have enjoyed all their CDs,
but this one, with some ravishing large scale pieces lasting most
of ten minutes, is my favourite: The Sultan & the Phoenix
SIGCD0032.
The musicians of The Orbestra Ensemble
and Charivari Agréable are based not far apart and
share an untrammelled exploratory attitude. Neither group is afraid
to experiment and improvise in preparing programmes. It they could
get together, that might really spark something!
Peter Grahame Woolf
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