> Live from State of the Nation 2001 [CT]: Classical CD Reviews- Nov 2002 MusicWeb(UK)

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Live from State of the Nation 2001
Jo THOMAS (b.1972) Wolfie (1999)
David HORNE (b.1970) Broken Instruments (1999)
Fraser TRAINER (b.1967) The Colour of Scars (2001)
Rolf HIND (b.1964) Solgata (1999-2000)
Larry GOVES (b.1980) walking underground (2000)
Tansy DAVIES (b.1973) Small Black Stone (1999-2000)
Luke BEDFORD (b.1978) Five Abstracts Nos. 2, 4 and 5 (2001)
Joe CUTLER (b.1968) Without Fear of Vertigo (2001)
Richard AYRES (b.1965) No. 24 Noncerto for alto trombone (1995)
Peter BATCHELOR (b.1974) Steamin’ (2000)

Rolf Hind (piano)
London Sinfonietta – Pierre-André Valade
Recorded live at State of the Nation 2001, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, April 2001 DDD
NMC D078 [77:25]

Hosted and organised by the London Sinfonietta on the South Bank, State of the Nation fulfils a vital function in its showcasing of up and coming British compositional talent. There are still all too few opportunities for young composers on this kind of level and this disc provides a useful overview of the music heard at the 2001 festival.

As Gillian Moore comments in her booklet introduction, the intention is to reflect the diversity of the contemporary scene by including works involving electronics, mixed media and new modes of presentation and it is true that this diversity seems to come through more successfully than in the earlier NMC release of music from Hoxton New Music Days (NMC D076) where there appears to be something more of an agenda in the selection of the composers featured.

Not all of the works here are presented in their entirety and in the case of Joe Cutler’s Without Fear of Vertigo and Richard Ayres’s No. 24 Noncerto there are opportunities to assess how well the works stand up musically without the presence of mixed media artist Tom Dale’s film which was projected simultaneously in the Cutler and the absence of the strong visual performance element that clearly plays its part in the Ayres.

The disc is framed by the two electro-acoustic contributions included, Wolfie by Jo Thomas and Peter Batchelor’s Steamin’, an impression of the power and rhythmic energy generated by a steam locomotive. Thomas’s brief (1’39") yet entertaining piece, written for the Sonic Arts Network, centres around the story of Little Red Riding Hood, using the female voice to evoke the various dark, emotional states of the story in an imaginative sound-world. Steamin’ is remarkably vivid in its atmospheric portrait of the clank of couplings, grind of wheel on rail and momentum of pistons, Batchelor effectively capturing a sense of fun at the same time.

Scottish born but having spent some time in the United States, David Horne provides one of the most impressively accomplished contributions to the disc in Broken Instruments, a kind of abstract study in dominant and submissive instrumental timbres, deliberately "dysfunctional" in structure and demonstrating a fine ear for textural detail and sonority. In many ways, despite the "abstract" of the title, the three of Luke Bedford’s Five Abstracts presented here are the musical opposite of the Horne work, two of the pieces being based around a single line melody or monody which in the case of piece No. 2 is gradually built and elaborated to a climax, whilst the melody in No. 5 eventually transforms itself into a harmonically related chorale. The result is both haunting and assured for a composer only just reaching his mid-twenties and who promises much.

I was less convinced by Larry Goves’ walking underground, in which the intention, through two conflicting ideas, is to create a sense of momentum devoid of distance, as the composer describes it "a snap-shot of a never-ending musical process" with little harmonic or conventional development of the material. Goves cites Feldman as an influence and the aesthetic of the American is evident, but ultimately the music does not quite succeed in drawing the listener in as Feldman does. Tansy Davies, one of only two female composers included on the disc, has already received considerable critical attention and her Small Black Stone, a typically tough, concentrated duo for viola and piano inspired by an interest in black holes, rocks and the words of Sugar-Paper Blue, a poem by Ruth Fainlight, receives a superbly committed performance by Paul Silverthorne and John Constable.

Of all the composers featured Rolf Hind is the name most recognisable, albeit for his more familiar persona as pianist. Hind is exceptionally self critical of his own music which possibly accounts for the fact that his work is still relatively little known. Solgata, appropriately for piano and played by the composer, describes the path of the sun on water and was intended as a companion piece to the earlier Cloud Shadow. [interesting to compare these pieces with Peter Maxwell Davies’ Image Reflection Shadow. Ed.]

"Tampering with the piano" as Hind puts it, creates some fascinating sounds, not least when the music submerges to an underwater perspective part way through. Fraser Trainer’s The Colour of Scars, features a prominent part for soprano saxophone, finely played by Simon Haram and, in the three of seven sections recorded here, takes the listener through a landscape of blues influenced sounds pitted against those with a harder edge, the result bearing more than a passing resemblance to the sound-world of Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Of the two works mentioned earlier with a visual element involved, Joe Cutler’s Without Fear of Vertigo stands up particularly well in its own musical right, a manic work for ensemble of ceaseless, teeming energy whilst Richard Ayres No. 24 Noncerto, a mini concerto for alto trombone and ensemble, is a somewhat maverick, at times highly amusing work by a composer who studied with Louis Andriessen and is currently resident in the Netherlands. A clue as to Ayres’ personality can be taken from his list of influences, which include "Morton Feldman, Billy Connolly, Billy Bragg and hard drink and fate", the piece poking fun at minimalism and a range of other stylistic diversities along the way but possibly not ultimately sustaining its fourteen-minute duration.

A fascinating overview then of the current "state of the nation", featuring several names to watch coupled with performances of typical energy and accuracy by the players of the London Sinfonietta. It is only to be hoped that this invaluable event remains a regular fixture in the annual musical calendar.

Christopher Thomas


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