Review: NYOS Futures with Elisabeth Chojnakca
NYOS FUTURES CONCERT
ELISABETH CHOJNACKA, harpsichord
Friday, 9 November 2012
Alan Cooper writes...
Friday’s concert upstairs in the Lemon Tree Studio starring the Queen of modern harpsichord music Elisabeth Chojnacka was relatively short but it turned out to be one of the most stimulating and exciting ever staged by sound. I am certain anyway that nobody left the Lemon Tree after Friday’s dazzling performance feeling that they had been short changed. The composer whose two pieces constituted the programme was American born Stephen Montague now based in London. As all concert promoters understand if you have a real star attraction you do not bring her onstage at the start of the programme so it was NYOS strings alone that featured in the first piece by Montague, Snowscape: St Pölten. Among composers who have inspired Montague he lists Charles Ives and John Cage and their thoughts about sound in general and its relation to music in particular must surely have informed this piece. As the composer explained in a revealing and informative chat with Professor Pete Stollery at the end of this first piece there is a considerable degree of freedom allowed to the performers within the written score. The players can choose when to begin playing their written part and in slides from top notes they themselves should choose which note to start on. Actually as Stephen Montague explained, it is remarkably difficult to get trained musicians to embrace this freedom because all their training prepares them to fit in with one another. The result of course is that no two performances are ever the same so on Friday we were privileged to hear a unique version of the work. Snowscape: St Pölten was a totally engrossing atmospheric experience given an extra visual dimension by having the performers play with the stage lights dimmed. None of the “effects” in the string playing were particularly unusual, for instance the natural harmonic string glissandi can be heard in Stravinsky’s Firebird but the cumulative effect of all these string effects became amazingly hypnotic. Listening to this piece I felt that ordinary acoustic playing reached out and touched something of the sound world of electro-acoustic music.
Montague’s second piece, Phrygian Ferment, allowed absolutely no freedom element for the orchestral performers; they were there to shadow and support the sounds of the harpsichordist so that, as Stephen Montague explained to Professor Stollery, they were to fulfil the role of an extra stop for the harpsichord. For this piece the harpsichord was amplified but this was done in such an amazingly discrete fashion that if we had not been told, we might very well not have noticed.
Another area of music from which Stephen Montague derives inspiration is minimalism; he has referred to “the propulsive energy of minimalism”. According to the programme note the Phrygian mode was associated with ecstasy and passion while the other word in the title, Ferment, is self explanatory. Because of the well aimed sense of development in this work it should probably be better described as post minimalist but regarding propulsive energy, that was there aplenty. The work was commissioned from Stephen Montague by Elisabeth Chojnacka with generous financial support from the sound Festival.
Right from the start Elisabeth Chojnacka’s playing was charged with astonishing energy and biting intensity. The strings and percussion conducted by James Lowe worked hard at supporting her passionately driven playing. Closely scored passages where fingers stabbed at the notes one hand above the other with perfect precision eventually became note clusters slammed at top speed on the keyboard while percussion provided a perfect echo. The music became hotter and hotter almost like the core of a runaway reactor until it reached an explosive conclusion.
Elizabeth Chojnacka had earned herself a standing ovation, something that almost never happens with an Aberdeen audience. There have been several really fine performances at this year’s sound Festival but this must rank as one of the very best.
© Alan Cooper 2012
