Kate Molleson
The Herald
19th September
The gutsy Sound Festival finds a sweet spot between local, international and community contemporary music making; this year’s opening weekend includes a formidable concert from Red Note Ensemble with the Scottish premiere of James DillonTanz/haus: triptych 2017 – a piece of melancholia and grit, an intoxicating swirl of languid psych-rock and nostalgic arch-modernism – plus new work for viola d’amore and band by Argentinian composer Oscar Strasnoy (26 October).
Elsewhere there’s a portrait concert focusing on the composer Diana Burrell (25 October); pianist Matthew Schellhorn plays music by Irish composer Deirdre Mackay and the world premiere of a newly discovered piece by Herbert Howells (26 October); Sally Beamish performs in her own new work for six violas (3 November), and throughout the festival you can experience a new version of Thomas Tallis’s towering Spem in Alium — a 16th century masterpiece for 40 voices, now arranged by violist Nic Pendlebury of the Smith Quartet in an installation for, obviously, 40 electric violas.
Sound runs 24 October – 4 November in Aberdeen and environs.
Read the full article HERE.
