Tuesday, November 18, 2014

PERCUSSION WEEK



Coming soon to a Sydney Opera House near you:  Colin Currie percussion soloist in the Australian premier of 'Sieidi' - Percussion Concerto which was written for him by Kalevi Aho. Osmo Vänskä conducts.

Sieidi means ancient cult place, and the work has shamanistic 'tendencies'. Sounds good to me.

Details.






8 comments:

David said...

Excellent but a bit ubiquitous, oor Colin - I mean, percussion WEEK (or more, here)? Is it an admin idea that young people can only cope with drums etc?

Reminds me a bit of an endless tabla recital I heard in Islamabad. Great skill needed to play it, but it seemed wrong that the sitar was supporting IT and not the other way round.

Susan Scheid said...

Oh, David's beat me to the punch here. I know and love the talent and passion of some up and coming percussionists, but it does seem that new music is overweighted with percussion at the moment (when it's not overweighted with electronics). I'll be glad when/if music comes back into some sort of balance . . . but I suppose that's a fond hope.

wanderer said...

Oh you two. I'm looking at this as a stand alone. My guess is this is on the programme because its origins are Finnish, as is Väsnkä, not because percussion is all there is. The last 'new' solo work we had if I remember correctly was concerto for sax.

'Week' was a bit of a loose throw away David, but he is here this week with performances Wed, Friday and Sat. I went to the rehearsal today and it's a fantastic work. And now we are just back from the final ACO concert featuring Anthony Marwood (the Brits are here, including the insufferable Mr Cameron) and between watering the courtyard before the heat wave and making a nice cup of tea, there's just a minute to say the Stravinsky Divertimento was brilliant, all that Russians in Paris stuff, the Dvorak Serenade for Strings was a tad routine, and the Enescu Octet for Strings (expanded) took off into another dimension and was transporting in the hall and the concert platform from the look of them.

Kettle boiling.

David said...

Sorry - don't usually ac-cen-chew-ate the negative, but there's way too much CCurrie stuff at the Southbank. Shouldn't complain at the embarras de richesse here, I suppose. I like Aho a lot, Vanska as you know not.

Lucky you to get the Enescu Octet. We need way, way more of Romania's greatest.

wanderer said...

He is artist in residence isn't he? Aho is completely new to me so very much looking forward to hearing it again in performance on Friday. Enescu yes - another Parisian influenced which makes me wonder - is there new music coming out of France?

Susan Scheid said...

As penance for my comment, I'm listening to the Enescu, new to me. The only thing is it can't count as penance, as I'm enjoying it. (I think the sax concerto you're referring to must have been the new Adams, right--which as I recall you weren't able to stay for at the time?) Enjoy your tea!

wanderer said...

No penance - no need at all, and what's more, I don't believe in penance, but that's another story, long.

Yes, it was the Adams. I did hear it, remember it but made no notes, didn't blog on it, and confess much of the memory has faded, except that it was quite virtuosic.

David said...

ExpiAtion! As the Zia Principessa sings in an English translation of Suor Angelica. And none of us wants to be like her.

New music out of France - I was given a CD of Jaroussky singing a song-cycle with ravishing orchestration by Dalbavie. Riveting. Him I like more than spectralists like Tristan Murail, though they can be interesting too.