MUSIC REVIEW: Recreation - The debut EP from The Manchester Collective.

Manchester Collective have announced the release on 4th September of their debut EP Recreation following months of uncertainty due to corona virus restrictions. 

Over the past few months, the Collective have been sharing recordings of past concerts on YouTube and Facebook, which they have called Isolation Broadcasts, Series 1, which takes its names from this period of time rather than a theme or mood of the music. These broadcasts are well worth a look – the broadcasts are of a wide range of contemporary and 20th century music which is sometimes complimented with earlier music, and all are exquisitely played.

The upcoming EP features a seemingly incongruous arrangement of music by Bach, Vivaldi and Ligeti linked together with short vignettes composed for the occasion by resident composer Paul Clark. These form one piece in five sections.

I heard this piece performed by the Collective at The White Hotel in Manchester as part of their The Centre Is Everywhere tour and such was the performance that it still resonates with me months later.

The opening prologue is a moody, subtle, electronic cacophony that swiftly transforms to a resonant and heavenly la-ing of a Bach chorale sung by the string musicians whose voices fade out and merge with the strings as they take over creating a sustained section of an overlapping, long note melody which rather neatly begins to pulse an increasingly worrying and dissonant beat with changing harmonies that absolutely explode into the opening dramatic section of  Vivaldi’s winter with some astounding solo work by principal violinist and music director Rakhi Singh.

I must have listened to this opening prologue ten times or more – it is immensely gripping and as a prologue really whets the appetite – what on earth is coming next?! It is not clear who is responsible for the creative weaving together of these sections by Bach, Clark and Vivaldi, but there is – as always with the Collective – an incredible attention to detail, particularly in the different stylistic elements of the playing. The Baroque string playing is not modernised, the contemporary is not traditionalised and rightly so. This respect in the creative process means that this mash-up is not a gimmick but a profoundly innovative transformation of the old to make a decidedly relevant and firmly 21st century work.

The section closes neatly allowing Vivaldi to take us into the second section – First Day Of Summer. Vivaldi is used exclusively here, with long passages of his exquisite music performed with a magic touch. In this section, the quality of recording is really brought to the front. Some delicate string sounds are brought right to your ear as if you have the best seat in the house. This is decidedly difficult to achieve – most music of this type is almost always better when heard live – and while I think that is still the case here due to the nature of the music, this recording and editing by Valgeir Sigurosson and Brendan Williams is phenomenal. More so when you focus on the end of this section and the start of the third section of Ligeti’s Metamorphoses Nocturnes which start with an almost inaudible tremolo which would not be out of place in Vivaldi’s Seasons. This grows in intensity rather quickly – the production quality is fantastic even just focussing on this sometimes barely audible music. I say barely audible, but the whispers are clearly and tantalisingly present. Ligeti is performed with deep emotion. This quartet of his is sometimes described as cinematic. Sometimes I wonder if that word is used as a way to deal with the uncomfortable rather than facing it for what it is. Metamorphoses explores a wide range of emotions that cannot be described fully by words. It is tender, it is terrifying, it is lost and found at the same time. The intensity needed to perform music like this is mind boggling and The Manchester Collective do not disappoint.

Clark’s interlude, with themes from the prologue, links sections three and five together and while it is not immediately clear when Ligeti starts and Clark begins, there is no loss of continuity in creative excellence and if Clark’s music only had a functional purpose, he served it fantastically and elevated the piece as a whole which is a remarkable feat placing him up there with Ligeti and Vivaldi.

The piece ends with the energy and drama of Vivaldi, again played effortlessly and flawlessly by The Manchester Collective who, on this occasion, were a team of 12 string players.

Recreation – a twist on Renaissaince perhaps – explores day and night, light and shadow. Singh says this piece intends to take something familiar and allow people to hear it afresh. It certainly does that and more – it's not simply a revisiting or memory of past music but a brand new experience, a new memory, a new music for our times.

Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey

on - 21/8/20