MUSIC REVIEW: Lunchtime Concert, Thursday 25.11.21 - RNCM, Manchester

Live music is back at the Royal Northern College Of Music, and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be there. The last 2 years have taken their toll, and strict COVID procedures are still in place within the building; but those are minor hoops we are all prepared to jump through in order to enjoy the thrill of live audiences. 

This afternoon's lunchtime concert was a 45 minute blast of three completely new-to-me pieces all with a very contemporary jazz flavour.

First we heard Graham Fitkin's 'Hard Fairy'; a composition which, in this instrument grouping, was probably receiving its world premiere. Here it was scored for two pianos and two soprano saxophones.The piece was programmatic in style, and firmly based upon jazz rhythms and motifs, but given a 'funky' twist. The majority of this rather extended piece was fast, flowing, and furious, but there were a few moments of more calm, refelctive writing, giving the saxophonists a slight chance to catch their breath! A lovely call and response section towards the end gave a grandiose build-up to a much more bluesy and mellow denouement. 

The middle piece was Sarah Gibson's 'Outsider', scored for 2 pianos and 2 melodicas, but requiring only two instrumentalists. In the introduction to the piece we learned that the work was inspired by J.P. Lovecraft, and was written in 2016 in response to the contemporary political situation. My companion at the concert turned to me after the piece finished and remarked that this was the product of a disturbed mind. It was an apt response, whether true or not. The work starts slowly and sedately as a minimalist repetitive melody is constructed and then deconstructed on the pianos, which is then expanded upon further building up a dramatic but bleak soundscape - along come crashing discords in the lowest register of the pianos, whilst one of the pianists uses the exposed strings to pluck harp-like creating a different timbre and texture, before a blast of shrill top notes, and suddenly crashing discordant bass chords again. This signals the transfer to play the melodicas, as the last note is held using the sustain pedal. A simplistic call and response section follows on the melodicas, which again is built upon only to be deconstructed, as one pianist goes back to the piano keyboard the final section of the piece is a duet between melodica and piano which again is a slow and dramatic progression of repeated melody fragments building louder and louder to a discordant crashing fortissimo finish.

The final piece of this concert was 'Flint' by Michael Torke. Scored for 2 pianos, 4 saxophones, cello, and double bass. This was pehaps the most jazz-based of the three pieces, and was a jagged and disjointed melody which would have been ideally suited as the theme and incidental music to a Hollywood slasher film. Even in the quieter and slower passages, the muisc was unrelenting. 

A hugely interesting concert which showcased the abundant talent on display from the RNCM students as well as introduced me to contemporary composers and their music. The instrumentalists this afternoon were: Cameron Dickason, Nye Hughes-Watts, Evi Wang, Liane Storey (piano), Rob Buckland and Carys Nunn (soprano sax), Laura Kjaergaard (alto sax), Don Gribbin (tenor sax), Ben Jackson (baritone sax), Neil Sild (cello), and Harvey Falla (bass).

An excellent re-introduction to the RNCM and live music there. It's great to be back and can't wait until I come again!

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 25.11.21