1st October, 2016
Wigmore Hall, London, United Kingdom
PÉTER EÖTVÖS Korrespondenz
DEBUSSY String Quartet
PÉTER EÖTVÖS The silence of sirens
Piia Komsi (soprano)
Calder Quartet
One great thing about living in London is that sometimes you get a last minute call to see a world première that you didn't know was on. The post-Ligeti Hungarian composer-conductor Péter Eötvös is a bit of an elusive figure, whom I somehow briefly met in 2008. Nice guy, he even offered me a score. He is more appreciated by casual contemporary music fans than most serious composers I know. His music is absurdist, whimsical, even childish. Unlike his compatriot Kurtág, his music is very often a large stretch of wild extrapolation from a single conceptual idea, sometimes calling for technological sounds ("CAP-KO") or parodixical re-creation of flawed technology ("Atlantis"), or, frankly, it is just a very convoluted way of messing around with extended instrumental techniques ("Cosmos"). However, it is a bit like reading Beckett or Kafka, whose "The silence of sirens" inspired the new work tonight, it is up to the audience to contrast the absurd with reality and experience. "Sirens Cycle" is scored for soprano and string quartet. It is a shame that the real-life siren Barbara Hannigan had to withdraw, but Piia Komsi is no less wondrous. The work stretched the voice to its limits, switching from upward glissandi to falsetto to throaty declarations and much "internal" singing - "Sequenza III" has now a worthy successor. The part for Calder Quartet was punishing, requiring extensive mid-work re-tuning, and much intense intra-ensemble interactions that amounted to some impressive but perverse concocted fluidity. It was only in a live chamber setting like this that I fully appreciated Eötvös' fascination of extended techniques. The opening "Korrespondenz", a ridiculous in-your-face musical dramatisation of the letters between Mozart and his father, was dynamic and exciting, if a bit empty in content. It requires the violins and viola to play like cellos at one point. Sandwiched between the two Eötvös was Debussy's SQ. I thought the cellist was a bit hyperactive and tipped the balance over a bit, and the "Andantino" can be more relaxed but otherwise the performance was very pristine and clinical, completing a surprisingly enjoyable and thrilling evening.
This entry was originally published in my private Instagram account.
