CLASSICAL and electronic music have often formed an uneasy partnership, often to the embarrassment of the former. In that sense, four out of five ain't bad. The Paragon Ensemble, directed by David Davies, last night devoted a programme to five works, all of which featured electronics in one way or another.
Without being partisan, the three most successful pieces were Scottish. John Maxwell Geddes's Muzyka Kameralna, for clarinet, string quartet, and pre-recorded tape was so successful because the electronics were wholly integrated with the writing for the musicians.
Literally, the recorded passages acted with the live music, sometimes as a reflection, a harmonic background, providing climactic points as they picked up and took over from the musicians, or - near the end - as a propulsive, rhythmic impetus in the fast section. A clever interplay.
Edward McGuire's two pieces - Martyr for solo viola and Prelude 9 for solo clarinet - were successful in different ways. The former, played by Ian Budd, moved from a gestural, impassioned music, to a plaintive, folk-like music, with the electronics moving in parallel, from distortion to a touching unity. The Prelude, played by John Cushing, again had a strong folk feel, but was more playful and whimsical in character, ending with a lovely, quiet bubbling.
Stepan Rostomyan's Third Symphony makes a luscious, impressionistic study out of Armenian church music; a bit naive but charming. The one failure was Krupowicz's Farewell Variations, a pretentious pilfering of bits of Mozart, psychotically treated, to no real effect. It also commmits the cardinal sins: too long and boring.
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