THE Paragon ensemble fielded a front rank group of strings and
percussion (mostly Royal SNO and BBC SSO players) yesterday in a
powerful concert, the third in the two-day Academy Now! festival. And a
good, big house turned out to hear them.
Conducted by David Davies, and with Paragon in scorching form, the
predominant accent in this concert was on drama. The proceedings erupted
with Lyell Cresswell's Pumpkin Massacre, sheer instrumental drama
launched on a sea of seething, trilling strings.
Full of splintering accents, jagged thrusts, frantic activity, and
with the momentum of a juggernaut, Cresswell's piece, based on an
incident in Maori history, was reminiscent, in its explosive effect, of
Penderecki's Hiroshima Threnody. Superb stuff.
At the other end of the programme was an altogether different kind of
drama with Thomas Wilson's Missa pro Mundo Conturbato. Steeped in
austerity, even in its more extrovert moments, this solemn, concerned
setting of the Mass is as urgently relevant a comment today as it was a
quarter of a century ago.
Its message was delivered with a raw power by the student voices of
Academy Now!, understandably stronger in ensemble than individually.
A student premiere, Is it Me, or the Basilica, by Cluny Strachan,
formed the centrepiece. Some highly attractive ideas were laced through
the work -- a slow Scottish air, treated in rather a MacMillan-like
manner, and an impassioned, long-limbed melody -- but the piece sprawled
rather, lacking overall shape and direction.
Still, the main point here is that young composers like Strachan are
being given the resources to write and hear their music. Experience will
control development.
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