Contemporary music ensembles can be rather nebulous entities, their repertoire often necessitating complete line-up changes between pieces and the "whole" of the ensemble rarely being needed at the same time. The aim should be a sort of family resemblance between pieces and performance styles, rather than the organicism often desired in more traditional recitals – but contemporary recitals can still be exciting and coherent wholes, as Tuesday night's debut from ExplorEnsemble proved.
ExplorEnsemble is based at London's Royal College of Music and involves a number of young performers. This recital, in the RCM's intimate though not fully soundproofed Inner Parry Room, introduced its members to a range of contemporary repertoire, through a selection of abstract solo pieces and works for small ensemble. A number of the new pieces played suggested an exploratory, neo-modernist aesthetic which suited the group's name well.
What was most enjoyable about the recital was the real sense of engagement which the performers brought to their abstruse though fascinating repertoire. While Alice Purton did look a little reluctant during Helmut Lachenmann's Pression, in which the performer has to torture her cello slightly, pulling the bow up the strings and seeming to chisel away at it from under the bridge, she still played with confidence and control, as if the piece were perfectly normal. Harpist Martino Panizza's dexterous rendition of Bruno Mantovani's Tocar was another standout performance, which brought nuance to this flashy impressionistic study.
Panizza and Purton also combined forces for Charlie Sdraulig's remarkable piece hush. In this piece the harp was laid flat on the floor and Panizza spent much of the time tracing the gaps between strings with a stick, with an occasional pointillistic accompaniment to this from Purton. This was an oddly enthralling performance of a fascinating idea, from a composer who has evidently taken Lachenmann's instrumental experiments quite seriously.