At home with eclectic cool: The Hermes Experiment at SJSS

By Christopher Woodley, 30 September 2022

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“rarely have I heard a harp sound so angry, its wires strangling the air”

Reviewed at Smith Square Hall, London on 28 September 2022

Programme to include:

Strozzi, Tradimento! (arr. Werner)

Meredith, Fin Like a Flower (arr. Schofield)

Coult, I Find Planets

Shaw, Plan & Elevation (arr. Denholm)

Wallen, gun, gun, gun

The Hermes Experiment, Bass Piece

Witter-Johnson, Draw the Line

Hall, Befalling (arr. Pashley)

Leith, Uh Huh, Yeah

The Hermes Experiment

Héloïse Werner, Soprano

Oliver Pashley, Clarinet

Marianne Schofield, Double Bass

Anne Denholm, Harp

Text and textures in New York premieres by The Crossing at Zankel Hall

David Wolfson, 24th March

Donald Nally’s much vaunted chamber choir The Crossing give a program of three New York premieres at Zankel Hall.

****1

Concertos – for violin and for orchestra – from the Hallé

Peter Connors, 22nd March

Viktoria Mullova is a superb soloist in Brahms' Violin Concerto, while an orchestra full of soloists play Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Kahchun Wong presiding.

*****

Guitars, electronics and ancient treatises: the JACK Quartet at 92NY

Kurt Gottschalk, 20th March

At 92NY, the JACK Quartet performs four new works developed in their JACK Studio, including a commissioned premiere from the electrifying Tristan Perich.

****1

Chopin and Franck reframed with elegance and insight in Dublin

Andrew Larkin, 20th March

In Dublin, Jean-Luc Tingaud and Louis Lortie bring clarity and purpose to two composers often ill at ease with the orchestra.

****1

Kristiina Poska makes an exciting return to conduct the RSNO

Simon Thompson, 20th March

Kristiina Poska directs the RSNO in gripping Tchaikovsky and Pärt, but words and music only occasionally match in Elena Langer's new song cycle.

***11

Shared language and living history: Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Phil

Chanda VanderHart, 19th March

Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman and the Vienna Philharmonic meet in repertoire they know intimately, illuminating it through mutual understanding.

*****

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Christopher Woodley

Christopher’s professional background is in the public sector, and includes a spell in music librarianship. A composer, he is a keen follower of contemporary music and has attended all but four editions of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, including the first concert in 1978. Other musical passions include a fascination with the “bad boys” of the New Complexity fixation, particularly the god-like Brian Ferneyhough – arguably the best thing to have come out of Coventry. When not listening to Boulez, Christopher relaxes by frequenting the fields, orchards, woodlands and pubs on the Weald of Kent, where he lives.

At home with eclectic cool: The Hermes Experiment at St John's Smith Square