A Requiem for Peace: Exaudi saves the day at London’s Kings Place

Exaudi

James Weeks

By Christopher Woodley, 18 February 2023

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“the timbre of his low bass oscillated like the throbbing left over from a cosmic boom”

Reviewed at Kings Place: Hall One, London on 16 February 2023

Birman, Russia: Today

Exaudi

James Weeks, Director

Juliet Fraser, Soprano

Jessica Gillingwater, Mezzo-soprano

David de Winter, Tenor

Jimmy Holliday, Bass

Zigmārs Grasis, Bass

Oliver Leith’s Garland: dreamlike chaos in a Peckham car park

Marat Ingeldeev, 18th September

Only Bells and Horses: Garland transforms a Peckham car park into a dreamlike, chaotic spectacle of musicians, objects and voices – thrilling, poignant and unabashedly emotional.

****1

Grey reverie and awkward electronics

Danny Riley, 6th September

The LCO and Actress present tantalizing textures, while new works of placid emotion envelop the senses.

***11

Birtwistle's early gems mesmerise

Katy Wright, 6th September

Lean yet nuanced performances from Oliver Knussen and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in commemoration of Harrison Birtwistle's 80th birthday

****1

Prom 47: John Cage night

Paul Kilbey, 17th August

Now they know how many cacti it takes to fill the Albert Hall. Last night’s marathon John Cage Prom finished up, over three hours after it had started, with a wonderfully cactus-heavy performance of Branches (1976).

*****

Exaudi sing Cage at Spitalfields Music Summer Festival

Paul Kilbey, 21st June

Almost as remarkable as John Cage's actual music is how varied it is. Nothing obvious connects The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, a beautifully simple four-note piece for soprano and piano lid, to Four Solos for voice, a late work in which four singers independently do a series of strange things at the same time.

****1

Exaudi at Kings Place

Paul Kilbey, 12th March

In a pre-performance discussion, the vocal ensemble Exaudi's director James Weeks promised us that they were not just going to stand in a line for their Kings Place performance. And they were true to his word; the singers performed from all parts of the intimate Hall Two and created an immersive, involved listening experience.

****1

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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.