Late night in Temerty

The late night, “Afterhours”, concert by the GGS New Music Ensemble in the Temerty Theatre is something of a fixture of the 21C festival and it’s almost always fun.  Last night was no exception.  There were four contrasting pieces conducted and introduced by Brian Current, with his usual gentle erudition on the theme “all music was new music once”.  Which is worth thinking about!

The first two pieces on the programme were acoustic, in the sense that no electronics were involved.  Tanya León’s Indigena is a kind of high culture homage to salsa.  It’s highly textured and brightly toned with variations on Latin dance rhythms and an extended part for solo trumpet.  Skilfully composed, very well played and well within the mainstream of contemporary music.

pinpongconcerto

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Please ensure your seatbelt is securely fastened

The GGS’ production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight opened at Koerner Hall last night.  This is going to be a somewhat unusual review and my thoughts about the piece itself should be taken in the context of what I’m about to write.  The basic plot of Flight is, for me, quite literally the stuff of nightmares and by the third act I was having vivid and very disturbing flashbacks.  This undoubtedly skewed my opinion!

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