hcmf// 2011: the festival in action
The 34th Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival is now in full swing, after a first weekend packed with world-class performances, exciting premieres and audiences eager to discover new music.
The festival’s opening evening on Friday 18th November brought two contrasting concerts, from Trondheim Soloists with accordionist Frode Haltli in St Paul’s Hall, and Evan Parker’s Electroacoustic Ensemble in Bates Mill. Highlights of the Trondheim Soloists’ Scandinavian-flavoured programme included Nils Henrik Asheim’s kinetic Chase, during which the ensemble split in two for a frenzied musical pursuit, whilst the finale – the British premiere of hcmf// Composer in Residence Bent Sørensen’s It is pain flowing down slowly on a white wall – saw them lay down their string instruments to accompany Haltli on mournful-sounding melodicas.
Evan Parker’s late-night concert in Bates Mill, meanwhile, brought the first performances of Tesserae, a 75-minute improvised piece directed by Parker that started with each member of his ElectroAcoustic Ensemble tapping stones together before unfolding into an ambitious and ever-changing soundscape that brought the unique skills of each to the fore.
After two days packed with concerts ranging from Quatuor Bozzini’s perfectly honed trio of new string quartets to ELISION’s performance of Richard Barrett’s two-and-a-half-hour CONSTRUCTION, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Hear and Now’, the opening weekend of hcmf// finished at Bates Mill with TablesAreTurned, Bernhard Lang’s fusion of precision-timed microloops, played by Alter Ego, with the turntable and delay skills of Philip Jeck.
Monday 21st November was once again a day devoted to free concerts and new talent, and crowds packed the University of Huddersfield’s Phipps Hall and Creative Arts Building atrium to hear performances by artists including Quatuor Bozzini and edges ensemble. Stef Connor’s poetic Leoþsong was a lunchtime treat, whilst koto player Nobutaka Yoshizawa’s delicate recital, Ensemble 10/10’s performance of Gary Carpenter’s comic One Million Tiny Operas about Britain and Apartment House’s spirited take on Christian Marclay’s Graffiti Composition were other high points.
With concerts by Icarus Ensemble, ensemble]h[iatus and Jennifer Walshe and Annie Gosfield Trio with Athelas Sinfonietta among the performances still to come, hcmf// 2011 continues until Sunday 27th November: click here to view the full calendar of festival events.
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