Optical Identity: T'ang Quartet and Theatre Cryptic

I just came back from a Singapore Arts Festival performance by the T'ang Quartet called "Optical Identity". This was a contemporary classical music performance. I'm not really a big fan - in fact I've only attended one other contemporary classical performance (see review here). What is supposed to make this concert different is T'ang's tie up with Theatre Cryptic: this is supposed to be "visual music"; a more multi-media type experience with lights, staging and other effects thrown in. Promising?

Well, I was rather worried that it would be frightfully pretentious. And, when the curtain rose to display the performers sitting with their backs to the audience, I feared (to be honest) the worst. I could not see what they were wearing clearly, but it appeared to be white pyjamas. Later on in the performance they started walking around and we could see that they were wearing what looked like jackets with the sleeves cut out, or rather white sleeveless vests in addition to their white trousers. No shirts. But at that moment, what we saw were four dark thrones arranged in a semi-circle with their backs to the audience. The backs of each throne were shaped such that they looked rather like rocks. There was also a shape cut out of the back so we could get sight of the performers. The effect was of musicians sitting in a cavern whilst we the observers watched them play.

They played their first piece, White Man Sleeps by Kevin Volans, in this position. I enjoyed the piece - in fact it was my favourite of the evening. The first dance started off with a rather rhythmic sound, continued in the second dance with the cello setting the pace for the movement. The lighting effects were not particularly interesting in this session. This changed somewhat during the third dance, where a green shaft of light hit the back of one of the thrones. Instead of a cavern, the musicians sat in a forest glade and the pizzicato of the strings brought to mind falling drops of water. I had to admit that the multi-media elements certainly added to the musical experience.

But the second piece was somewhat less impressive. I much preferred the third piece, whereby the musicians on the stage were joined by their images projected on a huge screen behind them. It was quite interesting to see huge images of the bow moving across the violin strings behind the performers. It got even more interesting when the image expanded to show the musician as well... and revealed that the vest was off! Camera started showing (at all angles) the movement of the brawny arms and muscular backs as the violinist played. But this was a major distraction. I put it to you : four musicians on stage, clad in white vests and trousers, vs images of bare breasted musicians at work in the background - where do you think everyone's eyes will be? And as for the music... frankly that just didn't register.

Far less distracting was the next segment, when this man in black starts walking around the stage with a video camera capturing the musicians as they performed and projecting this on the screen "live". I actually quite enjoyed this, as the musicians entered into a sort of musical face-off, two against two. Unfortunately the music was somewhat discordant so I was reminded of two sets of cats snarling and hissing at each other. (No doubt, due to the many such episodes taking place in my house every day).

In brief: a very different classical performance, which I would certainly say is more memorable than most. But I am a little afraid that the effects outshone the music at times, rather than enhanced it.

The complete programme for Optical Identity:

• String Quartet No. 1: White Man Sleeps, by Kevin Volans
• Phonotype I (Parts I-IV), by Rolf Wallin
• Mugam Sayagi, by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh
• Phonotype I (Part V), by Rolf Wallin
• Manual Override, by Joby Talbot

Contemporary Music and Jazz, played by Russians

Yesterday night I went to a contemporary music and jazz performance organised as part of a mini-Russian festival here. The first (classical) half of the concert featured Tatiana Gridenko and Opus Posth and the jazz performance featured Vladimir Volkov and the Volkov Trio.

I enjoyed the classical performance more. I like chamber music and love strings. Favourite was the second piece by Vladimir Martynov, entitled "Autumn Ball of Elves". Gridenko introduces each piece before the ensemble plays it - I thought this excellent practice as it makes the piece more accessible to the audience, as compared to the rather "atas" expectation that the whole audience will understand what is going on through reading the programme notes. Martynov is a minimalist composer and he believed that the high point of music came in the 19th Century with pieces such as "Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream"; everything else is in decline. His composition certainly did not bring to mind Titiana and Oberon. Rather, I was reminded more of the Elves in Middle Earth. The piece opens with a rather charming, minuet-like theme which is then interrupted by short spiccato passages played by one viola and one violin. This is repeated several times with the main theme getting shorter and shorter with each repetition. The middle portion is played mainly spiccato; it is very rhythmic and reminded me of Frodo racing away from the Black Riders and the river rising up to block their passage. The last section is variations on the theme which is really rather pretty and recalls Rivendell to me. It ends on a slightly melancholic note. The composer was in the audience and Gridenko (the leader of Opus Posth) called him up to the front of house, next to the stage. As he was dressed in a polo t-shirt I don't think he was quite prepared for this public appearance.

The third composition was by Iannis Xenakis and this is supposed to be an "avant garde" composition. It is supposed to be "destructive" and indeed it sounded terrible. But it was far more interesting to watch! Could really see the players working to deliver the strange and distorted sounds the composer required. As the piece progressed I could see the bows shedding horsehair. The cellist in particular had several strands hanging off the tip of his bow. After the end of the piece everyone had to re-tune their instruments. Talk about destructive!

The jazz section was quite interesting altho' I didn't enjoy it as much. What made it enjoyable was the way you could see the Slavic soul coming out. The double bass player (Volkov) stood throughout the performance and his whole body moved in time to the music as he played. The guitar player flung his hair about and did some head banging but you would expect that of a guitarist. This expressiveness was also apparent (but less so) in the classical performance. I suppose it is a Russian thing; we had a word with the organiser of the event post-performance and she said that when she worked with the German ensemble they held themselves more formally whilst playing.

Whole Programme:

Philip Glass - The Company
Vladimir Martynov - Autumn Ball of Elves
Iannis Xenakis - Aroura
Pavel Karmanov - Green DNK (pronounced Denka - Green DNK is thus a play on Gridenko's name)

~ Interval ~

Jazz Improvisations