12 Seconds of Light - One Hour of Delight

Until May of this year The Modulus Quartet had not performed outside of London. Since then they have played in a slate mine in Keswick and a cave in St. Neots, as well as The Soup Kitchen in Manchester and the Electric Cinema in Birmingham. Tonight they arrive at the medieval former church which acts as auditorium to the Norwich Arts Centre.

The Arts Centre, although being ideally suited as a venue for string quartets, is rarely used for any form of chamber music. This is odd, as it has a proud history of pushing boundaries and promoting an all-encompassing programme, including diverse and eclectic acts. Serious, and classical, music would seem to just dovetail perfectly into their already varied schedule.

I have rushed back from a day on the beach on not only the hottest, but also the longest day of the year, in order to catch what promises to be an intriguing performance.

The Modulus Quartet worked closely in collaboration with six contemporary composers to put together this programme, and each piece is preceded by a brief filmed introduction from the composer themselves. There is no printed programme, and no other introductions from the members of the Quartet, so it pays to listen and glean as much information as possible from these short films. Each piece, whilst very different in style, sets out to challenge the traditional repertoire of the string quartet.

Without Quartet, by Terry Davies, uses music originally written as a quintet for Matthew Bourne's dance company, but is re-worked for four instruments. Whilst still maintaining jazz influences the result takes on a mood reminiscent of a post-war black and white film thriller.

The Golden Road Suite, in three movements, by Eliot Lloyd Stuart is accompanied by some stunning graphics by Tom Brown, abstract shapes and hues of rich yellows projected behind the four musicians. Starting with a Nyman-like arrival, passing through a Landscape of Souls that reminded me of  Ilona Sekacz's score to the Dutch film saga Antonia, and completing with The Bittersweet Journey, which opens a repeating phrase inspired by the African bow - the earliest of known stringed instruments, and seems to recall Clint Mansell's soundtrack to The Fountain, The Golden Road Suite is not only my favourite piece from the programme, but also the most life-affirming in its spirit and hope.

Ash Madni's contribution Clarity From Fragmented Memories, manages to fuse elements of Indian and Arabic musical culture into a challenging piece with some interesting pizzicato passages from second violinist Craig Stratton.

Richard Norris' Mumbai Nights is probably the piece most likely to divide audiences. Using a specially recorded bhangra backing tape and news reportage to play over, and a video projection splicing together scenes of Indian daily life, the quartet perform the three movements that tell, in chronological order, events of the 2008 hostage taking in the Indian city. Those who believe that dance music and string quartets should not mix may be horrified. Personally, I loved it, and its factual and well-documented events serving as inspiration and polarising progression from Ash Madni's composition constructed out of memories.

The performance's title draws from a piece by Finnish composer, Veera Lummi, who in turn was inspired by a story told by a Uruguayan musician, who recounted a tale of a remote village without electricity where the only street lighting came once every twelve seconds as the nearby lighthouse beacon swept through. The opposite of this became the inspiration for 12 Seconds of Light. The music, and accompanying video imagery, concentrates on bursts of activity punctuated by short pauses.

Finally, Matthew Slater's experimental piece Memoria Technica brings the performance to a close with a three-sectioned piece that attempts to use sampling and looping of the individuals' playing to be fed back into the performance, allowing each musician a chance to interact with their own playing - a combination of discipline and freedom co-existing within one composition. In the final segment, In Futuro, the piece draws to an end with each member bringing their playing to an end, and with each music stand light individually extinguished until the stage is in darkness. The quartet make their exit as their instruments are still being heard, repeating and fading into the distance like ghostly echoes. Stunningly effective.

Modulus Quartet might like to see themselves as the avant-garde of chamber music, but do not let that put you off, even if your musical tastes usually err on the traditional side of conservative. There is nothing unpleasantly dissonant or aurally challenging in what they choose to do. There are no awkward moments where the artistry is not immediately obvious or sonically coherent. Every moment of the 12 Seconds of Light is filled with absolute beauty and concentrated performance. Even though the composers approach their work from very different points, the meeting place is one of embracement and diversity.

Whether it be in a cave, or a museum, or a medieval church, I urge you to experience 12 Seconds of Light, and allow these four talented musicians, and eight contemporary composers, into your life.

The Modulus Quartet are :

Violin 1 - Jonathan Truscott

Violin 2 - Craig Stratton

Viola - Mircea Belei

Cello - Nick Allen

Modulus Quartet website

Modulus Quartet Facebook page

Getting the Rear View of Norwich and The Great Hospital with IOU Theatre

Imagine a spoken word production featuring two of the country's top young performance poets, a production that starts off in an iconic 13th century dining hall then takes you on an open-top bus tour around the streets of Norwich, a journey which is punctuated with more poetry and performance at each of the four pre-planned stops before returning you to the start point. This, basically, was the experience enjoyed by myself and several hundred others over the last four days of this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival.

Norwich Cathedral (viewed from The Great Hospital)

Halifax-based IOU Theatre had chosen Norwich for the world premiere of 'Rear View' -  part poetry, part theatre and part sight-seeing tour. Audiences were invited to meet outside The Great Hospital in Bishopgate, within sight of the spire of Norwich Cathedral. Founded in 1249 by Bishop Walter de Suffield, and still functioning today as a sheltered housing complex, The Great Hospital site includes no less than fifteen listed buildings, and features the UK's only surviving swanpit (a water-filled enclosure where swans were fattened and eventually killed for human consumption). The refectory, which has been transformed into a life-art studio for the purposes of 'Rear View' still exhibits a gruesome looking goose quarterer, which could presumably also have been used to section up swans as well.

The Great Hospital refectory (setting for the life-drawing class)

The Goose Quarterer

It is during this life-drawing class that the audience are introduced to the model, and it is where the performance's tagline, 'If at 65 you could say something to yourself at 23, what would it be?', takes shape and form. Performance poets Cecilia Knapp and Jemima Foxtrot assume the role for alternate shows, each delivering their own take on a story that uses reflection, prediction and observation to blur the lines between reality and fiction.

The IOU bus prepares to leave

From the life-art studio the audience is led to IOU's specially converted double-decker bus, an eye-catching silvery open-topped vehicle that has been fitted out with ten rows of tiered, rear-facing seats, each equipped with a pair of headphones. During the 45 minute tour around the cathedral quarter of Norwich the bus will stop four times, and more of the story is gradually revealed, via Cecilia or Jemima's own words, performed on location and relayed via wireless microphones to the headsets. In between locations, a soothing musical backtrack plays, creating the illusion that the audience is, in some way, being transported through a dream that is forever slipping away from them.

Cecilia Knapp performing 'on location'

I am lucky enough to get a seat on the bus on the Friday evening, the 8.30 performance, and the last of the day. I have been volunteering with the company since rehearsal run-throughs on the Wednesday afternoon, with duties ranging from guarding on-location props to replacing the batteries in the headphone sound limiters on the bus, to audience meet-and-greet. I've seen bits and pieces of the show, and caught some of both Cecilia and Jemima's spoken verse, but not had the opportunity to see or hear an entire performance.

Each of the poets has their own distinctive prosaic style, but it is Jemima Foxtrot who we meet in the refectory 'art class'. I have seen her perform her poetry before, both at Latitude Festival and at Norwich Arts Centre, and remember well her distinctive voice and powerful delivery.

The bus takes us up Bishopgate and along Palace Street towards the Maids Head Hotel. It has been a glorious sunny day, and it is the beginning of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. A lone skateboarder grabs the rear rail of the bus and hitches a ride for the entire length of Palace Street before letting go and peeling off left along Tombland as the bus makes a right into Wensum Street. The city is coming to life, with evening revelers making their way between the pubs, bars and restaurants of this vibrant area. People wave, shout and even dance along the pavement as our bus crosses the river into Fye Bridge Street, and then turns right into Fishergate, and the first performance location. Despite all the attention that we are attracting we still feel strangely cocooned, cossetted by the calming music coming through the headphones. It is slightly surreal, dreamlike and detached, the journey punctuated by each of the four stops where Jemima has managed to appear magically ahead of us, ready to imbibe us with more recollection and rumination.

The final stop ends with Jemima wistfully following us down Cotman Fields, and with the bus returning to our starting point at The Great Hospital. As the sun begins to set behind the city sky-scape and the warm evening air envelopes us like a comforting gossamer shawl, the entire experience has been beautiful. No, better than beautiful, it has been hauntingly gorgeous, and I am sure that Cecilia Knapp has been equally spellbinding in her shows. It has been a rear view, not just physically, but lyrically and metaphorically as well. This is not just a bus trip, it is way, way more. If you get the chance, buy a ticket and take the journey too.

The front view of 'Rear View'

I return again on the Sunday for one last time to The Great Hospital for my final shift as volunteer steward for the last five, fully sold-out, performances of 'Rear View' at this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival. The weather has held out magnificently, despite violent thunderstorms having passed through just a couple of miles west of Norwich on the Saturday. 

Sunday also sees the Google Maps 'Street View' car driving down Bishopgate, passing both The Great Hospital and the IOU bus parked outside The Red Lion pub, where Cecilia is performing her set piece. (Check out Google Maps once the new data has been uploaded - I should be standing in the main gateway). We also fortuitously manage to avoid tangling ourselves with the 'Beating Of The Bounds' procession, led each year on Rogation Sunday around the perimeter of the cathedral grounds by the Bishop of Norwich and his officials and congregation immediately after the cathedral's Rogantide Service. (This following another slickly organised stewarding operation on the Friday evening when the IOU audience were escorted out of The Great Hospital and onto the bus just as 100+ doctors and partners were arriving for a formal reception and banquet in the Birkbeck Hall. All part of the fun of being a festival volunteer!).

IOU Theatre returns briefly to Halifax before setting off to other Festival locations throughout the Summer. Next stop is the Greenwich+Docklands Festival in London from June 29th to July 2nd. Check out later destinations via their website at http://www.ioutheatre.org/

Jemima Foxtrot's website

Cecilia Knapp's website

Norfolk & Norwich Festival website

Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton Provide Reason In Madness

It was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote, "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness".  Soprano Carolyn Sampson and pianist Joseph Middleton took this quote, and used it when compiling their list of songs for 'Reason In Madness', the collective title given to their recital at St Peter Mancroft on Monday. The concert formed part of the music programme to this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival

In a programme of twelve songs, no less than five take as their inspiration the ill-fated story of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Yet it is the German legend of Faust that opens the evening, in a rendition of Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade  (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel) - in the legend Gretchen is seduced by Faust and gives birth to his bastard child. It is only the rhythm of the spinning wheel that manages to keep her rooted to reality.

Four further songs, all beautifully sung in German by Sampson, and with an almost telepathic connection to Joseph Middleton's piano, follow - three inspired by Ophelia (including a towering version of  Strauss' Der Lieder der Ophelia that reveals the sad truth of Ophelia's abandonment), before ending the first half with Hugo Wolf's Mignon Lieder.

In the second half we are treated to six pieces from French composers, including Saint-Saens and Chausson's takes on the Ophelia story, but first we hear Henri Duparc's take on the story of Mignon from Goethe's 'Kennst du das Land' (Do You Know The Land?).  Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis, three erotically charged songs based on the poetry of Pierre Louÿs, is probably my highlight of the second half, although the decadent tale of Poulenc's La dame de Monte Carlo, which ends with her throwing herself into the Mediterranean, provides a suitably dramatic climax.

St Peter Mancroft proved a splendid venue to the concert, with the stained glass window behind the altar, and the gentle pink glow from the stage lighting providing a sensitive and calming backdrop. Only the occasional roar of an engine from the designated motorcycle parking area next door managed to intrude on what was a delightful evening.

A short distance away in The Assembly House the Norfolk & Norwich Festival audience for The Voice Project would be bedding down for the first performance of their somnifacient ten and a half hour production, 'In the Arms of Sleep'. I instead purchase a copy of Carolyn and Joseph's 'Fleurs' album, which they both kindly sign. I get home and place the disc in the CD player of the hi-fi in my bedroom. I too drift off to sleep listening to beautiful music. But I have inadvertently set the disc to  'repeat', meaning that for the entire night I am also drifting in and out of sleep, and am aware of Carolyn's singing and Joseph's piano playing right the way through until morning. My own personal version of 'In the Arms of Sleep'.

Carolyn Sampson's website

Joseph Middleton's website

Music at St Peter Mancroft

www.nnfestival.org.uk/

Nadine Shah in Salon Perdu - Saturday Night in the Adnams Spiegeltent

I love the Adnams Spiegeltent. I love the ambiance, the excited audiences, the welcoming hosts, and I love the range of events it plays host to during its annual two week visit. It is indeed a 'Salon Perdu', a lost room to enter and enjoy. Many of the acts that I have seen in here over the years were new to me, names that, if it had not been for the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, might have forever slipped me by. Others were acts that drew me in by curiosity or recommendation from other festival hawks. Nadine Shah, though, was different. Having seen her three times live, and bought both the first two albums, this was an artist that I knew and loved. And was definitely not going to miss.

I've been in Chapelfield Gardens all day, stewarding and volunteering on the virtual reality swings. At the end of my shift I had swapped by blue Norfolk & Norwich Festival volunteer t-shirt for a red one and rushed down to catch Billy Bragg perform a free show at Norwich Arts Centre for the Labour Party campaign workers of Norwich South. Labour candidate Clive Lewis was there, and Bragg joked that every politician he has ever met secretly wanted to be a rock and roll star. Lewis did not sing tonight, although ironically Billy Bragg's grey hair and beard is beginning to make him look a lot like Jeremy Corbin.

Anyhow, I digress. I am back at the Spiegeltent before 10pm and a long line is patiently queuing in the late evening drizzle, awaiting the doors to the Spiegeltent to open. Nadine Shah is backed tonight by a four piece band who are tight and provide just the right intensity to suit both the material and the venue. Let's be honest here. The new album Holiday Destination is Shah's best work to date, but it pulls no punches in exploring its themes and messages, and tonight's set list features virtually every track from it. This is a 'tell-it-like-it-is' attack on those who think that the refugee crisis, and migration, are issues that Britain can somehow duck out of its humanitarian and moral obligations over. As Shah points out, we are all migrants. 'There is no such thing as indiginous English people. We are all immigrants'. She uses an expletive to hammer home the point that whilst her father may have been born in Pakistan, she was born in South Shields, and is therefore English. Quite right.

But, as well as being politically charged Nadine Shah is a delightful and engaging performer. She likes a drink and makes no secret of it. Her Tyneside accent gives her a grounded appeal that wins over audiences instantly. Yet, like the moment when she accidentally bangs her tooth on the microphone just before the start of a number, she also displays a vulnerability that is also present in her music.

We get three songs from Fast Food to keep the 'play-something-we-know brigade happy' - the title track plus Stealing Cars and Fool, and the saxophone player gets a chance to deliver a few blistering solos, but the evening really belongs to Nadine and Holiday Destination. Attitudes need to change, and it is albums like this and artists like Nadine Shah that have the ability to help do it.

Congratulations to Norfolk & Norwich Festival for the courage and conviction to book an act like this for the prime Saturday night spot.

New album - 'Holiday Destination'

New video and single - 'Out Of The Way'

Nadine Shah website

Norfolk & Norwich Festival website

No Supermen or Bowie, Just Glass and Anderson. This is American Style.

If you went to the Theatre Royal on Friday expecting American Style to be a synergistic fusion of the avant-garde, or a boundary-breaking exploration of new territories, then I guess you were in for a disappointment, and deservedly so. If, however, you were ready to embrace a collaborative 'state of the world' cultural collage from two of the most iconic figures from the American music and arts scene, then this was a beautiful and engaging performance.

Yes, this was the hottest ticket in town, the must-see performance from Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson, and one that turned the Norfolk and Norwich Festival booking line red-hot when seats went on sale back in February.

Neither is this a schmaltzy greatest hits show - there are no 'O Superman' moments or Bowie-inspired piano arrangements. Instead, this is a coalescent commentary on the past, the present and the future with contributions from Glass and Anderson based respectively on memory, uncertainty and concerns. Joining them on stage is guest cellist Rubin Kodheli.

At an early point during Laurie Anderson's visual projections there appears a sobering message on agiant chalkboard - 'Empire is ending...   as all empires do'. Later, as the trio are about to perform an improvisation piece, Anderson addresses the audience with the joke about the couple who finally decide to divorce upon reaching their nineties. It is no 'stand-up' moment, but as Anderson explains, the whole of America now appears to be improvising, making everything up on a day-to-day basis.

Philip Glass recalls his friendship with poet Allen Ginsberg, and plays against a sound recording of Ginsberg reading from his anti-war poem Wichita Vortex Sutra. Later the voice of Lou Reed is heard, and, later still, the words of Leonard Cohen are added to Glass' soundtrack of reminiscence.

The building of the wall between heaven and earth in Aristophanes' 'The Birds' is recounted in a seated reading from Anderson. Her sultry and rhythmic automaton-like delivery is as hypnotically seductive as ever. She also recalls the time when, as a student seeking election to the college council, she wrote to Jack Kennedy for advice, and received a reply. There are stories about whales asking if all oceans have walls, the revelation that 99% of all catalogued animal species are now extinct, and the reminder that most animals spend their entire living in fear. Yet animals exist in the moment.

Anderson plays violin to Glass' piano and Kodheli's cello during the instrumental passages and, whilst arguably the music occasionally behaves as little more than a conduit to the next link, it is the contextual beauty of the entire show that leaves a lasting memory long after any critical nit-picking has concluded.

American Style is an experience as much as it is a performance. It is reflective and prophetic, classical as well as contemporary. We are all so wrapped up in the moment that the one hour forty five duration passes without us even noticing the absence of an interval. There is no encore either, but to be quite honest nothing else was required. Just an ovational appreciation from those fortunate enough to be present.

We Meet In Paradise - Theatre Fragile at The Forum, Norwich

It cannot be easy producing a piece of public theatre that delivers a powerful message about issues concerning refugees, asylum seekers and global displacement, yet still contain humanity, warmth and an ironic twist, but that is exactly what Berlin-based Theatre Fragile presented to us in Norwich this week as part of the 2017 Norfolk & Norwich Festival.

Two shows in The Forum, enacted beneath Luke Jerram's beautiful Museum of the Moon (rain unfortunately managed to scupper planned outdoor performances on both evenings) pull no punches in portraying the trauma and danger involved in escaping a war-torn homeland and seeking safe passage to a foreign land. This theatrical collage of masked performers and soundtrack commentary begins with a lone, spinning black box representing a boat at sea. Two masked survivors make it to land, only to find the relief of safety tainted by resentment and hostility.

As the refugees find their feet, learn our language, and begin to contribute, both culturally and economically, something rather beautiful happens. In the closing scenes of We Meet In Paradise it is they that are welcoming us, and offering the hand of friendship. What better inverted metaphor could there be for tolerance, friendship and shared humanity?

We Meet In Paradise manages to turn bleakness and despair into camaraderie and warmth within the space of just over an hour, and the welcome and discussion continues long after. Performed by a small cast from the company together with local actors and volunteers, the show is presented by IN SITU, an organisation of 24 partners (Norfolk & Norwich Festival being one) with a remit to produce and present art in the European public space.

I was present for both shows, firstly as a volunteer festival steward on the Wednesday, then returning on the Thursday to fully engage with the performance. The only disappointment had to be the weather. Whilst the audiences that packed into The Forum's main atrium were treated to a memorable and personal performance, many would clearly have already been enlightened to the themes and issues involved. Local members of Amnesty International were on hand with leaflets and banners, but one wonders how many extra minds and attitudes could have been swayed and changed on a pleasantly warm and dry May evening?

A huge thank you to Marianne Cornil, Luzie Ackers and the cast of Theatre Fragile for bringing such a relevant and thought-provoking performance to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. It was certainly one that will leave an impression on those present that will persist long after the festival concludes.

Theatre Fragile website

Theatre Fragile Facebook page

Amnesty International website

Norfolk and Norwich Festival website

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at St Andrews Hall

It is a while since I last attended a concert performance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In fact, it was so long ago that Simon Rattle was still their chief conductor (for the last fifteen years Rattle has been principal conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic). Tonight, though, at St Andrews Hall in Norwich, it is one of Sir Simon's own mentees from the Berlin Philharmonic, the virtuoso violinist turned conductor Karina Canellakis, who is wielding the baton for her debut appearance with the CBSO. Classical music performance, like life, can have its own cyclic twists and turns.

In a programme that starts with César Franck's symphonic poem La Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman), continues with Karen Gomyo as soloist in Felix Mendelssohn's essential Violin Concerto in E minor, and concludes after an interval with Sergei Rachmaniov's Symphonic Dances, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival audience get a chance not only to experience sensitive Ms Cannellakis' conducting for the first time, but also to enjoy first-hand Karen Gomyo's fiery violin playing.

Karen Gomyo 

It is a 7pm start, somewhat earlier than the stalwart NNF audiences may be used to, hence there is quite the small crowd of latecomers huddled together at the rear of St Andrews Hall. Having missed the Franck, then have to stand just inside the main doors for the Mendelssohn. During the interval they are able to join the sold out audience and take their seats for the Rachmaniov.

But stand or sit, this entire evening was an unmissable treat, thanks to the supreme quality of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the rhythmic elegance of Karina Canellakis' conducting - beautiful to watch, yet leaving no member of the orchestra in any doubt what was expected of them. Whilst the appearance of Karen Gomyo added yet another tier of delight - her captivating interpretation of the Andante during the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto matched any live performance I have heard - the climax of the programme had to be the Slavonic Dances, after which the ovation from this appreciative audience demanded Canellakis' return to the podium three times.

A memorable evening in this much-loved venue, with a world-class orchestra under the direction of a new star rising. Wonderful.

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website

Karina Canellakis website

Karen Gomyo website

Norfolk and Norwich Festival website