In a busy festival jam-packed with concerts and premieres featuring some of the most in-demand artists in new music, there will always be some absolutely unmissable events which fly a little under the radar. Help is at hand! Here hcmf// Artistic Director Graham McKenzie highlights a selection of moments from this year’s festival that fall into the must-see category.
Last year, while performing at the festival with his quartet Sneeze Etiquette, Lithuanian composer Arturas Bumšteinas spent some time immersing himself in the British Music Archive which is based at the University of Huddersfield. While immersed in this deep dive, he came across a VHS tape documentary on 20th century composer Minna Keal, who experienced some success in her 80s. Bumšteinas was enthralled by Keal’s life story. ‘That one can arrive at a productive situation at any point in their lives is an inspiration to me,’ he muses.
The resulting work, Stand-by for Minna – for church organ (2 players, 4 hands), commissioned by hcmf//, receives its world premiere on the opening night of this year’s festival in the beautiful acoustic of St Paul’s Hall. Listening to the composer speak about the work, my hunch is that it is destined to be one of his most enduring works!
It may seem strange to describe Hadal Zone, a work which wowed audiences at the Long Play Festival in New York earlier this year, as a ‘hidden gem’, especially as it is one of the hottest tickets on the opening weekend and on the verge of joining the long list of sold-out concerts. Composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė is, however, little-known in the U.K. A new discovery for me, unknown until a chance meeting earlier this year in Helsinki. Taking the listener on an immersive journey into the deepest zone of the ocean, Martinaitytė has created a stonewall masterpiece! Performed by the adventurous Lithuanian ensemble Synaesthesis and written for bass clarinet, tuba, violincello, contrabass, piano, and electronics, Hadal Zone plumbs the lower depths of the instrumentation. Sublime! Blag a ticket if you can.
Hadal Zone
Bates Mill Blending Shed
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė joins writer Tim Rutherford-Johnson and science communicator Georgia Wells in conversation in a free-to-attend event earlier in the day. More info.
hcmf// shorts on the Monday is literally my favourite day of the festival! This year we have 15 (count ‘em) concerts across the day and evening, and all absolutely free entry. A whole festival in a day covering the entire spectrum of music on offer at hcmf//, providing the curious with an opportunity to sample current practice. My recommendation is of course to come to everything but let me just pick out one or two moments that I am especially looking forward to.
The late Tony Conrad’s 1964 Four Violins stands as a monument to early American minimalism. This new arrangement by violinist Max Haft (last seen at hcmf// with the Swiss ensemble Contrechamps) under the guidance of the Conrad estate evokes a meditative, deep listening experience which may well go down in the annals of time as a historic event to be discussed by those in the know for years to come.
Later in the evening there is a very rare opportunity to hear the amazing Lebanese guitarist and improviser Sharif Sehnaoui in a rare solo setting. Performing on both electric and acoustic guitars, Sehnaoui is a player who strives to re-enact the multitude of musical experiences he has gathered throughout his career in a single performance. Looking forward to this one!
Featuring flautist Lina Andonovska, Úna Monaghan (harp/sound design) and the voice of Michelle O’Rourke, Stone Drawn Circles are rightly heralded as a bit of a supergroup within new music circles in Ireland. One look at the repertoire they serve up here gives credence to that viewpoint, with world premieres from in-demand Canadian Nicole Lizée and arguably Australia’s most exciting composer, Cat Hope. Making their Huddersfield debut, catch Stone Drawn Circles early in their career while you can!
The last time The Contest of Pleasures performed at hcmf// was in 2006 where they gave a memorable concert in St Paul’s Hall, at one point improvising with a brewing storm, and all recorded for posterity by Sheffield-based label Another Timbre. We’ve been working on their return ever since but with each of the players – John Butcher, Axel Dörner and Xavier Charles – so in demand in a variety of solo and group settings, it’s taken a while. I cannot wait to see what they conjure up in the vast acoustic of the Town Hall!
One group high on my hit list has been the American ensemble, the Mivos Quartet. I am really excited that we’ve managed to make it finally happen this year. One of America’s most daring new music groups, they bring a programme dedicated to experimentalism to hcmf//, including a work by the American composer and multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill, an early member of the AACM. With George Lewis also on the programme, this concert is a must for new music fans and those who lean towards improvisation.
Thursday is all about our relationship to the environment as we examine the music industry’s potential to be a positive force for a sustainable future. Join us for a day of debate, discussion, and performances, topped off by a new work from the force that is Irish composer and sound artist Natalia Beylis, commissioned by hcmf//. In Around Here, The Birds Plant The Trees, Beylis invites us to explore the past, present and possible futures of a single field. Highly recommended!
If long, meditative piano works is your bag, then you will undoubtedly already be salivating over the promise of a new extended work by Canadian artist Martin Arnold. Stretched across 79 minutes, Flax is a thing of sustained, understated beauty!
I make no apologies for arguably leaving the best to last. French artist Éliane Radigue has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years as a new generation of players and audiences have simultaneously discovered her work. What makes this concert different is that it features the oldest surviving composition by Radigue, ASYMPTOTE VERSATILE. The pioneering artist referred to her 1960s works as propositions sonores rather than compositions, and this work is the only one she kept from the period.
Radigue has resolutely refused permission for this work to be presented in concert – until now! Performed here by group of players hand-picked by harpist Rhodri Davies, the world premiere of ASYMPTOTE VERSATILE is surely the very definition of a historic event!