Another post by Maria Grenfell. :)
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The title of the concert held on Tuesday 29 June really sounds like an imaginary World Cup score. Fortunately, in this case, the composers won and there wasn’t a vuvuzela within coo-ee. Sorry, that’s my fake Australianness coming out, while surrounded by Americans here in the beautiful Swiss alps...
The first concert of works by participant composers featured a wide variety of pieces that we have come to expect during this week of multi-faceted music-making. Opening the program was “Quartet (after...)” by Wenhui Xie. This is a re-working of material from her Symphony no. 1, and commemorates the tragic loss of many children during the 2008 Chinese earthquake. Long static lines were punctuated by sharp gestures, breath tones and key clicks from clarinet, circular motions on violin strings, speech from the percussionist, and playing inside the piano with fishing line. Absolute control was required by the players, and it was a dramatic way to begin the evening.
