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| Modern Minimalism by the Bang on a Can All Stars |
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| Live,
Justin Harries,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F5
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Great news! The Royal Albert Hall tonight offers us a tasty morsel of minimalism from its stale buffet that is the Proms: Modern musical mavericks, New York's Bang on a Can All-Stars. Tonight they perform contemporary pieces that are both beautiful and robust. David Lang's "Cheating, Lying, Stealing" (1995) is a bold, dramatic polyrhythmic pounding of drums and Xylophone. Violence and silence play pass the musical parcel in Julia Wolfe's "Believing" (1998). Apparently inspired by the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows", it unlocks a tidal wave of strings, keyboard and electric guitar. "Horses of Destruction" (1994-5) by Steve Martland is the least interesting piece of the evening, perhaps only because it follows two such impressive and satisfying works. The highlight for me however is the UK premiere of "Movement Within" (1998) by guitar-orchestra innovator Glenn Branca. Covering familiar microtonal territory, Branca creates a hypnotic maelstrom of banshee cries with specially prepared guitar and keyboards. This and the pleasant repeating melodies of Brian Eno's "Music for Airports 1:1" (1978) causes the audience in the upper gallery to sit or lie on the expansive marble floor, jackets for pillows as one or two lonely figures slowly pad around in their socks, heads bowed reflectively. The lush sound benefitted on this particular occasion from the more resonant acoustics to be found in the "gods". Simply heavenly.
Royal Albert Hall
31/08/99
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