News and Reviews Archive (from 2007)
Winter 2008
Oliver Coates was appointed the new artistic director of Sounds Underground in the summer of this year. Unfortunately, he has found that he is unable to continue in this role because of his playing commitments. He took over from Rose Hankey, who founded the organisation in 2004. Oliver wrote:
'I am passionate about what Rose has set up over the last 4 years and am keen that the spirit of the organisation she has fostered now thrives.'
Oliver put on an exciting and inventive programme of new works for Sounds Underground on 24th October - 'strings and sticks and...'. We are very grateful for the work he put into programming, organising and playing in this concert.
Contrasting Colours Concert, November 2007
2007 ended with a wonderful performance at the Warehouse, Theed Street, London, on 23rd November, given by Anna Dennis (soprano), Oliver Coates ('cello) and Jakob Fichert (piano). There was a rare atmosphere of excitement, and enjoyment of the new music in the programme.
One audience member wrote ...
"I left the concert knowing I had had more than my ten pound's admission charge in quality. If you have even a passing interest in new music, you should attend any concerts given by either Sounds Underground or by the performers. I cannot see how you could ever be short changed."
Read the whole of Tim Ellis's review by searching his blog archive
July 2007
2007 began with a week long residency at Aldeburgh to develop the performance of Dylan Pugh's new cello sonata, a piece specially commissioned by Sounds Underground for the 'cellist Guy Johnston and the pianist Tom Poster. The three worked intensely on the sonata, with Dylan conveying to the players exactly how he imagined the piece and what it meant to him.
Two performances of the new sonata took place, first at the Snape Maltings concert hall in January and then, in March, at the Bishopsgate Institute. Guy and Tom's performance of Pugh's epic and rhapsodic sonata was 'heroic and authoritative' (The Strad, June 2007) and was received with warm applause. Their programme also included a short piece by Alicia Grant. Night Spell was beautifully played and is, as The Strad put it, 'both atmospheric and pithy'.
In a second concert at the Bishopsgate Institute, the pianists Alasdair Beatson and Iain Farrington gave a scintillating 'Recital for Four Hands'. They performed new pieces written for Sounds Underground by Iain Farrington and Bushra El-Turk, as well as Iain's arrangements of Ravel and Stravinsky. The arrangements took as their starting point the full orchestral scores of La Valse and The Rite of Spring rather then the composers' own piano scores.
Sounds Underground organised a concert in collaboration with the record label Sargasso, which took place on May 17th. The programme included the world premiere of John Herford's Piano Trio, written while the composer was at Cambridge but never performed because of the difficulty of the score. Ensemble Na Mara, winners of last year's ROSL Ensemble prize, were able to bring it to life for the audience and the composer.
The Kreisler Ensemble gave its fourth performance of 'The Glory Tree' by Cheryl Frances-Hoad at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney, in June. The piece was commissioned by Sounds Underground for soprano Natalie Raybould and the Kreisler Ensemble in 2005. The Herald wrote "The centrepiece was an astonishing tour de force written for [Natalie] by Cheryl Frances-Hoad and sung entirely in Old English. The Glory Tree had remarkable scoring, stratospheric singing and was performed with shamanic authority, her final scream reverberating through the cloisters."
Visit the Kreisler website for more about the Kreisler Ensemble