Performances of Materia

Explorations

Purcell Sessions

18:30, Saturday 2 April 2022
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall (external link)
Southbank Centre
SE1 8XX London
United Kingdom

The joy of playing with sounds and their associations link the night’s three works. Matthew Shlomowitz (external link) creates a suite of miniatures which develop from musicological concepts into studies, blooming further into highly characterised portraits. Multiple tonalities interact with stumbling cross-rhythms and slipped loops, coming together in a finale of variations. Maverick composer Conlon Nancarrow’s Three Canons, written for the pianist Ursula Oppens, is a virtuoso demonstration of compositional control and fluency. Akiko Ushijima (external link)’s music shares this sense of enjoyment in manipulating material. Rhythmic figures interact and develop. Melodies cascade and distort into each other. Her new work combines the live piano with electronic sounds, each layer playing off the other.