KonsPercUssion Ensemble Platypus & guests
Maestro George Jackson, to the pit please, today we go for contemporary music off beaten path.
A few months ago our attention was drawn towards George Jackson, the young British conductor, who had celebrated his debut at the Vienna Musikverein (a spectacular last-minutes replacement) with the Austrian premiere of Michael Jarrell‘s composition “Ombres“ in June 2013.
On the 5 October 2013, 26 year-old Jackson from West-London picked up once more a very special occasion to impress his continuously growing Viennese fan community: the “Marathon V”, or 5th edition of the Festival for young contemporary music, a huge event taking place at the Wiener Konzerthaus. This Viennese music temple near the city centre presented not less than 40 compositions from composers of various nationalities, works featuring quite different instrumentation, often avant-garde indeed (plastic pearls running over two pedal timpani, for example).
The event was an attraction for both audience and composers: while tickets were sold very quickly, the organisers Platypus (an association growing in presence and reputation despite modest subventions) faced quite a challenge, selecting 40 pieces out of the 500 submissions.
The audience was requested to reflect on the classical idea of music aesthetics, abandoning the traditional idea that ‚only ear candy sound is great‘. A big part of this event’s success was due to the ultra-sensible sound-box oft the location itself: the Berio-Hall, a high-tech concert hall with dark wooden wall panels, which feels like the resonance-belly of a double bass.
Below, you will find a list of the works presented during the festival. I leave the decision to you on which of these compositions might find their way to musical eternity up to the ears of the audience. Nevertheless, three pieces are described below, all of them conducted by George Jackson. I have tried to be as musically ‚correct‘ as possible, even though I faced some severe difficulties in drawing up a review, particularly as a self-professed ‚opera lover‘.
Jackson conducted the first piece of the Marathon’s second part: ‚Mixtures‘, composed by 1984 Bavaria-born Steven Heelein. Heelein taught himself organ at the age of 11, and today you can still witness his well-attended church concerts in Regensburg. He also acts as author, conductor, and sculptor, as well as composer. During this first performance of ‚Mixtures‘, an 8-minute long wind quartet, the instruments were brought into direct musical opposition, however thanks to Jackson’s conducting, the wind players easily found the mutual ensemble required to create this effect. The small stage of the Berio-Hall at the Konzerthaus essentially became a ‚catwalk‘ for the ‚models‘: flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. No doubt, we will hear more (with great pleasure) from Heelein, who has engaged with contemporary music composition since 2004 and works closely with German composer and pianist Franz Hummel.
Those with great power of endurance were able to catch the interesting sound effects in Abel Paul’s ‚Final Reponses to G.M.‘, performed in part 4 of the festival. Spanish-born Abel Paul (who currently lives in Berlin) studied first in the Netherlands, and has already been awarded several important prizes. Most noteworthy, he received the ‚Salvatore Martirano Composition Award‘ at the University of Illinois in 2008, and a special mention in the Vienna Mauricio Kagel-Competition. This successful composer (the same age as Heelein) can look back on an impressive list of public performances, by renowned ensembles, and at festivals that have included Holland Festival, the Artforum Hellerau, Aspekte Salzburg and Klangspuren in Schwaz (Tyrol), as well as other international festivals of contemporary music in Argentina, Finland, Spain or the USA.
In ‚Final Reponses to G.M.‘ (2012), Paul created the silent breathing effect of an instrumental chorus (using flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello), and integrated a rondeau of French composer Guillaume de Machaut, which – very contemporarily – was reproduced by a series of ‚live‘ mp3-players. The modern appliance catapulted Machaut’s medieval sound directly into the 21st century, using contact speakers on the ensemble’s stringed instruments. From his imaginary conducting podium, Jackson had full control of the many virtual strands of the Platypus ensemble. The same was the case for ‚Void Mechanics‘, a work of Vienna-born Hannes Dufek, himself a co-founder of Platypus. The instrumentation already suggests pure musical adventure: the flute, clarinet, violin and cello were accompanied by six dictaphones. Four pre-recorded quartets were combined with a fifth live quartet offering a climax of a long, connecting musical arc.
The ‚Marathon V‘ was a terrific event, not only for the new aspects of its produced sounds, but also for its power to embody an impudent fresh assertiveness that affected the concert guests on their way home, once the marathon in Vienna’s Konzerthaus had finally ended.
Concert I:
KonsPercUssion
Eric Skytterholm Egan – In three, one, and seven (2012)
Julián Avila Sausor – Monte Albán (2012)
Julian Gamisch – hinausgehen (2013, world-premiere)
Nejc Kuhar – Concertino for solo Timpani and Percussion Ensemble (2010, rev. 2013)
Concert II: Ensemble Platypus
Steven Heelein – mixtures (2012)
Johannes Berauer – Pass the goddamn butter (2013, world-premiere)
Lauren Redhead – the enigma machine 1: hendecaptych of hans memling (2010)
Rafael Nassif – a desvelar caminho (2011-2012)
Frederik Neyrinck – Echo de Baudelaire (2011)
Concert III: Ensemble Platypus
Nova Pon – Wayfaring (2011)
Alja Zore – Arhaintrah (2013, world-premiere)
Matías Hancke de la Fuente – Diáfano (2010, rev. 2013)
Elo Masing – studies in resonance II (2012/2013)
Alexander Kaiser – …if… (2013, world-premiere)
Concert IV: Ensemble Platypus
Alexander Chernyshkow – rather blue (2012)
[Ka’mi] – Tragödie der Geburt eines uninspirierten Komponisten (2010)
Abel Paúl – Final Responses to G.M. (2012)
Charlie Sdraulig – close (2012)
Hannes Dufek – void mechanics (2013, world-premiere)
For further information about conductor George Jackson and Platypus Ensemble, please visit
http://www.georgejackson.net/ and http://www.platypus.or.at ;
Ingrid Adamiker
lirici2go@gmail.com





