Strong performances with great musical intelligence and commitment were demonstrated by the East Midlands CoMA Ensemble at their July concert with Musical Director Antony Clare. The concert had the overall title of 'A Sea Change - concert of new music'.
The first piece 'A' by Clare Stewart was an humourous and inventive take on the tuning-up process at the beginning of a concert and set the tone in many ways for what was to follow. In both 'Suffer a Sea Change' and 'Pitch Black' by Paul Burnell, and also in 'Japan' by Stockhausen, the ensemble demonstrated a willingness to play on multiple different instruments and utilising a wide range of 'found' percussion and household objects to devise compelling musical interpretations. In addition, a video of swirling/spiralling shapes produced by the ensemble's viola player was screened to sympathetically reflect some of the musical themes in two of the movements in 'Suffer a Sea Change'. In Naomi Pinnock's 'Four Humours' the ensemble gave in turn confident and lyrical performances of each movement, and in Robert Howard's 'Promenade IV' director Antony Clare effectively shaped an appealing interpretation of a piece inspired by the Promenade sculptures of Anthony Caro. An audience favourite was 'Quaggle' - a cross between a text piece and a poem devised with the ensemble by poet John Humphreys.
Throughout the concert Antony Clare provided sterling direction to the ensemble, joining them to play at many points, and between the pieces also providing illuminating information to the audience about each of the new music pieces.
More information about the East Midlands CoMA Ensemble can be found at the CoMA - Contemporary Music for All - website