BCMG: Celebrating Talent

Michael Betteridge

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group has gone through a tough time recently.  Birmingham City Council’s short-sighted option to cut full funding to all arts organisations bar the 7 ‘biggest’ hit BCMG, as the 8^th largest arts organisation in the city, the hardest.  Luckily there was uproar from the press (mainly The Guardian), musicians and public alike which led to an 18% cut in funding for the next season rather than 100%.  One cannot help but wonder whether BCC’s change of heart was based on disrupting a reputation linked directly to the city, or whether it was rewarding the outstanding quality of music making (at all levels) that BCMG offer.  Unfortunately our modern politicians are absolutely oblivious to quality within the arts, so BCC was probably just ensuring it did not ruffle too many important feathers.  Until next time anyway.

The term ‘internationally renowned’ is banded about a lot these days – any organisation that has positive press coverage abroad can claim this title I suppose.  BCMG can fairly grab this title with ease.  I am always gobsmacked by the consistent quality of BCMG’s work whether it is in the ambitious programming, performing, newly commissioned works or their learning projects. 

Last night’s concert once again screamed excellence.  When the team at BCMG are under the baton of Oliver Knussen the ensemble perform with a panache and accuracy which is rarely matched elsewhere.  A lot of contemporary music can lose its impact if not realised correctly, even if the most talented performers are involved.  BCMG’s line up featured a few non-standard performers (the lack of Melinda Maxwell on oboe and Alexandra Wood on violin were the two most notable), but in terms of the quality of performance this was hardly noticeable.

The evening started with a fantastic little minimalist number by Jo Kondo entitled Standing for ‘three instruments of different families’.  Originally performed in 1973 for flute, marimba and piano, this performance featured violin instead of flute.  Executed expertly by the performers the focus was on the rhythmic propulsion and articulation of the music successfully taking the audience on a journey from linear to polyphony and back again. 

Next came Stefan Wolpe’s Piece in Two Parts for Six Players – modernist, yet highly expressive and gestural.  Wolpe’s output was always eclectic ranging from jazz and popular to serialist, but his music is always genuine and beautiful regardless what idiom he uses.  Knussen conducted this particular piece with great attention to detail, and a special mention to the winds who took the tricky, virtuosic parts in their stride. 

The first half culminated with the wonderful Requiem – Songs for Sue by Knussen.  Knussen’s output as a composer has severely diminished in the last decade and often his works are in celebration or memory of others.  This piece, an obvious requiem for his late wife, is a wonderful example of how phenomenally talented Knussen still is as a composer.  The work is highly emotional, and has a fantastic pace, never lingering too long in a certain emotional sphere although entirely underpinned by a feeling of longing and insecurity.  Knussen’s word setting is outstanding and gives perfect clarity to the texts; the ensemble’s lines too are brilliant meandering alongside and against the melody so beautifully.  Claire Booth was on top form as ever performing with an emotional integrity that never seemed forced or contrived. 

The second half began with a newly commissioned work by Kondo Three Songs Tennyson Sung.  Unfortunately, despite an interval to break it up, it could not match the wonderfulness of Songs for Sue.  Kondo’s work still maintained his minimalist aesthetic, but it seemed muddied.  His vocal lines were beautifully compact, especially the first setting ‘Sweet and Low’ – a lullaby, but were rarely enhanced, or even comfortably supported by the ensemble.  Also there was too much text squeezed into a relatively short time, leaving no space for Tennyson’s words to breathe.  Despite this I was absolutely struck by his sparse use of piano within the ensemble.  Predominantly used as a distant chime Kondo repeated a beautiful, but highly charged, chord (one which I will be fiddling around on the piano for days to work out) throughout the work as a focal point.  It was exceptionally haunting and fantastic use of an instrument that is so often overused within ensembles.

Next came Morton Feldman’s The Viola in My Life II.  As with a lot of Stephen Newbould’s programming there is a teacher-pupil relationship in the concert: Feldman was a pupil of Wolpe.  As Paul Griffiths notes in his programme notes for the piece (written in 1970) this work harked “a return to conventional notation after two decades of working with various kinds of indeterminacy” but still maintained Feldman’s sense of space.  The ensemble, led by the exceptional Christopher Yates, performed flawlessly never letting their playing obstruct the delicate music which is so easy to overpower. 

Finally came Birtwistle’s seminal Silbury Air and what a way to end a concert.  Silbury Air is an incredibly colourful and powerful piece showing Birtwistle at his best.  Sometimes solitary, sometimes abrasive the music is not intended to romanticise the mysterious Silbury Hill that the title is derived from, but to take the mound as a static block or object and transfer these into musical ideas that are juxtaposed against one another.  Regardless of the technical efforts of Birtwistle the music is so vivid and rich both orchestrally and gesturally that one cannot help but feel romanticised by it all.  The ensemble excelled far beyond expectation in this piece, with the strings and brass especially performing at the highest calibre.  One gripe was balance: the winds could have been louder, but this hardly put a damper on what was a fantastic rendition of a challenging and complex piece.

Despite all the wonders of the concert the stars of the evening were Stephen and Jackie Newbould – the husband and wife team that have run BCMG for the last 20 years.  The Royal Philharmonic Society presented them that evening with The Leslie Boosey Award for their services to contemporary music.  The award recognises those behind the scenes who are often overlooked.  Knowing Stephen and Jackie personally, and professionally, their hard work and dedication to BCMG and the wider world of contemporary music is unrivalled and this devotion is demonstrated by the top class performing we see at every concert. 

The arts will be resilient to the horrors we are facing from the highly ignorant politicians of this day; even more so when the excellent standard is championed by the foresight and talent of those behind the scenes.  BCMG is an example to those who will fight for the safety of the arts.