Heard Matt’s new composition tonight, ‘line and length’. It was made to sit between two bits of Bach variations. He was the filling in the musical sandwich. It was really fantastic. At first, having not read the programme, I thought he was doing a kind of oulipo sampling thing with the Bach, but then it became very clear when his music began. It certainly ends extremely well, and I thought he’d got the instruments to really work together like Bach had done. He got them to support each other in the sounds they made, and yet make all those stabbing gestures that modern stuff often makes. The Dutch group Calefax were playing the music, a quintet. They had loads of personality and used the stage really well, moved it subtle ways that really animated things. But they all looked EXACTLY LIKE THEIR INSTRUMENTS. I can’t stress this enough. They were like Pixar versions of the instruments they were holding, it was like a cheap Disney gag, but really happening. The tall red headed one even had a tall red bassoon. Quite full as well. Come on people, go see this stuff! Here is a completely different bit of music by Matt.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APIpG4wBA_E[/youtube]
