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East Neuk festival – review East Neuk festival – review
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The US composer John Luther Adams draws a careful line between "site-specific" and "site-determined" music. For a lifelong environmental campaigner, the distinction is key: one imposes sound on to landscapes while the other draws inspiration from them. Inuksuit is a masterpiece of site-determined art. Designed to be performed outdoors by multiple percussionists (up to 99, here 30-odd), the work was forged in the Alaskan wilderness where Adams lives, and it unearths something of the Arctic's savage energy wherever it travels.The US composer John Luther Adams draws a careful line between "site-specific" and "site-determined" music. For a lifelong environmental campaigner, the distinction is key: one imposes sound on to landscapes while the other draws inspiration from them. Inuksuit is a masterpiece of site-determined art. Designed to be performed outdoors by multiple percussionists (up to 99, here 30-odd), the work was forged in the Alaskan wilderness where Adams lives, and it unearths something of the Arctic's savage energy wherever it travels.
Inuksuit's UK premiere – the unforgettable centrepiece of this year's East Neuk festival – was staged by percussionist Steven Schick among the roses and lupins of the Victorian walled garden at Cambo House, Fife. Sounds emerged from the rustling trees and trickling stream. Listeners wandered the garden to hear close-ups of individual drummers or the wild din of the group. There can be few works of art that declare their ecological message with quite such power and persuasion: that we are all bit-parts of a whole, that there is latent energy in natural spaces, no matter how manicured.Inuksuit's UK premiere – the unforgettable centrepiece of this year's East Neuk festival – was staged by percussionist Steven Schick among the roses and lupins of the Victorian walled garden at Cambo House, Fife. Sounds emerged from the rustling trees and trickling stream. Listeners wandered the garden to hear close-ups of individual drummers or the wild din of the group. There can be few works of art that declare their ecological message with quite such power and persuasion: that we are all bit-parts of a whole, that there is latent energy in natural spaces, no matter how manicured.
Later we heard Songbirdsongs, an early Adams work that mimics bird calls quite literally – let your mind drift and it sounds like the real thing. Red Note staged it inside Cambo Barn, a potato store for most of the year. It was a hypnotic experience but couldn't match the special impact of Inuksuit. Still, the converted barn works well as a bigger and more flexible addition to East Neuk's regular fleet of picturesque Presbyterian churches. The Tallis Scholars filled the space with Taverner's Missa Corona Spinea; such direct acoustics might intimidate lesser singers, but their revelation of vocal colour was ravishing.Later we heard Songbirdsongs, an early Adams work that mimics bird calls quite literally – let your mind drift and it sounds like the real thing. Red Note staged it inside Cambo Barn, a potato store for most of the year. It was a hypnotic experience but couldn't match the special impact of Inuksuit. Still, the converted barn works well as a bigger and more flexible addition to East Neuk's regular fleet of picturesque Presbyterian churches. The Tallis Scholars filled the space with Taverner's Missa Corona Spinea; such direct acoustics might intimidate lesser singers, but their revelation of vocal colour was ravishing.
Chamber music remains the backbone of East Neuk's programme, and the excellent young Elias Quartet was in residence this year. They're an earnestly committed group that throws no note away; yet what's missing is an easy ebb and flow – at times their playing in Janácek, Schumann and Beethoven (a charged Opus 130 and Grosse Fugue) seemed choked by its relentless intensity.Chamber music remains the backbone of East Neuk's programme, and the excellent young Elias Quartet was in residence this year. They're an earnestly committed group that throws no note away; yet what's missing is an easy ebb and flow – at times their playing in Janácek, Schumann and Beethoven (a charged Opus 130 and Grosse Fugue) seemed choked by its relentless intensity.
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