Back to the Future - Tuesday night’s program at the NMF - brought a spectacle of brand new music to the Centennial Concert Hall stage.

 

Winnipeg-born composer and local celeb conductor Gary Kulesha lead the WSO through a vibrant and vicarious setlist of world premieres by Canadian composers. The featured composers, Gary Kulesha, Glenn Sutherland, Randolph Peters, and Derek Charke, were instructed to compose specifically for the NMF, on the weather-appropriate topic of “frozen”.

 

Kulesha’s own piece, Echos of Light, explores the cosmic dimensions of sound, setting music to the phenomenon of exploding stars. According to NASA, some exploding stars are “unusual” in that their remnants do not expand symmetrically, but in all kinds of varied directions. Kulesha brings this astronomical spectacle to the symphony, lighting up the stage with the image of a lopsided cosmic flower. Instrumental lines echo and weave - the clarinets cascade into the strings, the trumpets’ eerie call is taken up by the snare drum. Overall, the piece felt like a snippet from an avant-garde space odyssey.

 

Immediately following Kulesha’s work was the debut of Glenn Sutherland’s first orchestral composition - winner of the Canadian Music Centre, Prairie Region Emerging Composer Competition. To See Again with Spirit Eyes translates as the Inuit word quamanEq, which refers to the shamans’ enlightenment - their ability to see transcendence in nature. Through shifting and transparent musical textures, Sutherland’s piece seeks to capture the different layers through which one can see and experience the world. At various points, there are lines that seem rather intrusive, as though urging the listener to hear the world in a new way (or view the world through a new lens). For his first ever orchestral work, Sutherland deserves a Bravo!

 

Derek Charke’s second symphony, Earth Airs, occupied the brunt of the program. The choral symphony featured Horizon, a local choral ensemble directed by Vic Pankratz. To use Charke’s own words, the work is “uniquely 21st century music,” and uses “quite a diverse language.” The text is adapted from Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus, and muses on “the infinite nature of air, on the soul of the world, on the crystalline vault of the heavens, and on the moon being fire.” Each of these phrases make up one of four transportable movements, which, put together, form an epic creation saga. The vocal parts added an ethereal texture that was perfect for the piece, serving as the foundation for the orchestra. Horizon did nothing short of show off their status as a high-calibre community choir with their tight and controlled singing. This ensemble is made up of voices that understand and listen to one another, pulling off a fantastic blend.

And finally, Randolph Peters’ Thermokarst was the high point of the evening. A kind of mini duet concerto, Thermokarst is based on poetry by Wendy Barker and William K. Stevens about the sinkholes and lakes created by melting permafrost in the arctic (Peters’ piece was the only one fitting with the “frozen” theme). This work is unique both in structure and character. First off, there are very few concertos written for two instruments, in this case, the clarinet and cello. While the clarinet line draws most of the attention pelting wiley glissandos, the cello line ripples along underneath, creating an eerie impression of shifting ground beneath our feet. Micah Heilbrunn, clarinet, and Yuri Hooker, cello, were magnetic in their solo performances, and deserved a standing ovation.

The character of Thermokarst is absolutely terrifying, but there is also a weird paradoxical beauty about it. Peters’ takes the liberty to manipulate the sounds of the orchestra, employing parts of creepy orchestral buzzing and blaring brass, and plunging the clarinet into ranges-less-traveled. The result is bizarre, unsettling, and electric - Thermokarst was easily the most exciting work of the night.

 

The New Music Festival continues until Friday (Jan 29).

 

UPCOMING CONCERTS:

 

The Transcendent Drone, featuring works by composer Phill Niblock and artist Michael Snow - TONIGHT @ 7:30 @ The Centennial Concert Hall; 

Music and Trauma, featuring Gavin Bryars' epic work The Sinking of the Titanic - THURSDAY @ 7:30 @ The Pan Am Pool - SOLD OUT

The Slowing of Experience, featuring Stephen O'Malley and Henryk Gorecki - FRIDAY @ 7:30 @ Centennial Concert Hall