The melding of acoustic and electronic instrumentation has oft been the subject of many a musician’s efforts, usually within the realm of popular music. The use of synthesizers, for instance, has been in vogue since the 1970’s and these have featured on a great many recordings from David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ to contemporary Hip Hop. Slightly less common however has been the fusion of electronic instruments with classical orchestration, a theme which the BBC’s ‘Electronica 1′, the first of three futuristic concerts, sought to explore.
Kicking off proceedings was a dapper looking Jarvis Cocker who lent the evening a sense of informality in what could have been an overblown and pompous affair, regaling the crowd with his informed witty banter in between performances.
The first of these was a rendition of Bernard Herrmann’s soundtrack to The Day the Earth Stood Still, conducted by the very capable and enthusiastic Charles Hazlewood, who seemed grateful to be sharing the stage with such an array of talent.
Of particular note here was the dexterous playing of the theramin by Celia Sheen and Lydia Kavina (the grand niece of Leon Theramin no less) who were rightly placed at the front of the stage facing each other, on either side. They both managed to wield spine chillingly eerie notes, quite literally out of thin air, subtly moving their hands within the electromagnetic field of their machines.
Next up was a performance of Johnny Greenwood’s ‘Smear’ (himself choosing to shun all attention by sitting in the audience). No stranger to working with classical orchestration, having been the composer in residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra since 2004, Johnny’s piece was reminiscent of his work on the soundtrack to There Will be Blood featuring a multitude of violins and cellos creating a sound not unlike a swarm of giant mosquitoes: spooky indeed. Accompanying the ensemble was yet another obscure electronic creation, the Ondes Martenot Synthesizer, a rather odd looking small piano which might seem more at home in an eighteenth century chateau, emitting sounds halfway between a theramin and a Moog synth.
The stand out piece of the evening was Will Gregory (of Goldfrapp fame) and his rendition of ‘Journey into the Sky’ a performance featuring a full orchestra (larger than the previous performances) and four Moog synthesizers (out of Will’s private collection). Introducing the piece as a “work in progress” and asking the audience to “bare with us”, the performance proved there was no reason to worry, as I’m sure all ears were left as delighted as mine by the varied symphonic movements.
Lending a somewhat more obscure note to proceedings was a performance of Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky’s ‘A Poem in Cycles and Bells’, the new electronic addition this time being a hard disk recorder playing abstract sounds through different effects, juxtaposed with the classical orchestra.
The penultimate piece of the night was Miklos Rozsa’s ‘Spellbound Concerto for Orchestra’, again featuring one of the theramin players making one realize just how such an instrument would provide the perfect accompaniment to any Hitchcock film.
The final piece of the concert was a rendition of electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk’s ‘The Model’ arranged by Anne Dudley of the Art of Noise. Only on this occasion did the delicate balancing act of electronic and classical seem to falter, down to a slightly malfunctioning Moog synthesizer which pierced a little too loudly in relation to the other instruments – failing to reproduce the melody it was supposed to – something my eyes and ears couldn’t help but notice. This was but a minor glitch in an otherwise highly enjoyable evening which can be listened to again on BBC Radio 3 on the 19th of November at 7:00pm.
