MUSIC REVIEW: YORK LATE MUSIC FESTIVAL (YLMF)
By Martin Dreyer

York Press, UK
June 11 2007

Hilliard Ensemble; Ian Pace.
National Centre for Early Music

YLMF’s last weekend was as powerful as its first. When you spend a
third of your entire festival budget on a vocal quartet, you expect
a bang for your bucks.

The Hilliard Ensemble did not disappoint on Friday. Ian Pace delivered
an equally uncompromising piano recital on Saturday, showcasing York’s
university composers, past and present.

Traditional Armenian sharakans (sacred songs) were not expected
repertory in this context. But the Hilliards resurrected seven that
verged on the territory of cantor and muezzin, with some luscious
harmony thrown in.

advertisementThere was further, welcome historical perspective from
15th-century England and Italy, in Sheryngham’s tender dialogue carol,
Ah, Gentle Jesu, and a pleasing "lauda" adapted from vernacular
song. At the other end of the spectrum, James Macmillan’s here in
hiding , conflating poems by Hopkins and Aquinas, gave the evening a
jolting start. But its early dissonance mellowed into an effective,
penitential close.

Ivan Moody’s leisurely Arkhangelos (1989) brooded over an ikon in
much more traditional style. But Alexander Raskatov’s Praise was a
bridge too far, mainly solemn, very close harmony that demanded a
much warmer acoustic. Indeed the Hilliards, for all their remarkable
finesse, might have been less austere in their menu.

Pace’s retrospective of 40 years of university achievement was an
inspired idea. Music by Robert Sherlaw Johnson framed the evening,
first his gritty Seven Short Pieces (1969), homage to his wife and
former colleagues here, and then his Third Piano Sonata (!976),
a highly expressive concoction of widely-spaced, Romantic gestures.

In much sparer style was John Paynter’s new Five Reflections, titled
by fragments from Seamus Heaney. There was plenty to tease, but not
to tax, the ear here, notably in a thrumming ostinato and a lilting
lullaby. Further nostalgia came with Wilfrid Mellers’s folksy Cat
Charms, David Blake’s purposeful Variations Op 1, Roger Marsh’s
decorative Easy Steps, Nicola LeFanu’s intriguing Chiaroscuro and
Richard Orton’s extreme minimalism. Edward Caine represented the
present day.

Pace’s chameleon ability to adapt instantly to so many styles served
him excellently.