Open Circuit: The Riot Ensemble

Centered around Brian Ferneyhough’s feverishly virtuosic sextet Liber Scintillarum (Book of Sparks) and Grisey’s spectral masterpiece Talea, this programme explores the extremes of contemporary ensemble writing. Siemens Prize winning composer Clara Iannotta’s mesmerising string duo in which, “like skaters in a concrete bowl, the bows of violin and viola glide across their strings, creating hushed, airy harmonics”, sits alongside a new work by Israeli composer Hadas Pe’ery and Ben Hackbarth’s thrilling Lockstep Variations which features two speakers placed inside the percussionists snare drums creating “a pair of phantom musicians, two disembodied drummers who are spatially and gesturally enmeshed with the acoustic ensemble.”

Programme:

*Ben Hackbarth – Lockstep Variations for ensemble

Clara Iannotta – Limun for violin / viola duo

Brian Ferneyhough – Liber Scintilarrum for ensemble

Hadas Pe’ery – New Work for ensemble

Gerard Grisey – Talea for ensemble

*Ben Hackbarth is Head of Composition at the University of Liverpool