KEY POINTS:
There was quite a garland of tributes at the Karlheinz Company's Sunday concert, opening with Leonie Holmes' cello solo, The Fourth Station, its sighing arcs of melody artfully suspended by Cameron Stuart.
Principally, this was a chance to note the passing of the great Karlheinz Stockhausen and we were also reminded of the German composer's stature (and sense of humour) when Anna McGregor delivered his 1977 clarinet solo In Freundschaft.
Following the piece's profuse instructions, governing every sound and gesture, McGregor gave a winning theatrical turn, with virtuoso playing as a bonus.
John Rimmer's Adieu KS drew its inspiration from Stockhausen's Violin Sonatina and was a delight, not afraid of enjoying its own resonance and some sonorous sixths. Violinist Wendy Yang inhabited its three-minute world with total assurance.
John Elmsly enlisted seven musicians for his Ascend. The score's reiterations ranged from the gentle to the forceful; the opening cataclysm of sound seemed to owe as much to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as Stockhausen's Klavierstucke IX. The unworldly beauty of ring modulator tones reminded one of the spiritual ecstasies of Stockhausen's Mantra.
Eve de Castro-Robinson's Hau mourned the late Mahinarangi Tocker, with rising and falling lines that occasionally saluted the Maori deities that turn up in Stockhausen's Stimmung. Karen Hunter was a charismatic vocalist, accompanying herself with a crystal glass that, when struck, echoed the chime of greenstone taonga puoro and, when rubbed around its rim, evoked mysteries beyond time, place and occasion.
Two student works, Alex Bennett's grating, electronic I and My Father Are One and Alex Taylor's searing duet I am Dead But I Know/The Dead Are Not Like This were reprised from last month's Stations of the Cross project.
How pleasant it was to catch up with Chris Cree Brown's Sound Cylinders. This work was written a decade ago by the Christchurch composer who has been quietly building up an impressive list of orchestral and chamber works. Luca Manghi's flute explored the poetic potential of breath in all its permutations, weaving around within an electro-acoustic universe of ghostly chord parades and dancing specks of harmonics.
