This program presented by New York sextet yMusic was an obvious treat for the audience gathered in the returning retro Spiegeltent. The group’s recent works, though filmic and sometimes popular in style, were most likely unknown to Australian audiences. However, the ensemble’s virtuosity, communication, internal listening and balance ensured the varied pieces were always played with gravity, clarity and were emotionally accessible.
yMusic’s repertoire contains an exciting array of influences. Watching the amplified sextet perform without revolutionary computer manipulation is satisfying. The three string and three wind specialists work as if they are the natural evolution of the great ensembles from the 18th and 19th century salons to the 21st century concert hall – or festival tent as it were.
It was rewarding and interesting to hear the compositions for a contemporary classical ensemble by current popular artists. The miniatures with almost Satie-esque titles by Shara Worden (from group My Brightest Diamond) and Annie Clark’s evocative Proven Badlands demonstrated the special links that yMusic has to versatile creative identities of our time.
The concert enabled New Music aficionados and novices alike to rejoice in the power of modern string and wind effects to provide descriptive nuance and help build climaxes. This group of six players produced sounds from practical silence to throbbing anthemic lines or angular contemporary polyphony.
There was no doubting the gratitude towards this group for introducing each fine composition with complete realisation of its rhythmic, textural and timbral individualities at the end of the concert. A line quickly formed outside the Spiegeltent to purchase yMusic’s CD, Beautiful Mechanical.
yMusic perform one more time in the Sydney Festival, on Friday 25 January at Parramatta’s Festival Garden. An effort made to witness this unique and quality set of musicians and to share in their sonorities and ideals will not be regretted.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
Hideaki Aomori – clarinet/bass clarinet
CJ Cameron – trumpet/horn
Clarice Jensen – cello
Rob Moose – violin/guitar
Nadia Sirota – viola
Alex Sopp – flute/piccolo
The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden, Hyde Park
24 January
Sydney Festival 2013
www.sydneyfestival.org.au
5 – 27 January
