Effortless virtuoso in complete command of this (quite literally) electrifying modern repertoire.

Metropolis New Music Festival 2015
Melbourne Recital Centre, Salon
May 8, 2015

Australian pianist Zubin Kanga is an internationally acclaimed performer who specialises in contemporary new music repertoire. He holds a Masters and PhD from the Royal Academy of Music, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at IRCAM (Paris) and the University of Nice. Kanga is an adept subverter of the piano concert experience, on this occasion creating ‘music of mystery and multiplicity for piano and multimedia.’

Julian Day’s Dark Twin (2015) was the first of three world premieres on the programme by Australian composers. This work for piano and electronics began in an upper register like an elongated trill. Gradually, the pianist was pitted against an electronically manipulated version of their own playing, all of which built into a glorious melange of subtly shifting pitches and tones that reverberated magnificently in the superb acoustic of the Recital Centre Salon. It was immersive and utterly mesmerising.

Cat Hope’s The Fourth Estate (2015) is scored for piano, radios and e-bows (a small magnetic device designed for guitars that creates a drone when held over the strings),...