Herculean, three-act concert marathon a visual and aural feast.

Elder Hall, Adelaide
March 4, 2015

The second Gavin Bryars Ensemble concert (now with added guests) revealed the composer/performer, in residence for the Adelaide Festival, to be a masterful musical raconteur. Bryars diverse program selection and herculean, three-act concert marathon, was a visual and aural feast.

A Capella sextet The Song Company shone in Act 1 under the precise hand of director Roland Peelman. The performance of Bryars’ compositions Laude and Madrigals from the Second and Sixth Book of Madrigals (2002, 2015), with instrumentation of four to six voices, resonated with such purity, the sound belied the numbers on stage. The pieces, punctuated by haunting silences, profound accents, rich harmonies, and precise dynamics were deeply moving. Five madrigals from the Sixth Book, text by Petrarch were premiered; Bryars score completed only ten days prior. As Peelman humoured that the ink was not yet dry, Bryars took to the audience for a perspective from the pews.

The pace-changing Act 2, came as something of a revelation. Nothing Like The Sun (2007) featured eight Shakespearean sonnets set to Bryars music and narrated by Gavin Friday, whose pressing and husky spoken voice, at...