This concert marks the culmination of Ensemble Matters’ yearlong preparation around their theme of the year, 'Shades of Light'. The programme boasts three world premieres in response to the 2021 Bloomsbury Festival theme, Shining Light.
The night begins with Tristan Murail’s Thirteen colours of the setting sun (1978), a work that explores the successive shades of the setting sun from “incandescent bursts to the progressive removal of light intensity”. In similar spirit, Amy Crankshaw’s composition, Golden Hour, musicalises the natural environment, exploring the sonic equivalent of how changing light affects one’s perception of the surrounding environment in particular.
On a metaphorical level, Katabasis, a short film by Ian McNaught Davis (film) and Owen Ho (music), descends into the underworld through a characterful blend of analogue and digital films, hand-drawn animations, and field recordings from the Mecklenburgh Square Garden. Likewise responding to death, Alondra Ruiz-Hernandez’s short film also explores elements of life and will be screened to the live performance of Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead (chamber arr. by Owen Ho), contemplating on the intricacies between life and death in the broader context of our current condition.
Tickets are available to watch this concert or online from the comfort of your own home. When purchasing a ticket you will be given the option to buy a ticket for the live concert or the online stream. Those purchasing tickets to watch online will be sent details of how to access the live stream.