It is always a healthy sign when a music festival is prepared to take artistic risks. As the British singer, Sandy Denny, once said "life is a risk and risks are chances". Sadly not all risks pay off. But naturally, any cutting edge production does always reserve the right to fail.
The inclusion of Ahmed Essyad's work "Forbidden Voices" was such a risk.
The Accroche Note Ensemble are a highly gifted and very disciplined group of soloists who first came together in 1981 around the talents of Françoise Kubler (soprano) and Armand Angster (clarinet). Their performance at the Batha Museum was razor sharp and precise, giving the audience an accurate rendition of Ahmed Essayed's composition. From the first notes it was clear that Essayed, who studied under Max Deutsch, is much affected by a liking for Schoenberg.
Françoise Kubler
Françoise Kubler and the tuning fork
The collaboration with Ahmed Essyad unfortunately comes across as pretentious. The music is difficult and demanding. Kubler's use of a tuning fork was a lighter touch and pointed to the demanding nature of the work.
The warning signs were in the explanation of the music given in the Festival programme...
The poetry would have had so much more emotional connection with the audience had he been on stage. Not to see the face of the reader may well have been his intention. But then, not all good intentions bare fruit.
To see all the Fez Festival 2010 stories on The View from Fez, click HERE!
"Today these voices proposed prohibited by the composer evoke what is held incommunicado, which can not be said, what is forgotten and that conciousness will awaken later."As one French visitor said, "this is music still waiting to be born." We could not have put it more succinctly.
The inspiration drawn from the mystical poems of Hussein Mansour al-Hallaj was certainly there in what is essentially a vocal work. However, the synthesis of music (and Kubler's impeccable voice) was let down by the very strange decision of Ahmed Essyad to read the text from the back of the audience.
Ahmed Essyad reading
The poetry would have had so much more emotional connection with the audience had he been on stage. Not to see the face of the reader may well have been his intention. But then, not all good intentions bare fruit.
SEEN IN THE AUDIENCE
Anne and Tessa Graaff from Cape Town, SA.
Nadia Benjelloun, Fez Encounters Director
British press maven, Mary Finnigan, networking.
Sara and Jason Wright from Germany
To see all the Fez Festival 2010 stories on The View from Fez, click HERE!
1 comment:
Very good review. You captured the mood, music and ambiance. Thanks for all your hard work on the Festival
Post a Comment