Hebrides Ensemble & Thomas Bloch
Unusual instruments and boundary-pushing music old and new from one of Scotland’s most respected chamber groups, Hebrides Ensemble.
Mozart was at the cutting edge of technology in the two graceful works he wrote for glass harmonica, whose spinning crystal bowls are made to sound by gentle touch. It is an instrument almost never heard in modern times, and is played today by one of the world’s finest exponents, Thomas Bloch.
New Zealand-born composer Lyell Cresswell unveils his new ensemble arrangement, a Festival commission, of another Mozart oddity, the masterful F minor Fantasia originally written for a mechanical musical clock.
And contemporary US composer George Crumb conjures similarly magical sounds in the otherworldly whalesong evocations of his theatrical Vox Balaenae.
'beautifully led by Georgiqn soloist Giorgi Gevantzseladze'... absorbingly done with house lights down, masked musicians and some striking music playing'
The Herald
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Hebrides Ensemble and Thomas Bloch
William Conway Cello/Director
Thomas Bloch Glass harmonica
Mozart Oboe Quartet in F
Fantasia in F minor for mechanical organ K594
(arr. Lyell Cresswell, World Premiere, EIF commission)
Adagio in C for glass harmonica
Crumb 4 Nocturnes 'Night Music II'
Mozart Adagio and Rondo in C minor K617
Crumb Vox Balaenae