The Evening Standard, 15th April 2002
Catalogue of successes for entente cordiale
IT BEGAN as a venture to disseminate French music in the
United Kingdom and what was then the British Empire. Now, 70 years after its
founding, United Music Publishers has expanded its roster of composers beyond
Faur, Ravel, Messiaen and the rest to include such major British talents as
Simon Bainbridge, Diana Burrell, Michael Finnissy, Stephen Montague and many
more. Friday night's gala concert was a splendid showcase of music from the UMP
catalogue. It began with Messiaen's Le Vent de l'Esprit from the Messe de la
Pentecte, played fittingly by Naji Hakim, who is Messiaen's successor at the
Eglise de la Trinit in Paris. Hakim is himself a UMP composer and the third
movement of his Violin Sonata, a vigorously choreographed rondo, was brilliantly
played by Marion Delorme and the composer. An ad hoc ensemble calling itself
United Brass, with Philip Mead at the piano, adroitly negotiated the terrifying
but thrilling metallic textures of Burrell's Gold. Terrifying in a different
way, but also hugely invigorating, was Montague's apocalyptic vision Behold a
Pale Horse, in which the brass ensemble was pitted (in this performance) against
the organ (Quentin Thomas) at the other end. The solo clarinet is pushed to its
limits and beyond by Roger Redgate in +R, but Andrew Sparling rose fearlessly to
the challenge. Betsy Jolas's Trio Sopra Et Sola Facta was subtly realised by
Double Image, and the Vasari Singers, after a shaky start in the taxing
Canteloube Bailro, gave admirably refined accounts of chansons by Poulenc and
Ravel.
Barry Millington