A “Double First” by BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Emma Rawicz, who led an impressive quintet in a programme of her own compositions at the Octagon Chapel, for this year’s Norfolk and Norwich Festival.
There’s something of a tradition at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival for BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists to appear at the Octagon Chapel. The arrangement works well: a one-hour performance in a fairly small but atmospheric space (in this case, a late-seventeenth century Unitarian chapel) that surrounds the performers on three sides and so lends an intimacy to the event. This evening, Emma Rawicz came to the chapel and showed how her talent as an instrumentalist and as a composer made her a deserving recipient of the New Generation award.
For this concert, tenor saxophonist Rawicz was joined by vocalist Immy Churchill, vibraphonist Jonny Mansfield, double bassist Freddie Jensen and drummer Marc Michel. Although Rawicz has known her fellow performers for some time, this was the quintet’s concert debut. To add further pressure, it was also the debut performance of every piece of music the quintet played. Despite this “double first,” none of the band members showed any nervousness, as they played or vocalised confidently throughout the sixty minutes — Rawicz herself took on the additional frontline role of announcer with a mix of confidence, self-deprecation and warmth. Rawicz had composed the pieces with the Octagon Chapel in mind, considering its history, architecture and acoustics. She praised the latter aspect of the chapel, but there were a few moments, from my vantage point in the back row at roughly two o’clock from the leader’s position on stage, when her quieter tenor playing was overwhelmed by vibes and drums.
The quintet played six compositions, most of them with titles reflecting Rawicz’s love of literature. Solos were shared fairly equally across the players and were all taken confidently and remained true to the overall feel of each composition, giving the sense of a group of musicians in tune with each other and the leader’s intentions as a composer. The set opened with “Chords of Inquiry,” a title taken from Joni Mitchell. As with most of the set, the song featured wordless vocals from Immy Churchill and was notable for its quiet understatement and sense of calm. “The Unbearable Lightness” followed, then Marc Michel’s drum solo opened “As A Cloud.” “N Suite” came next, a suite which Rawicz announced as the central composition of the evening and dedicated to three of her inspirations: Nikki Iles, Norma Winstone and Nick Smart (as well as to Norfolk and Norwich).
“N Suite” moved imperceptibly into what, for me, was the highlight of the set — “Ballad of a Weary Traveller.” Rawicz explained that this beautiful ballad was the first song she had written where she felt happy with the lyrics: in what was Churchill’s finest performance of the evening the singer gave a gorgeous and emotive interpretation of the words, which told of “the greatest treasure I have found.” “Quiet Behemoth” closed the set. Its title is taken from Mikhael Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita and as befits a song about a demon cat that troubled Satan it was the loudest and most frenetic number on the programme. The show closed without an encore, despite the audience’s very warm appreciation, as the quintet had to speed off towards Belgium for a gig on the following night. Hopefully, this was a genuine debut, rather than a one-off: both the quintet and the compositions deserve to be heard on many more occasions.
[The concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3 for transmission at a future, as yet unspecified, date.]
